Pastoral Pings ~ Overwhelmed With the Wonders of God

          I am overwhelmed with the wonders of God’s love, and grace, and mercy, showing me that I am righteous in his sight, even while he sees that I am unrighteous in so many ways.

          I thank God for the justification that makes me so righteous in his sight that I can abide in him, and he can abide in me (I John 4:13).

          I thank God for the sanctification work of his Holy Spirit who resides in our incompleteness, and daily works out our Father’s will, who does the things in us that Father has sent him to do, so that we are daily transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, unbelievable as that may be, from glorious change to glorious change (II Corinthians 3:18).

          I thank the Triune for the incredible hope that is set before us, more certain than anything the world has ever hoped in, that God will present every one of his children before his most holy presence as pure and blameless in his sight, fully like Jesus his Son in every way it means when they declared, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26), and with the resounding crescendo of “great joy” (Jude 1:24-25).

          I thank God for that coming day when we who are the recipients of the amazing “kind of love the Father has given us,” who are now “called children of God,” who patiently wait for “what we will be,” because it “has not yet appeared,” that, “when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” What wonder that we are so loved by God now, called his children before a world that “does not know us,” because, “it did not know him,” and yet so known and loved by him that we wait for that day in wondering hope of what it will be like (I John 3:1-2).

          And, how thankful I am that knowing these things is part of that daily work of God he is working in us to will what his good pleasure wills, and to work what his good pleasure is working, so that we can work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12-13), working out the glorious opportunity of God that, “everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (I John 3:3).

          The fact that sinful men can actively and joyfully purify ourselves with fear and trembling, while he who is pure touches our lives through the gifted righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, working this purity, and righteousness, and holiness into our lives so we will to be pure as he is pure, and we join his work of making us pure as he is pure, is one of those gifts of God’s grace that fills our hearts “with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,” because we are “obtaining the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls” (I Peter 1:8-9).

          No wonder our hearts, with reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:28), join the words of our older brothers, who sing in beautiful unison and harmony, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!” (I Peter 1:3). “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places!” (Ephesians 1:3).

          And then there is this gift of God’s grace that he reveals something of the wonderful glory of heaven when he describes the gathering of his children in this way:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! (Revelation 7:9-10).  

          It is glory enough to feel something of the fellowship we have with this great, numberless multitude, when we work out with fear and trembling what God is working into our lives for his good pleasure. And yet, when we add to this the wonderful echo of the angels who listen in to us sinners-made-saints and then add their benediction of praise, we are encouraged all the more to give Spirit-led devotion to knowing our God and Savior as fully as he can be known on any given day. Our older brother described it like this:

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” (Revelation 7:11-12). 

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)