My Tears in His Bottle

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Psalm 56:8 (NLT) 

Recently, I discovered a wonderful project, a “visual investigation of tears” and resulting book, The Topography of Tears,¹ by Rose-Lynn Fisher. The featured image is one of her photographs of tears titled Compassion.² I would encourage you to view the website and scroll down to see the beautiful artwork of tears “photographed through an optical standard light microscope – a vintage Zeiss from the late 1960’s or 70’s, mounted with a digital microscopy camera.” She describes the project on her website: 

“I photographed a range of emotional tears, mainly my own whenever I cried, along with tears from others young and old. I saved my tears onto glass slides, either allowing them to evaporate, or be compressed between glass slide and a thinner glass slip cover.  The results of each approach were equally interesting to me. The air-dried tears revealed their organic structure, so similar to natural structures at every scale in nature. The images produced by compressed tears often evoked a sense of place, like aerial views of emotional terrain.”   

I was fascinated with the project and the beauty of the tears viewed under a microscope, but especially with her finding that every tear was unique.  

“Every tear that I looked at under the microscope had its own visual qualities, its own sort of ‘signature’ whether it was from the same emotion or different emotions. Tears of grief and tears of joy could not be generalized or categorized by their visual pattern. For example, tears of grief could look very different from each other, even when they were shed in the same moment.  Also, like a landscape, different areas of a tear examined under a microscope could look different from one region to another … the topography of tears revealed to me a momentary landscape, transient as the fingerprint of someone in a dream.” 

A unique fingerprint, a “signature,” on each tear. Isn’t that amazing? I believe our tears are beautiful to God. Everything about us is precious to God, even our pain and sorrow and tears. He remembers each tear, and the source of each tear; and he holds them close to his heart.  

“The idea behind the keeping of “tears in a bottle” is remembrance. David is expressing a deep trust in God—God will remember his sorrow and tears and will not forget about him.” — Got Questions 

This is what the psalmist has discovered. God sees. God knows. God remembers. We can rest in confidence that he has us in his arms, and he is writing for us a beautiful story. 

In the above verse from Psalm 56, the word translated “keep track” means “to count, recount [as in tell someone about something; give an account of an event or experience], relate.” God saves every tear. None are lost or for nothing. God tells our story, what Rose-Lynn Fisher calls “the poetry of life,” through our tears. God records that story for eternity in his book. And, think about it, what if the book is illustrated with beautiful photographs of each of our tears? 

What if God is also saving those tears for another precious purpose? What if the artwork of our tears will adorn our heavenly dwelling someday? Each one with its own “signature” like a snowflake, as Rose-Lynn Fisher has discovered. What if we will be able to remember each individual tear, and remember how God came through for us, and saved us and sustained us, suffered along with us, comforted us, and gave us grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16)? 

I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. 2 Kings 20:5 (ESV) 

Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30:5 (ESV)

¹Wonderfully, Rose-Lynn Fisher’s photographs of tears were also used to create beautiful wearable lace https://www.trc-leiden.nl/trc/index.php/en/102-news/1333-tears-and-lace-of-the-elsa-schiaparelli-fashion-house 

²Photograph, Compassion, copyright 2015 by Rose-Lynn Fisher, used by permission from the artist/author. 

Be Still and Know

I don’t usually put such a long scripture reference in my blogs, but I have been so blessed lately with this Psalm. There is a message of peace and rest in it for all of us in this chaotic time.

Psalm 46 

¹ God is our refuge and strength, 
    an ever-present help in trouble. 
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way 
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 
3 though its waters roar and foam 
    and the mountains quake with their surging. 

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, 
    the holy place where the Most High dwells. 
5 God is within her, she will not fall; 
    God will help her at break of day. 
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; 
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts. 

⁷ The Lord Almighty is with us; 
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. 

⁸ Come and see what the Lord has done, 
    the desolations he has brought on the earth. 
9 He makes wars cease 
    to the ends of the earth. 
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; 
    he burns the shields with fire. 
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; 
    I will be exalted among the nations, 
    I will be exalted in the earth.” 

¹¹ The Lord Almighty is with us; 
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. 

I am struck by the vivid contrast between the roaring and foaming and quaking and surging, the fighting and wars of the world – and the calm, peaceful, but mighty, unstoppable river and the quiet, healing streams of God. The former has been my life from as far back as I can remember. I am realizing lately that I always have just wanted each roaring, surging, quaking, fighting day to be over, looking so forward to the end. Even after I was out of the abusive environment of my growing up years, I took it with me in my head. I know it has been so hard for God to break through to me when I have been just plowing forward, rarely stopping to appreciate anything, just trying to survive another 24 hours. 

But look – at the start of this psalm and at the end – he is ever-present, vehemently present (v. 1), the Lord Almighty is with us (v. 11). He was always there and will always be there. God was always present for me growing up, and I knew it deep down and felt his Presence sometimes. Once in a while when dropped off for choir practice I would sneak out and sit alone in the huge, dark sanctuary and He was there. But most of the time, in my survival mode it was so hard to “be still and know” anything. 

My husband is just the opposite. This past weekend we camped by one of those quiet, healing streams and it was obvious. When we go for a walk, my husband can hardly go a hundred feet without stopping or sitting down and soaking in all the beauty, pointing out colors and light and birdsong and water-music on the rocks. I am just antsy and wanting to keep going (and get it over with). I have to fight to be still. 

Be still (sink, relax, cease, let go) and know (know, learn to know, perceive, consider, recognize, admit, acknowledge, confess) that He is God. Sit in the Presence, stand or walk, live and move and have your being in His Presence. Sink down, relax, let go and abide in His Presence.  

Ah, all this has to do with trust I am seeing. In all the horrible roaring and fearful surging, hateful, mocking, fighting, destroying world – we will not fear … God is within her, she will not fall. He makes the war cease within me, breaks the bow and shatters the spear of my enemy. I can trust the One who is here, present with me, always, from beginning to the end. I can sit down every little while on the path and sink into His arms, relax, cease striving, let go of every fear – and know the One who loves me. I can reach out my hand and take His right there beside me. He has been walking there all along. 

 

Photo of creek by Sheila Bair

A Late Night Thought

(This poem is in response to Emma’s Wednesday Writing Prompt 24/05/23)

Late night thoughts 

leak out 

in poisonous 

proliferation 

from  

corroded dreams 

dead hope 

decomposition 

My blighted heart  

toxic waste  

landfill of  

accusation 

condemnation 

lethal inhalations 

exhale fumes of 

desolation 

But then 

a late night thought

unsought consolation 

revelation 

furious ignition 

noxious cloud 

incineration 

joyous 

illumination  

In the night 

I remember your 

Name 

In the night I remember your name … Psalm 119:55 

… and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ Matthew 1:23 

And be sure of this: I am with you always … Matthew 28:20 (NLT) 

So do not fear, for I am with you … Isaiah 41:10 

… our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:29  

Photo, Flame by Annie Roi https://flic.kr/p/9VB6y7  

Crossing Over

Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. John 5:24 

The word translated “crossed over” above is metabainó. It comes from two other Greek words, metá and the base of the word “basis.” Literally, it means “with foot,” or in the plural, with feet. 

John uses the word again here: 

We know that we have passed from (metabainó) death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 1 John 3:14 

To me, “with feet” is taking that first step in faith; it is like beginning your walk with the Lord. Crossing over with your feet into another life. The cool thing about the metá part is that it means “after with” implying that there is a “change afterward.” In other words, there is a result “after the activity,” and metá “looks towards the after-effect (change, result).” The “bainó” part of the word metabainó means “to walk, to go.” Beginning our walk with the Lord, crossing over from death to life, results, or should result, in a changed life.  

Interestingly, the base of the word “bainó,” which is “basis,” means “a step,” hence, “a foot” (feet).  This word is only used once in the Bible. It’s part of the story of someone who was called to walk for the first time, and was absolutely changed:¹ 

One afternoon Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those entering the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.  

Peter looked directly at him, as did John. “Look at us!” said Peter. So the man gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”  

Taking him by the right hand, Peter helped him up, and at once the man’s feet and ankles were made strong. He sprang to his feet (basis) and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and leaping and praising God. Acts 3:1-8 

I love that he didn’t just walk, he leapt and praised God for his new life. Another cool thing about feet and walking: when the Israelites following Joshua crossed over the flooded Jordan on foot – into their new land and new life – it was the feet of the priests touching the water that made the way for the people. 

Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people … and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.  Joshua 3:6, 15-16 

Jesus, our High Priest, was and is himself the Ark, and he walked into the flood of suffering and death to make a Way through for us. 

But let this sink in – we are priests too.  

… but you shall be called the priests of the Lord; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God … Isaiah 61:6 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9 

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. Revelation 1:5-6 

We are the priests now carrying the ark – the Presence of God – into the world, into every situation, into the impassable, impossible flood, to help others to cross over from death to life. So, whether you have never walked and are sitting somewhere begging, or, if you have given up on God and have stopped on the side of the road in cynicism and despair, or (God help us!), if you are resting in the comfortable pew of self-righteousness:  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk! 

… whoever hears my word and believes … has crossed over 

How to cross over from death to life. 

¹All definitions from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and HELPS-studies by Discovery Bible. 

Photo, free download from Pxfuel. 

Transparent Camouflage

I hear you 

calling my name again 

from somewhere 

safely far ahead 

How could I have been  

listening for you  

(my heart knows your voice) 

stalking you all this time 

way back  

behind in the bushes somewhere? 

Like tracking you 

following your scent 

(my heart breathes your scent) 

but never really 

getting near 

enough 

to capture 

How could I say  

all this time 

I trust you 

and not? 

How could these bold words   

come bravely  

out of my mouth 

point confidently 

from the ends of my fingers   

when I’m hiding from you

in transparent camouflage? 

I hear you now 

calling to me 

(with an amused smile) 

“I see you 

hiding there 

I see your feet sticking out 

Come here  

take my hand 

I don’t bite 

Walk with Me” 

Photo, owenshadow, by andrechinn https://flic.kr/p/kuh4F

For This Very Reason

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.” 1 Peter 3:9-11 

We were called to bless.  

I have written about this verse before, but it continues to reverberate in my heart. There is more I need to learn here.

I have always thought of a calling as something wonderful and important, like being a missionary or a pastor or teacher – certainly there is a calling to be a mother or father. But as I was reading this verse the other day, that phrase struck me again: to this you were called. To bless! To this I was called: bid, called forth, called by name, invited.¹ To be honest, how often is blessing others at the front of my mind as I am going through my busy day – especially blessing those who are doing me evil or reviling me? But this verse says that is the very reason that God called my name, called me to follow Jesus. I wondered – to what else are we called? This is what I found: 

We are called to belong to Jesus Christ. 

And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. Romans 1:6 

We are called to have fellowship with Jesus Christ our Lord. 

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:9 

We are called to endure suffering for doing good, without retaliation, trusting our lives to God. 

For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 1 Peter 2:19-23 

These last two callings together remind me of this verse: “… that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death …” (Philippians 3:10) 

We are called to one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. 

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6 

We are called to be free. 

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. Galatians 5:13 

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32) 

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2 

We are called to be completely humble and gentle, patient, bearing with each other in love.  

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3 

You were called to peace. 

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15 

There is not a lot of peace these days. Yet, we are called to let Christ’s peace “rule in your hearts,” to seek peace and pursue it” (1 Peter) and to “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4: 3). 

We are called to be holy. 

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 1 Thessalonians 4:7 

… to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:2-3 

We are called to His eternal glory. 

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 1 Peter 5:10 

Lord, help me to remember that I am yours, and I have a calling to bless, to love, to walk with you, to endure suffering, to seek peace, to live a holy life. That is the reason you called me. And, as I go through my days, give me the grace and strength – the everything – that I need to do your will and bring glory to you who called me by name. 

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ … Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8, 10-11 

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus … Hebrews 3:1 

¹Definition from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. 

Photo, Helping Hand, by Howard J https://flic.kr/p/2iKzd6h

God is Faithful

I felt that someone (besides me!) needed this today.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever. Isaiah 40:8 

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. Matthew 24:35 

The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. Psalm 145:13 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV) 

He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 

Although my father and my mother have abandoned me, Yet the Lord will take me up [adopt me as His child]. Psalm 27:10 (AMP) 

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26 

Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. Jeremiah 32:17 (ESV) 

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Deuteronomy 7:9 

Your word, LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. Psalm 119:89-90 

He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 

But the Lord is faithful. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 (ESV) 

God is faithful … 1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV) 

For no word from God will ever fail. Luke 1:37 

No word from God will ever fail! 

Photo by Sheila Bair

Twinkle Lights

A while ago I published a blog called Grace Recognized. That is the definition of the Greek word translated “joy” in the New Testament – just recognizing God’s working around us. And many times, just as His voice is not a loud shout, but a still, small voice, His works of grace are found in what C.S. Lewis called “patches of Godlight” or what Brené Brown calls “twinkle lights.” I hope these quotes will bless you and help you recognize your special God-made patches of joy. 

“We – or at least I – shall not be able to adore God on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the lowest. At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable, but we shall not have found Him so, not have ‘tasted and seen.’ Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of experience.” – C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, San Diego: Mariner, 2002. 

“Twinkle lights are the perfect metaphor for joy. Joy is not a constant. It comes to us in moments—often ordinary moments. Sometimes we miss out on the bursts of joy because we’re too busy chasing down extraordinary moments. Other times we’re so afraid of the dark that we don’t dare let ourselves enjoy the light. A joyful life is not a floodlight of joy. That would eventually become unbearable. I believe a joyful life is made up of joyful moments gracefully strung together by trust, gratitude, inspiration, and faith.” — Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

My sister wrote the following to me after reading a chapter in The Gifts of Imperfection:

“I just finished this chapter. I absolutely love the word picture of joy as twinkle lights and not the overwhelming burst of light I have always pictured it as. Now I can look for joy everywhere because it is everywhere in the middle of all the darkness. I have missed joy a lot focusing on the darkness around it. Fear of loss keeping me from fully enjoying what is right in front of me.” 

Yes, these little patches of joy are right in from of us. In her daily devotional book Each New Day, Corrie ten Boom wrote of a twinkle-light of joy that God sent to her in one of the darkest dungeons of human experience and suffering, Ravensbrück concentration camp.

“Once, while we were on a roll call, a cruel guard kept us standing for a long, long time. Suddenly, a skylark began to sing in the sky, and all the prisoners looked up to listen to  that bird’s song. As I looked at the bird, I saw the sky and thought of Psalms 103:11. O love of God, how deep and great; far deeper than man’s deepest hate. God sent that skylark daily for three weeks, exactly during roll call, to turn our eyes away from the cruelty of man to the oceans of His love.”

 A one-to-one, just-for-me, smile from a grandchild, the sunrise-welcoming cries of Sandhill cranes answered by an owl, baby breath puffs and “butterfly kisses” on my neck, peachy full moon breaking through obscuring clouds, a special gift from the Lord in the form of a rock on the beach or a book at a thrift shop (and I know it’s from him, as only he could know), startling moments when I am fully in His Presence.

Consider it all joy.

All = all, every, every one, each part, one piece at a time, individual parts, all, always, daily. 

“Lord, make me see thy glory in every place.” — Michelangelo 

Image, free download from pickpik.com

Rolled Away

At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.” So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth … Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day. Joshua 5:2-3, 9 

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. Matthew 28:2 

That day in Gibeath Haaraloth, when Joshua circumcised the Israelites, the Lord proclaimed, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Over a thousand years later, an angel rolled the stone away from Jesus’ tomb and he rose triumphant over sin and death. I never saw the connection before today. The “reproach of Egypt” was slavery. We are set free from slavery to sin by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And as we are raised with him through faith, the stone is rolled away from the tombs of our dead hearts and we are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. Colossians 2:11-12 (ESV) 

Got Questions describes the connection this way: 

“Egypt has a tremendous symbolic significance in the Bible. Israel’s redemption from Egypt is a picture of our deliverance from sin and death through faith in Jesus Christ. (Galatians 3:13; 4:5; Titus 2:14). While initially seen as a place of refuge in famine or threat, Egypt becomes a place of oppression and slavery. For New Testament believers, Egypt represents our old life of slavery to sin. All people are, by nature, slaves of sin, and Satan is a much harsher taskmaster than the Egyptian overseers.” — Got Questions  

As the stone was rolled away from the tomb when Jesus rose from the dead, the stone is rolled away from our dead hearts if we are raised with him. This is the circumcision of Christ – we were raised with him. By faith in Jesus, our stone of reproach, of shame, is rolled away and we are set free from our old life of slavery to sin, or, as Charles Spurgeon wrote, “set free from the prison-house of the sepulchre.” 

“Behold the person of your risen Lord! He was your hostage till the law had been honoured and divine authority had been vindicated: that being done, an angel was sent from the throne to roll back the stone, and set the hostage free. All who are in him— and all are in him who believe in him— are set free by his being set free from the prison-house of the sepulchre.” — Charles Spurgeon, The Power of His Resurrection, sermon given April 21, 1889.   

Release from “prison-house of the sepulchre.” This is something we cannot do for ourselves. We cannot roll the stone away for ourselves. Like Lazarus, before Christ calls us forth from the grave, we are dead in sin.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh a and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus … Ephesians 2:1-6

Jonathan Edwards identified the stones that must be rolled away as our old hearts:

“And it appears, that every man in his first or natural state is a sinner; for otherwise he would then need no repentance, no conversion, no turning from sin to God. And it appears, that every man in his original state has a heart of stone; for thus the Scripture calls that old heart, which is taken away, when a new heart and new spirit is given. (Ezek. xi.19. and xxxvi. 26.)” — Jonathan Edwards¹

We are laying there dead without His power to call us forth. We cannot roll the hard stones of our hearts away ourselves, but we can respond to His voice calling our names. Take away the stone, Jesus commands, and death is defeated. The chains of sin and addiction are broken. With a loud voice He calls forth life and nothing can resist Him. Though dead and decaying we walk out new, resurrected, reborn. The grave clothes are taken off, the old sinful me is left there moldering on the ground.

Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. Mark 16:2-4  

“Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”  

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:24-25 

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you … Ezekiel 36:26-27 

Salvation 

¹The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. One, Chapter 11, “The Evidence of the Doctrine of Original Sin from What the Scripture Teaches of the Application of Redemption” (emphasis mine) https://ccel.org/ccel/edwards/works1/works1.vi.v.ii.html

Image in the Public Domain from pxhere 

Recognized Value

Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. John 5:22-23 

The Father wishes us to honor the Son, Jesus Christ. What does that mean “honor the Son”? I think it means to comprehend, or as much as we can comprehend, his great worth.  

Honor. The Greek word is timaó (τιμάω): to fix, or assign, the value, the price, the preciousness. 

Preciousness. Timaó comes from a word that means “a valuing,” “a price,” “money paid.” 

Price. The root of timaó, the root of honor, lies in the primary verb which means “to pay a penalty,” “to punish.”¹ 

This one Greek word, translated “honor,” tells the whole story of the preciousness of the Son. 

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. Matthew 26:14-15 

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. Ephesians 1:7-8 

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious (recognized value in the eyes of the beholder) blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 1 Peter 1:18-19 

Father, help me to comprehend the incomprehensible preciousness of your Son and so give Him honor. Help me see, to seek and find, to dig for your hidden treasure. Open my eyes to see, to recognize His value. Open my heart to receive all the love and grace that you desire to lavish upon me. 

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field.  

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one very precious pearl, he went away and sold all he had and bought it. Matthew 13:44-46 

¹All definitions from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and HELPS Word-studies by Discovery Bible at Bible Hub. 

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