2223AFC061022 – Wholly Holy, Lord!
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Proverbs 8:22, 30-31 – 22 “Adonai made me [Wisdom] as the beginning of his way,
the first of his ancient works. [ … ]
30 I was with him as someone he could trust.
For me, every day was pure delight,
as I played in his presence all the time,.
31 playing everywhere on his earth,
and delighting to be with humankind.
Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Psalm 8:4-5 – 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God*,
and crowned them with glory and honor
*Some authorities translate the Hebrew word elohim as “angels”; Elohim is one of the Torah names of God (↔ Click Link, please) for example in Genesis 1:26.
Romans 5:1-2 – 1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
John 16:12-15 – 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you, ʻŌmea! This coming Sunday is called Trinity Sunday. Can you guess what we will cover in this post? Well, let’s get going and see if your guess was right.
Looking at all these verses gives me great Joy and Hope. God created the Earth with Wisdom – Wisdom was the first Quality of God he called forth. Everything he made, he made for Loving. He made the Universe because he Loved it, and he made us – his earthlings – so he could Love us and we could Love him, too. Then his new earthlings messed up and fell into sin and death – that was NOT what he had planned; BUT he already had an Absolutely Perfect Plan to deal with it – Redemption and Salvation through Christ Jesus. Jesus told his Apostles – and they tell us – that God would send the Holy Spirit to help them (and us!) to remember everything he taught and that the Holy Spirit would also defend us against the Devil. Thinking about that is so reassuring; in fact it gives all of us Blessed Assurance (↔ Music Link). Sometimes it’s hard for us to wrap our head around that Love and Forgiveness. But then we think about what the Psalmist said, and it’s even more amazing.
When one looks at the totality of Creation and realizes how Magnificent it is, it is astounding that so Great a God could make all of that, put us in it, and still care about us when we turned our back on him! Who are we that so Great a God could care about us after that? He created his earthlings to be a tad-bit lower than the Angels but still crowned them with glory and honor. He can do that because his Glory and Honor is above All Things, Times, and Places. He is Great and Wonderful in every way, and when we look toward him we cannot help but think, “My God, How great though art! (↔ Music Link)
Yet, even though he is betrayed by us day-by-day, one-by-one, we still can find Peace and safety in his Glorious Grace through faith in Christ Jesus through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. For someone created “just a tad-bit lower than the angels,” that is a BIG step up! It would be impossible without Grace because we do not have the power to procure our own Salvation. “Being true to oneself” isn’t a ticket to Heaven by any means. It is a fruitless exercise to work out DIY exercises to save any soul.
In fact the best advice is DDIY – DON’T Do It Yourself! (↔ Click Link) We need to remember that that’s how Lucifer was tossed out of Heaven. We earthlings, on the other hand, need to rely on God’s Amazing Grace (↔ Music Link) because only through the willing sacrifice of his Only Begotten Son is there redemption. What a tremendous blessing there is in that admission of loss and conversion. It is through conversion, remember, that we come to know God: “Repent and believe the Gospel.” When we do that we are able to share in the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. Do you remember those?
“Open your Bibles to Galatians 5:22-23 and read,” 22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” Against what things is the Apostle Paul making contrast? If you’ll click on that link for Galatians you’ll see this Scripture passage in context. There’s some pretty nasty stuff in that part – the kind of stuff we see on the evening news all the time. We would rather have a blessing of benediction (↔ Music Link) from God than an accusation of our sin from the World. (That benediction can be found in Numbers 6:24-26. Follow this link to see it presented in phonetic Hebrew.) That kind of Peaceful rest in God’s Mercy is wonderful, but – if we think further on it – it makes us want to jump up and Praise the Lord. Here’s what the Psalmist had to say about it:
Psalm 148:1-2 –. 1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his host!
We all know a tune usually referred to as “The Doxology.” (↔ Music Link) It is a brief hymn of praise and is often regularly included in worship services. We praise “God in three persons,” the Holy Trinity, in those words just as we praise the Trinity when we sing “Glory to God (↔ Music Link) in the highest. I hope you are not tired of seeing this because I feel I must insert it again.
(Music Link ↔) LIGHT ≡ GOD ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE ≡ ETERNAL ≡ LOVE
We are blessed to have the Holy Spirit in our hearts making our bodies a Temple unto the Lord. “With the Father and the Son he is adored and glorified.” (↔ Click Link) when we surrender our lives, our hearts, our wills to Christ, he will make us wholly Holy so that we will be able to be reunited with God – his Father and our Father – for ever-and-ever. And that is because –
We have Christ! Christ is ours! Christ is our Light, so we let our light shine! I just want to encourage you to Take Time To Be Holy (↔ Music Link) and to remember You Can’t Be A Beacon if your light don’t shine (↔ Music Link) so that God may be all in all. It’s just like Jesus said in one of our Key Verses – He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. And ʻŌmea, if your light is shining, then someone else might be able – in God’s Good Grace – to say I Saw The Light (↔ Music Link), and wouldn’t that be a terrific Gift to our Heavenly Father? We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit who Love and cherish us – one-by-one – since the dawn of Creation which wasbrought about with Wisdom! That makes me want to sing Bless the Lord O my Soul (↔ Music Link). Now, please, everyone fold your hands, bow your heads, and let’s lift our hearts, and minds, and voices together to sing and to pray –
AMEN!
ʻŌmea, the Key Verse icon for today should be a GIF file. If the copy you received does not move, you can see what it was supposed to do HERE. (↔ Click Link) Have a wonderful Glorious, Joyful, and Edifying Trinity Sunday! Make it wholly Holy!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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