The unfathomable majesty of our Creator God

"I sing the almighty power of God, that made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at God’s command, and all the stars obey." Isaac Watts

I felt drawn to just extemporise a little on these timeless words of the English language's answer to King David, that eminent hymn-writer Isaac Watts.

To think that God spoke and mountains, in all their cragginess, in their rugged, word-defying beauty just rose from nothing should evoke in us such a wonder as to make us say with Isaiah of old "I am undone!" How anyone, much less the child of God can meditate upon God's general revelation in nature and not sing of the almighty power of God just shows the crippling corruption of our sinful, idolatrous hearts (and I count myself as chief offender here!).

To look at the dangerous power of the sea and the vast expanse of the skies should evoke in us a sense of the total transendence of God and these are but shadows of all He is.

To ponder the omniscient wisdom of a God that designed the moon and stars to give us light at night and a sun to give us heat and light in the day time must needs leave one exultant at the totally stupendous wonder of Jehovah.

That such a God should think of man in the light of His total otherness in comparison to us, in the light of the fact that He never had to be born or learn and that it didn't even cost him one Joule of energy is staggering. Watts says that "all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care". What a thought! The fact of these things alone should make us seek after God but He had to put His love on public display on the cross. He had to bloody His own son and desert the very heart of His own heart to commend His love to the worms of the dust that we are! Oh how we ought to exalt Him! Oh what sinners we are!

Bless His name for ever.

God's impeccable timing

We are so priveleged that not only does a holy God save us as sinners but when He brings us into a relationship with Himself that so often He deigns to speak to us in ways which are so appropriate to our circumstances at just the right moment.

A few weeks ago my job was feeling just like I was like the donkey pushing the grindstone going round and round in circles and I was at a low ebb spiritually. At this time God providentially ordained that I would read the entry from Oswald Chambers' devotional My Utmost For His Highest (http://www.myutmost.org) for 15th June. It reads as follows:


June 15th.
GET A MOVE ON
"And beside this . . . add . ." 2 Peter 1:5
You have inherited the Divine nature, says Peter (v.4), now screw your attention down and form habits, give diligence, concentrate. "Add" means all that character means. No man is born either naturally or supernaturally with character, he has to make character. Nor are we born with habits; we have to form habits on the basis of the new life God has put into us. We are not meant to be illuminated versions, but the common stuff of ordinary life exhibiting the marvel of the grace of God. Drudgery is the touchstone of character. The great hindrance in spiritual life is that we will look for big things to do. "Jesus took a towel . . . and began to wash the disciples' feet."
There are times when there is no illumination and no thrill, but just the daily round, the common task. Routine is God's way of saving us between our times of inspiration. Do not expect God always to give you His thrilling minutes, but learn to live in the domain of drudgery by the power of God.
It is the "adding" that is difficult. We say we do not expect God to carry us to heaven on flowery beds of ease, and yet we act as if we did! The tiniest detail in which I obey has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If I do my duty, not for duty's sake, but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience the whole superb grace of God is mine through the Atonement.

What a good Father the one true God is to speak to clearly to my situation.

Today also I was feeling very sinful and again through Chambers he said:

"If we imagine we have to put on our Sunday moods before we come near to God, we will never come near Him. We must come as we are.

Don't calculate with the evil in view. Does God really mean us to take no account of the evil? "Love . . . taketh no account of the evil." Love is not ignorant of the existence of the evil, but it does not take it in as a calculating factor. "

Oh! Scandalous grace of God that a wretched sinner such as I should be seen as having performed every good deed that Christ ever did and that the blame for all the filth, idolatry, pride, prayerlessness, false piety and all the outpourings of the flesh is laid squarely at the feet of His cross!

Bless our ineffably benificent Creator! The Name above all names!

What a word to a bruised reed!

Forsake your own righteousness and cry out to Him as you are!

Amen.