Call to Me and I will answer you
and tell you great and unsearchable things
you do not know.
- Jeremiah 33:3
and tell you great and unsearchable things
you do not know.
- Jeremiah 33:3
This morning in church, Pastor Joey Bonifacio spoke to us about another kingdom story.
The story begins this way: The kingdom of heaven is like a Landowner who hired workers to work in his vineyard....
At the eleventh hour, He still welcomed workers to come in and join the others. At the end of the day, all laborers were given the same pay.
The response of those who began working early in the day is the same response that we see in many workplaces around the world today: they grumbled and accused the landowner of being unfair.
The Landowner, who represents God in the story, stands His ground. Everybody gets equal pay...after all, every worker who was hired agreed to work for the same amount, one denarius.
The main point that Pastor Joey brought out is something that we have probably all heard before. But the passionate way in which he spoke just struck my heart. "Everybody is equal under the love of God... He is such a good...good...good God."
And he is right. This is what it is like to live in God's kingdom.
God wants to give us an idea of what His eternal reign is like. People grumble because we do not often encounter such goodness in our day-to-day dealings. In this world, we love to "one up" one another! And so we are not really familiar with this way of doing things.
The Landowner asks, "Am I not free to do what I want with my money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"
The message of the parable is clear:
In the kingdom of God, grace is abundant.
And then something Pastor Joey says catches me by surprise.
When Jesus says, "So the last will be first, and the first will be last," He was referring to Himself.
That He is the Son who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.
That we who are the last were given prime importance in His kingdom, and He who was supposed to be the first became last, willingly came to earth as a servant, and emptied Himself, and died on the cross...taking upon Himself a death that should have been yours and mine!
This is another story that reflects the upside down nature of God's kingdom.
It created in my heart this afternoon a deep longing to encounter the beauty of our King...as shown in the story of the Landowner in Matthew 20.
He cares. He loves. His compassion runs deep. His touch is gentle.
His graces are unfathomable, unsearchable!
There is really nothing like this in this wordly kingdom where self is the ruler, and where pride and selfishness are the standards.
This story caused me to long for this heavenly Kingdom... where grace abounds.
I know that it's possible to experience and live in the beautiful reign of this Landowner-King right here in this world...but hearing the Father's heart depicted in the story gave me a deep longing to encounter the beauty, the loveliness of God in His heavenly kingdom!
I remembered the time when Ernie and I experienced such a homesickness for our homeland, the Philippines, a couple of months after we arrived in Thailand in 2007. The more I thought about it the more I realized that the longing I felt to be back in my native land was similar to the longing that we have for heaven, our heart's true home.
(Homesick, a blog post written in the early stages of this weblog will always be one of my favorites.)
This world is really no longer our home once we turn over the throne of our lives to Jesus.
All this sickness, pain, disappointment, pollution, corruption, danger, hypocrisy...something tells us that this is not home...this is not where we belong! Something tells us that we were not designed for such a low level of existence!
We were created for something far more noble!
And so we always look forward to the day of our homegoing, the place where we know that the welcoming arms of our heavenly Father await us!
All afternoon I listened to Mercy Me's I Can Only Imagine, one song that will always be among my top favorites.
While listening to this uplifting song, I began to imagine what it must be like to finally reach heaven's shores.
I imagined the table of feasting and rejoicing...
the lush gardens and bountiful waterfalls...
the gurgling brooks...
the endless blue seas...
tall, majestic mountains and green rolling hills...
lions, lambs, puppies, kittens, and birds!
the gentle breeze blowing over prairies
exotic trees and lovely flowers of all varieties...
the perfect city where crime will not rule the streets
walking on streets of gold!
the song and the laughter...
the joy, the kindness, the gentleness...
the looking forward to each new day...
what would it be like to live in a place where there is no night?
where the radiance of our King lights up everything?
where there is no sadness, no grief, no tears?
where nothing is hidden and there is no shame?
Indeed, all eternity will not be enough to discover the deep beauty of our God and King, a beauty that will keep unfolding before our eyes, like one glorious secret after another being revealed!
I thanked God for the power of imagination...it helps me see the heavenly realities behind the kingdom stories of Jesus, opens up my spiritual senses, and allows me to live in a wonderful expectation of what heaven is like.
Where would we be without imagination?
Imagination is such a powerful and amazing gift that God our Creator gave us.
It is through this mental activity that we are able to learn, and to create.
Without imagination, it would be impossible to connect the events of our past with the present and future events of our lives.
Without imagination we would be living disjointed, disconnected lives...
It is imagination that helps us to survive the pain, the disappointment, the harsh realities of this present life.
Imagination enables us to dream...and to hope...and causes our hearts to be filled with endless wonder.
Imagination helps us to understand and to take hold of the beautiful promises that God has for each one of us.
Needless to say, this gift that God gave us has also been accessed by the enemy of our souls. We only know too well of what people with dark, twisted, and depraved imaginations are capable of.
When Jesus says, "So the last will be first, and the first will be last," He was referring to Himself.
That He is the Son who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.
That we who are the last were given prime importance in His kingdom, and He who was supposed to be the first became last, willingly came to earth as a servant, and emptied Himself, and died on the cross...taking upon Himself a death that should have been yours and mine!
This is another story that reflects the upside down nature of God's kingdom.
It created in my heart this afternoon a deep longing to encounter the beauty of our King...as shown in the story of the Landowner in Matthew 20.
He cares. He loves. His compassion runs deep. His touch is gentle.
His graces are unfathomable, unsearchable!
There is really nothing like this in this wordly kingdom where self is the ruler, and where pride and selfishness are the standards.
This story caused me to long for this heavenly Kingdom... where grace abounds.
I know that it's possible to experience and live in the beautiful reign of this Landowner-King right here in this world...but hearing the Father's heart depicted in the story gave me a deep longing to encounter the beauty, the loveliness of God in His heavenly kingdom!
I remembered the time when Ernie and I experienced such a homesickness for our homeland, the Philippines, a couple of months after we arrived in Thailand in 2007. The more I thought about it the more I realized that the longing I felt to be back in my native land was similar to the longing that we have for heaven, our heart's true home.
(Homesick, a blog post written in the early stages of this weblog will always be one of my favorites.)
This world is really no longer our home once we turn over the throne of our lives to Jesus.
All this sickness, pain, disappointment, pollution, corruption, danger, hypocrisy...something tells us that this is not home...this is not where we belong! Something tells us that we were not designed for such a low level of existence!
We were created for something far more noble!
And so we always look forward to the day of our homegoing, the place where we know that the welcoming arms of our heavenly Father await us!
All afternoon I listened to Mercy Me's I Can Only Imagine, one song that will always be among my top favorites.
While listening to this uplifting song, I began to imagine what it must be like to finally reach heaven's shores.
I imagined the table of feasting and rejoicing...
the lush gardens and bountiful waterfalls...
the gurgling brooks...
the endless blue seas...
tall, majestic mountains and green rolling hills...
lions, lambs, puppies, kittens, and birds!
the gentle breeze blowing over prairies
exotic trees and lovely flowers of all varieties...
the perfect city where crime will not rule the streets
walking on streets of gold!
the song and the laughter...
the joy, the kindness, the gentleness...
the looking forward to each new day...
what would it be like to live in a place where there is no night?
where the radiance of our King lights up everything?
where there is no sadness, no grief, no tears?
where nothing is hidden and there is no shame?
Indeed, all eternity will not be enough to discover the deep beauty of our God and King, a beauty that will keep unfolding before our eyes, like one glorious secret after another being revealed!
I thanked God for the power of imagination...it helps me see the heavenly realities behind the kingdom stories of Jesus, opens up my spiritual senses, and allows me to live in a wonderful expectation of what heaven is like.
Where would we be without imagination?
Imagination is such a powerful and amazing gift that God our Creator gave us.
It is through this mental activity that we are able to learn, and to create.
Without imagination, it would be impossible to connect the events of our past with the present and future events of our lives.
Without imagination we would be living disjointed, disconnected lives...
It is imagination that helps us to survive the pain, the disappointment, the harsh realities of this present life.
Imagination enables us to dream...and to hope...and causes our hearts to be filled with endless wonder.
Imagination helps us to understand and to take hold of the beautiful promises that God has for each one of us.
Needless to say, this gift that God gave us has also been accessed by the enemy of our souls. We only know too well of what people with dark, twisted, and depraved imaginations are capable of.
That is why we should always let God purify and sanctify our minds. I believe that imagination is one of the mental faculties that helps connect us to God. It links us to the realities of His eternal kingdom, and enables us to receive a revelation and understanding of what God...and heaven are like!
O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
(Words by Samuel Francis, Music by Thomas Williams)
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His loved ones, died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth, watcheth o’er them from the throne!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of every love the best!
’Tis an ocean full of blessing, ’tis a haven giving rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus, ’tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee!
17 comments:
Lidj, in the Beth Moore study Revelation, we were just discussing within each virtue lies the seeds of destruction if not used for Him--[like the Epheseus church with their love for truth--losing their first love and becoming intolerant and legalistic---]
you described so well how God can inflame our imaginations with glorious glimpses of eternity...and yet how that particular gift He gave us has been used by Satan to entrap so many...
I also love that the ground is level when we stand before God--our 'sins' are equally unholy--
Here is a link to "the Deep Deep Love of Jesus" sung acapella...beautiful..
http://www.angelfire.com/oh3/kenskorner/deeplove.html
blessings on your week...
Lidj:
I'm reading "Heaven", and today R.Alcorn quoted Francis Schaeffer on imagination... "The christian is the really free man, he is free to have imagination. Imagination should not fly away from the truth, but fly upon the truth"... as it applies to heaven from the scriptures.
"I Can Only Imagine" is one of the songs that was such a comfort to me when my parents went to heaven... it still is.
Beautiful words Lidj, as always when I visit here.
Love,
Sonja
Thank you for your kind words. Yes, I agree. BLOGGER .... oh my.
I love your little place here. I LOVE that picture ... it's so peaceful!
Love,
Traci
Such a beautiful post Lidj and the song just was the perfect finale to bring it on home. :) Someday our life will be experienced only in the manifestation of Jesus Christ ruling and reigning over all things. What a day that will be!!
I like imagining with you today and thinking about a time to comes when strife, sickness, pride, bitterness, envy, hatred, selfishness, unforgiveness, depression, ambition, complacency, when all will gave way to the grace of heaven.
Indeed, I can only imagine now, but I will live it then.
With Jesus. With you. Blessings and peace to you this week in your holy imagining and expectation.
~elaine
Dear Lidj, thank you for pouring out your heart and sharing your great wonderful imagination with us. I feel that your words and thoughts are so uplifting that you share the gift of grace though them. I certainly feel blessed to read your posts and am so thankful that souls like yours exist.
Love Colleen
Oh and by the way, I just love that Mercy Me song!!:)
Lidj,
Your reflective thoughts to my posts ministers to my soul more than I can say. I so hope we can skype with you so I can say it more clearly. You read to really understand and to feel deeply. Then, you are able to really communicate the specifics that touched you and what else the Lord is revealing in the same way with different passages or quotes. God has given me a gift in you. Being a Pastor's wife can be a lonely place unless I work at cultivating deep relationships. I don't normally have people seek me out. I feel like that is what you are doing and it touches a place in my heart that hasn't felt that in a long time. This may not make any sense to you but I pray it will warm your heart all the same.
As to your post here...there are several things I love:
1. The opening verse of your post:
Call to Me and I will answer you
and tell you great and unsearchable things
you do not know.
- Jeremiah 33:3
It has been just recently that I've seen a big picture thread to God's redemptive purpose for trials and suffering. I'm excited to delve the depths of Scripture to confirm my findings and yet it is an daunting task right now. This verse encourages me on in my study because God will reveal His truth as I search for it....just like the merchant searching for the pearl of great price.
2. The Landowner parable and Gods' grace to all. It struck me as I read this how often I complain about the heavy burden I have to bear just to accomplish small things...and the effort it takes me is not equal to someone my age. I'm reacting much like those workers that started early in the day. What a self-absorbed reaction. You make it clear the point is to see God's upside down kingdom...so full of his generous grace. I need to be singing his praises and understand He is doing a great work in my life with the refining process.
3. Imagination is a reflection of God the Creator himself. I love studying God's Master Plan for humanity. His original intention in the Garden of Eden was sublime and I rejoice to know He is in the business of redeeming it. And, one day in the New Heaven and New Earth you and I will see and feel and know all that was the best of the Garden and so much more. You are right..."It is imagination that helps us to survive the pain, the disappointment, the harsh realities of this present life. Imagination enables us to dream...and to hope...and causes our hearts to be filled with endless wonder." And the one author that really works hard at keeping his imagination biblical is Randy Alcorn. Someone already mentioned his Heaven book (which I love) but in his fiction where he imagines heaven through the homegoing of his characters fuels my hope. Safely Home is my favorite and I think I need to pick it up again for my soul.
4. And finally, the Deep Deep Love of Jesus hymn has been a personal favorite for a long time. John Piper has a sermon on Psalm 42 called Spiritual Depression in the Psalms. I go to it often: He writes, "And even though the psalmist says it looks as if God has forgotten him, he never stops believing in the absolute sovereignty of God over all his adversity. So at the end of verse 7, he says, 'All your breakers and your waves have gone over me.' Your breakers and your waves have gone over me. In other words, all his crashing and tumultuous and oppressing and discouraging circumstances are the waves of God. He never loses this grip on the great truths about God. They are the ballast in his little boat of faith. They keep him from capsizing in the tumult of his emotions. O how many of you have learned this more deeply than I because of the waves that have broken over your lives. You have learned deeply that it is no relief to say that God does not rule the wind and the waves."
You are a blessing to me in ways words cannot express. Thank you!
Amy
ou are right Lidj,this parable talks about the love of God, how He treat all equally. It also teaches us to submit to His soverign decision. He decides our rewards and how to answer our prayers and reward us . We cannot question Him. I have been intrigued by this story. In today ' s world everyone wants their own kind of justice- stand up for your rights. God 's kingdom is upside down.
I just read that scripture this week "the last will be first, and the first will be last." I had no idea that Jesus will be last! Wow, that blows my mind! What kind of love is this?! To say God is 'generous' is an understatement.
I just listened to Mercy Me's songs this morning. Downloaded all my favorites to my ipod.
Off to read your other post now...
Thank you, as always, for your encouraging insights and song. I love to imagine what a wonderful fellowship all of us could have together on this earth! Not to mention in eternity!
I know I always share 'favourite' songs, but the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus is truly my all time favourite! Thanks for including the links!
With love and deep appreciation for you and the gifts you share with us, Linda
Lidj, I wanted to thank you for being a part of my first year of blogging! What a wonderful year it has been. I'm throwing a little party and as an honored guest, I would love for you to stop by and share a highlight of your year with all of us.
http://justsarahdawn.blogspot.com/2010/04/cactus-happy.html
Cactus Happy,
Sara
I also deal with homesickness for my real home with Jesus. And I love the song you posted. One of my favorites.
Oh, Lidj, I made it here!!
And what an apropos post for me! It feels like HOME being here!
And I so agree with you about 'Homesickness', I think that is the longing I feel inside sometimes, I feel that my soul is yearning for something, I feel so restless, and I'm not even sure why, but my spirit knows.
I've been reading back here and I love your reflections on the Stations of the Cross, and I'm so happy to be able to read them now, they are a beautiful reminder to me of the Love of Our Savior. And I share that same feeling of awe at that Wonderful Sacrifice of Love.
And the passage in the Bible of the repentant thief always gave me so much hope, to know that for sure in Heaven he was welcomed.
I'm so glad you shared this, Lidj, I loved all the tangible reminders of the Greatest Love story.
It must have been such a touching experience for you.
And I'm glad you had such a beautiful Birthday celebration. And I think it's wonderful that you are surrounded by so much love, for you give so much.
I admire so much how you are ready and willing to do God's Bidding at a moment's notice.
Lidj, you are a 'Simon' in my life.
And I loved what you wrote on my blog about stopping by for a cup of tea, for that's exactly how I feel too, and if you don't mind I'd like to do a post next week on that comment. I love stopping by here, Lidj, for a cup of friendship.
And I'm hoping my blogging woes are behind me! I was able to get to almost every blog today!
Love to you,
Eileen
I know I always share 'favourite' songs, but the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus is truly my all time favourite! Thanks for including the links!
data entry work from home
Dear Lidj, wow I just want to thank you so much for your comment on my blog! It really meant a lot to me to know you have prayed for me, that is just so sweet and kind of you, thank you! I am done my degree in full probably around Christmas time, but classes stop end of June, yay! I am currently working with a homeless woman in my hostel now who is Filipina, and I have a special heart for Filipino people, having worked with them on cruise ships for years, so it is wonderful to read your blog for that reason as well, and see photos etc. of things in that part of the world. Much love to you and I wish you God's fullest blessings for hearing, obeying and then praying for me.. bless you and thank you again!
Hi, You placed a smile in my heart today with your comments and I am so honored to have you as a follower. I visit your blog often but do not always leave a comment. You are a blessed writer and servant of the Lord and I always come away with something to share with another or to carry in my heart. In answer to your question on my blog about making prints of the original..I will now be doing that...the pictures in the show I was in had to be originals. I did not make prints of the original this time but I can make a duplicate drawing and sell as a print of the original or I can make a few changes of the original and change the name.There is soooo much to learn. To be honest I did not think they would sell :) The Lord is indeed good. lovingly Dee
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