I cannot begin to recount all the ways God has orchestrated the details of my life, all the prayers He has answered in his faithfulness to me, all of the desires of my heart that He has fulfilled. There is no area of my life that remains untouched...my health, my marriage, my children, my family, the direction of my life, my joy and contentment, my friendships...all of my needs are met in Him. Regretfully, there are times when I do not acknowledge His active presence in my life, yet He remains...steady, constant, patient, full of love and grace. In my life, there have also been many disappointments, many times my heart has been wounded in ways I felt were beyond repair, many times I have not understood the sovereignty of God, times of darkness where I have not seen the light of truth. But He always finds me, even when I have fallen into the deepest of pits, and He never fails to lift my broken soul and mend its every part.
The past 2 1/2 years have been very challenging for me. I have been stretched in ways I have never been before. But I have seen the very hand of God extended before me, leading me, pulling me along, carrying me when I could not stand, opening doors for me, shutting doors that needed to be closed, and drawing me into His embrace at the most unexpected times. I do not deserve such love; I have done nothing to earn it and everything to be unworthy of it. But how can I not accept it when it is so freely, so abundantly, so generously, so surprisingly, so endlessly given?
What is man and woman that you bother with them;
why take a second look their way?
You made them not quite as high as angels,
bright with Eden's dawn light;
Then you put them in charge
of your entire handcrafted world.
When God put them in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. But we don't see it yet, don't see everything under human jurisdiction. What we do see is Jesus, made "not quite as high as angels," and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory "bright with Eden's dawn light." In that death, by God's grace, he fully experienced death in every person's place. why take a second look their way?
You made them not quite as high as angels,
bright with Eden's dawn light;
Then you put them in charge
of your entire handcrafted world.
10-13It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn't hesitate to treat them as family, saying,
I'll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know
about you;
I'll join them in worship and praise to you.
Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says,
Even I live by placing my trust in God.
And yet again,
I'm here with the children God gave me.
I'll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know
about you;
I'll join them in worship and praise to you.
Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says,
Even I live by placing my trust in God.
And yet again,
I'm here with the children God gave me.
14-15Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it's logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil's hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
16-18It's obvious, of course, that he didn't go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That's why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people's sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed.
Hebrews 2:5-18 (The Message)
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