Complete in Thee: Mild He Lays His Glory By

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Mild He Lays His Glory By

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die.

These words kept going through my head yesterday evening after having visited the Creation Museum and the absolutely INCREDIBLE Planetarium there! These words are accepted and true, but often become just commonplace "doctrine" in people's minds. But when we come to realize how very very SMALL we are, and how very very GREAT the glory that Jesus laid by to come and save us, the words become so amazing.... so.... breath-taking... so wonderful that there is no word to describe them!

For those of you who have not seen the "Created Cosmos" show at the Creation Museum, you are much to

be pitied! It is absolutely AMAZING!!! My awe grew as, in the video, we kept going farther and farther out into space... millions and billions and trillions of lightyears! Alpha Centauri seemed so far away...until we kept going farther... and farther... then to find out we had only just explored the Milky Way, one of MANY galaxies! And then we went farther... and farther... until the moment that took my breath away: we came out of the galaxies and saw... the universe (as far as it has been studied)! I was SO "wowed"!! Our universe is SO VAST!! And our God presides over all that; He created it; He knows each star by its name; He holds it all in His hand!

This is the glory Jesus laid by to come to the tiny, tiny speck called earth, to an even tinier speck... me. Tiny, so seemingly insignificant... you and me. Jesus holds all this vastness in His hand, and yet He knows me, He knows you, by name? That is truly, in the very real sense of the word, absolutely AWESOME!!

These thoughts correspond with the equal awe I had in and after watching The Last Adam! In Adam all men die; in Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb and the last Adam, all live. I wish I could express in writing the awe in my heart as I watched that film and considered the wonder of what Jesus did for us. Our God is... AMAZING! Ruler and Creator of all, He chose to humble Himself, take on the form of a servant, and be punished for OUR sins, that we might have a relationship with Him-- the one who holds the galaxies in His hand.

"O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens... When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that Thou visitest him?" (Psalm 8:1,3-4)

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt

Who am I, that the bright an morning star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart..."

-Who I Am, Casting Crowns

"You are God in Heaven, and here am I on earth; So I'll let my words be few:

Jesus I am so in love with you!"

2 comments:

Teddy said...: What a beautiful post! Some things I really needed to think about this morning...; May 26, 2010 at 9:31 AM
Bethany said...: Wow, amazing post! I know, I LOVE the planetarium---it is so.....EYE-OPENING. I want to watch "Created Cosmos" in that planetarium again...it's a great reminder. This IS something we need to be constantly reminded of!! Thanks for this post!; May 31, 2010 at 7:54 PM

PRAYER REQUESTS

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18)

PLEASE PRAY...

* That I would draw nearer to God every day and never allow my relationship to become stagnant ritual; particularly that I would grow in the area of submission, patience, 1 Corinthians 13 love, and wholehearted devotion

* That I might have wisdom as I edit "The Marquis' Daughter"; that the Lord would bless and work through it; and that I might find just the right publisher for it.

* That I would submit to the Lord's work in my life, whatever it may be; that I would take each opportunity He brings me (even the seemingly hard ones) to draw closer to Him and point others to Him

*That our Etsy shop might be successful and that it would be a means by which we can glorify God and share the Gospel

Ephesians 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."

"If God, like a father, denies us what we want now it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing."

"Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty."

"Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them."

"And shall I pray, Oh, change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
Ah no, Lord, no, that never could be, rather
I pray Thee, Blend my human will with Thine."

"A crucified life cannot be self-assertive. It cannot protect itself. It cannot be startled into resentful words. The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, however sharply it is knocked."

"And as we rest our hearts upon what we know (the certainty of the ultimate triumph of good), leaving what we do not know to the Love that has led us all our life long, the peace of God enters into us and abides. And then we see our light."

[A Practicing Christian]...it means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God. It means looking at everything as something that comes from Him, and always looking to Him and asking His will first, and saying, "How would he wish me to deal with this?"

Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you."

"I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey."

"What is saving but taking us out of the dark into the light? There is no salvation but to know God and grow like Him."

"I will not try to convince you of anything about God. I cannot. You must know Him. I only tell you I believe in Him with all my heart. You must ask Him to explain Himself to you, and not take it for granted that He has done you a wrong because He has done what you do not like. Whether you seek Him or not, He will do you justice. But He cannot explain Himself unless you seek Him."

"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes into the life of a peaceful individual, without warning of gathered storm, something terrible will fall. And from that moment everything is changed. That life is no more what it was. Better it ought to be, worse it may be. The result depends on the life itself and it's response to the invading storm of trouble. Forever after, it's spiritual weather is altered. But for the one who believes in God, such rending and frightful catastrophies never come but where they are turned around for good in his own life and in other lives he touches."