Astonishing Majesty

Robin and I were reading from Luke 9, where Jesus heals a boy who is possessed and tormented by a demon. Jesus commands the demon to leave the boy and then gives the boy back to his father. Luke ends the story with verse 43:

"And all were astonished at the majesty of God."

Wow! A crowd is gathered and sees Jesus do a miracle, and their response is to be astonished…at the…majesty…of God. Wow! Luke's statement is pretty low-key but the crowd seems to know that they have seen something very special.

I was struck by those two words, astonished and majesty. To be astonished means to be greatly surprised or impressed; to be amazed. Majesty means to have impressive stateliness, dignity, or beauty. How often are we, as Christians, astonished at the majesty of God? Is that the kind of response we should only have when something truly extraordinary happens, or could it be present much more frequently in our day-to-day life?

I started thinking about a few things that happened over the past week. There is a woman I used to work with who was recently diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. She is a woman with faith in Jesus and she is on our congregation's prayer list. The latest report is that her chemotherapy is having an effect in decreasing her cancer. That seems to me to be the kind of thing that shows God's power at work, an astonishing display of his majesty for sure.

Other things included a few new faces in worship the past two Sundays. A few people stopping by the house to talk and pray over things in their lives. Some other people giving me a glimpse into their lives through the prayer requests they wrote down and passed my way. And almost every time I look at any of the three children that God has very unexpectedly placed in our home I have to marvel at what is going on in the lives of all five of us as a result.

On the one hand these details from my life are much lesser than the dramatic healing of the boy, or the healing going on within my friend, but they are not in any way lesser displays of God's astonishing majesty.

The difference between myself and the crowd that witnessed Jesus' miracle in Luke is that as a person who already has faith in Jesus as my Savior and Lord I am more readily able to see God's power at work in world in the places that most people would consider to be fairly ordinary. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, the Lord of all creation, and that includes not just the big and powerful things, but also all of the ordinary and much lesser things.

So later today, and tomorrow, and every day, take a moment to look around, and see God at work, not just in the grand things, but also the little things. Be astonished at his majesty wherever you see it. And give him the praise that he deserves. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Family Resemblance

It was pretty quiet when I went to the post office. There was only one other person going inside, someone whom I had met but whom I only knew just a little bit over our years in Dulce. We talked briefly and I confessed that I didn't even know her name. I knew her nickname but didn’t feel that it was my place to call her by it. To which she replied, "Just call me by my nickname. Everyone uses that name for me."

My first reaction was to feel honored by being able to freely use her nickname when I would see her again. But what also stood out to me was the close resemblance in the way that she spoke with that of her sister, whom I know much better. In the words she used, and the sound of her voice as she spoke, it was as if I was speaking to her sister.

That idea of family resemblance has occurred to me many times here in Dulce, as I have gotten to know multiple members of families. I see it between fathers and young sons, between fathers and grown-up sons, between mothers and daughters, between adult siblings, and even elderly siblings. It shows itself in the way that people may walk. The ways in which people may talk. It is even evident in facial expressions. In the time I spend with people here I continue to see ways in which people from families resemble each other.

As a pastor I think that the idea of family resemblance is important among those who have faith in Jesus as their Savior and Lord. In Romans 8:29 Paul writes:

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

There is a lot of theology packed into that verse, but what applies to this blog post is the idea in the phrase "to be conformed to the image of his Son." I believe that phrase teaches that as we live as followers of Jesus we are to be people who grow to be more and more like him.

That growth can take many forms, and I'll just name a few. More forgiving. More patient. More humble. More gentle. More generous. Less angry. Less self-righteous. If you have faith in Jesus this idea of being more like him in your daily life may already be on your radar. If not, then all you need to do is to ask him and he'll give you some guidance in what to be working on.

Looking a bit like my dad is fine, but what I really want is to look a bit more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. May you also grow to resemble him more and  more.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Life Happens

It has been two full days. Not quite the Monday and Tuesday I expected when Sunday was coming to a close. Lots of things to get done that hadn’t been planned for, meaning that those things I thought I would do, and eventually will have to do, will get done some other time. Given that later today I am leaving for a week-long trip that other time will be next week, after I get back home.

Life happens. That is the way things go, and none of the things that came up yesterday and today were serious emergencies, and so I am glad for that.

Life happens, and no matter what may happen in particular, two things that don’t change is that God is on his throne, and that he never changes. Some people may disagree with one or both of those statements, but I think they are both true and for the best. That might be a conversation for another blog post.

I'll close with a comment about the picture. I took it last night when I was standing outside talking with someone from our church. We were watching the weather blow through when a rainbow appeared. And then the rainbow became particularly intense, and I took the picture. The brilliance of the colors was so beautiful that at the time I didn’t even see that it was a double rainbow until I showed someone the picture today.

Life happens. God is still on his throne. God hasn’t changed. And this is all good. 

May you find yourself closer to God today than yesterday, and may you be closer still tomorrow. Catch you again next week!