God’s voice is a great comfort for the Christian. In this Lent, we need to give thanks to God for not allowing the monologue of evil to triumph.
“Our God comes and will not be silent.”-Psalm 50
In God’s world, the voice from heaven silences the speech from hell. The crucifixion appeared to be a sign that God’s voice was finally silenced by the seed of the serpent. But Easter’s voice came three days later like a thunderous proclamation and declared once and for all: Our God comes and will not be silent.
The crucifixion was God’s formal declaration to humanity that we will never communicate with a distant King, but a King who will ever enter into communion with us by the sacrifice of his own body.
Lent prepares our voices to join in the chorus of the empty tomb. It’s a training season to sharpen our commitment to the justice of God in taking our sin and killing sin’s power. Lent pulls us into verbal union with the world’s Messiah.
Prayer: Our Father, hallowed be your name! You do not leave us without your voice. You speak and we listen. You speak and life emerges. We give thanks for speaking into our lives by the power of the Spirit and guiding us daily by your word through Jesus Christ our Risen Lord, amen.
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Notations:
*I offer a summary of the Church Calendar.
**The Bible Project, which has produced some fairly decent material, has gone the way of all flesh by capitulating to the gay narrative. According to one of their own: "In Messiah Jesus, there is no male or female, no slave or free, no Jew or non-Jew, no gay or straight...just beautiful people..."
***Modern heresies allow the Church to commit itself to the doctrine of the Church with greater fervor. Recent debates have put the doctrine of the Second Coming of Jesus and all its cosmic implications as a secondary issue. It is the Church’s role to shout even louder that Jesus is Lord and all earth will receive him as the vindicated God/Man in bodily form.
As an example, when the intolerable Eastern Orthodox modernist, David Bentley Hart, rejected the concept of a future resurrection Brian Mattson rose to the challenge and offered an excellent response in content and biblical exegesis. It’s worth the time for those who care deeply about this matter.
****Camping with the boys provides pictures like these:
Very helpful. Thank you!