It is funny; through the adoption process you experience SO many emotional up and downs. Moments where things take so long you wonder if someone has changed their mind, or lied to you, or maybe someone just said no. Your unsure what goes on behind those closed door meetings you aren't invited too and you wonder what those who can bring your family together, or tear it apart, are thinking.
Your life just seems shaky. Life has seemed that way a good bit of the time for us; just shaky. I suppose it is the shaky moments in life that force us to the Rock. Still shaky is a hard place to be.
The ground isn't giving way, then you would call on God and see His grace to keep you from splattering on the ground, nor is it steady. Instead feel as though the place you stand might give way at any time.
My hands shake a lot. My Grand father’s did too, but mine are no where near as bad. As I have mentioned a lot recently I have had very little time to process the photography that I have been taking lately. As a result I have been sharing snap shots taken from my Samsung Captivate. It is a really great phone, except the camera does not do motion well. You get a good impression of the picture, but when you look closely it seems a tad fuzzy; a little out of focus.
I guess that is what the shaky feeling in life does to us. It seems to fuzz things and ruin our focus. We kind of feel like we should hunker down and hold on.
I think there is a good reason that Hebrews 12:25-29 follows a discussion on faith and endurance.
25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
The Author here gives us one more warning. Listen! Do not ignore the One who is speaking! Our faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). If those who rejected Him when He warned them audibly on the earth, if those faithless ones, could not escape judgment, neither can we who have One who speaks from heaven. Here is the warning, or what is more likely with the Author of Hebrews, the exhortation; Listen! Next comes the why.
Our reality is shaky. God’s voice spoken on earth shook it to its core and our world continues to show itself shaky and insecure. God’s promise is to remove the things which can be shaken, though it will still be difficult to remain focus for those who remain.
As usual, the Author offers a promise after the warning and it remains the promise He has been giving all along. We are going to receive a rock solid reality. God’s eternal Kingdom can not be shaken and will never crumble away. The natural response to this promise is to worship Him. We worship in in reverence and awe because we know that it is, in fact, God Himself that will shake away our unstable reality until only His eternity remains.
Then the Author quotes Deuteronomy 4:24 when he says that our God is a consuming fire. I believe for many of us today this is a very hard image for us to understand. When we try to apply it to our modern teachings of God we tend to think of it referring to an all consuming passion. A passion that we go on to explain is His love for us.
Look at the context, that is not what is being said here. We are to worship God in reverence and awe because He is an all encompassing destructive force that leaves nothing that can be consumed. It is hard to consider God such a terrible and destructive force, and to be sure if we were to take His sovereign justice and awesome mercy out of the picture this would indeed seem a contradiction to the character of God. However, if you consider the context and the character of God you will see that God indeed is a very destructive force to a sin twisted and corrupted creation. He will indeed destroy it completely and restore His perfection. This is why it is so important to listen, to truly hear Him and be restored before the coming destruction.
We have a solid and secure future, if we accept God’s restoration before His fire.
No comments:
Post a Comment