Cross

He Gently Stooped Low

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He Gently Stooped Low

You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. Psalm 18:35 ESV

While the ESV gives us the picture of a Mighty God who is gently on our side, the old NIV renders that same phrase as, “He stopped low. Like Gandalf entering through a Hobbit doorway, in the Lord of the Rings, Jesus had to bend low enough to enter our world through the stable doorway in Bethlehem. He went to begging blind men, destitute widows and outcast lepers. Jesus had compassion on hungry listeners and washed the dirty feet of disciples. Jesus’ right hand was both gentle enough to bless a child and strong enough to lift a paralyzed man to His feet.

And when His time came He carried the weight of His cross to the top of Golgotha where those gentle hands were nailed to the wood. Then as He stooped His lowest in death, Jesus reached lower still as we were falling deep into our sins, and caught us, raised us up and gave us the greatness of His salvation. Oh how mighty and gentle is our Jesus! He gently stooped low enough to save us and then shared His greatness with His children!

God’s Heavy Rescue Plan

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This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 1 Timothy 1:15 KJV

We go every week to church on Sunday morning, take communion and spend time worshipping with our brothers and sisters, but I confess that on Sunday night I love to watch a show with the questionable title; “Highway Through Hell!” In spite of how it sounds, this program is not about sinful lifestyles with sketchy scenes, but rather about a hardy bunch of Canadian tow-truck operators. I especially enjoy the watching these guys go out into the worst possible winter weather to rescue tractor trailers tipped over and stuck in several feet of snow. After working out in similar conditions for years cutting trees, I can really identify with these guys. I can still feel my own frozen hands when I see them hook up their cables working hard, to get these big rigs back on the road. One of my favorite highlights of the show is their catchphrase, “on the highway through hell – closure is NOT an option!” My wife rolls her eyes every time they say this with me chiming in at the beginning of each episode!

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While I do not watch these rescues for their spiritual content; they do remind me of God’s work in our lives. In today’s scripture the Apostle Paul responds to critics of his past sinful lifestyle, by agreeing wholeheartedly with them. He tells them that yes he was indeed a sinner and in fact the worst sinner of all. But then he goes on to point out that God sent Jesus to the cross because He was in the business of rescuing sinners. Just like many of us, Paul had veered off life’s road and gotten jammed up in the snow drifts of sin. But then He remind us that we can have hope – no matter how big a wreck we have made in our lives – because Jesus went out into the worst possible conditions to die on the cross for our sins. Today, the power of the blood of Jesus is far greater than any heavy equipment on my favorite show, because He not only pulls us to safety but He completely restores smashed up lives and sets us upright on our wheels, headed in the right direction. By God’s amazing mercy, we are no longer on a Highway through Hell but on His Highway that leads to Heaven. Now with Jesus behind the wheel of our life it is more true than ever that “Closure is not an option!”

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All Things

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And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

When I think of all things working together for good I wonder how that fits into my real world of all things and remember that September 10th, 2001 my wife and I returned from visiting her family in San Francisco. We landed in Newark early in the evening and drove home, worn out and ready for bed. I slept soundly, got up and had my morning coffee and prayer time, then headed off to work with my landscaping business. About ten o’clock, as I was mowing a very large lawn of a doctor’s home, I saw his wife walking down the hill towards me, still dressed in her bathrobe. I turned off the tractor and looked up as she said, “Do you know the twin towers in New York? I just saw on the news that they fell down.”

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“What? Are you sure?” I asked incredulously “That’s impossible!”

“No Peter. Believe me, it’s true. A big plane hit one building a little while ago, then another just crashed into the other one and they went down – flat to the ground.”

At this point I turned off the mower shaking my head, unable to process what she had said. As she made her way back up to the house, I went over to where my truck was parked and turned on the local news channel. I was sure she couldn’t be right about that till I heard someone say, – “A terror attack.” –

“But who? Why? How?” This Saturday twenty years will have passed and I am still wondering how all things working together for good has anything to do with our nation and our world. But Paul is clear and after his experience which included, beatings, instead of promotions and imprisonment in place of popularity, he knew a thing or two about what all things might contain. If all things were good at all times for the Christian we would be in no need of the promise. But after our greatest dreams lie in the ashes of a terror attack, a dreaded disease or the broken promises of a relationship, God still keeps His promise. He still works for the good of those who love Him. And no matter what very real circumstance you are facing dear one, remember how all things looked from the cross. After feeding five thousand, healing blind eyes, comforting the hurting and walking on water, the feet of Jesus were nailed to a cross. He had been sold out for money by someone who called himself a friend, and denied and abandoned by all but His mother and John. There Jesus was given vinegar to drink while blood from the crown of thorns coursed down over His lips. That cross was the all things Jesus took for us. Instead of working out everything for good for Himself, He worked out a plan that included Heaven for us. Yes indeed all things do work together for good and one day when we leave all things behind of this life we have a promise of a home and a place to come and sit by His side!