2014-01-25 Blog

 

God is everlasting

Ancient of Days

Ageless

Timeless

Perfection

Triune

HOLY HOLY HOLY

BEAUTIFUL

Harmony

Joy

Light

Love

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Gentleness

 

He chose to share

He chose to give

He chose to give the greatest gift

Himself

He chose to share Himself

 

And so God spoke

God spoke beauty

Purpose

Life

Creation

 

We were given perfection

Purpose

Beauty

Purpose

Companionship

Dominion

 

Discontent

Rebellion

Sin

Darkness

Black filth

Wretched ugly and twisted

Separated

Judged

Labeled and Sentenced

Exposed

Guilty

Alone

Afraid

Covered, soaked and saturated in sin

Hopeless

Our best filthy

Utterly depraved

Minds on evil continually, even from our youth

 

For God so loved that He gave

He gave His deepest affection

The greatest most unimaginable gifts

He gave Himself

He gave His heart

He gave His Son

 

Because of His gift we are not destroyed

Because of His sacrificed we are restored

Because of Him sin the wretched can touch perfection

 

The inconceivable became a friend

A friend to sinners

A ransom and pardon

 

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

 

Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.

Praise the Lord, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Cross references:

1. Psalm 103:1 : Ps 28:6
2. Psalm 103:1 : Ps 104:1
3. Psalm 103:1 : S Ps 30:4
4. Psalm 103:2 : Ps 106:1; 117:1
5. Psalm 103:2 : S Dt 6:12; Ps 77:11
6. Psalm 103:3 : S Ex 34:7
7. Psalm 103:3 : S Ex 15:26; Col 3:13; 1Pe 2:24; 1Jn 1:9
8. Psalm 103:4 : Ps 34:22; 56:13; Isa 43:1
9. Psalm 103:4 : S Ps 8:5; 23:6
10. Psalm 103:5 : S Ps 90:14; S 104:28
11. Psalm 103:5 : Job 33:25; Ps 119:25, 93; 2Co 4:16
12. Psalm 103:5 : S Ex 19:4
13. Psalm 103:6 : Ps 9:8; 65:5; Isa 9:7
14. Psalm 103:6 : S Ps 74:21; S Lk 4:19
15. Psalm 103:7 : Ps 99:7; 147:19
16. Psalm 103:7 : S Ex 33:13
17. Psalm 103:7 : Ps 106:22
18. Psalm 103:8 : S Ex 22:27; S Ps 86:15; Mic 7:18-19; Jas 5:11
19. Psalm 103:9 : Ps 30:5; 79:5; Isa 57:16; Jer 3:5, 12; Mic 7:18
20. Psalm 103:10 : S Ezr 9:13; Ro 6:23
21. Psalm 103:11 : Ps 13:5; 57:10; 100:5; 106:45; 117:2; La 3:22; Eph 3:18
22. Psalm 103:11 : S 2Ch 6:31
23. Psalm 103:12 : S 2Sa 12:13; Ro 4:7; Eph 2:5
24. Psalm 103:13 : Mal 3:17; 1Jn 3:1
25. Psalm 103:14 : Ps 119:73; 139:13-15; Isa 29:16
26. Psalm 103:14 : S Ge 2:7; S Ps 146:4
27. Psalm 103:15 : Ps 37:2; 90:5; 102:11; Isa 40:6
28. Psalm 103:15 : S Job 14:2; Jas 1:10
29. Psalm 103:16 : Isa 40:7; Hag 1:9
30. Psalm 103:16 : S Job 7:8
31. Psalm 103:17 : S Ge 48:11; S Ezr 9:12
32. Psalm 103:18 : S Dt 29:9
33. Psalm 103:18 : Ps 119:52
34. Psalm 103:18 : S Nu 15:40; Jn 14:15
35. Psalm 103:19 : Ps 47:8; 80:1; 113:5
36. Psalm 103:19 : Ps 22:28; 66:7; Da 4:17
37. Psalm 103:20 : Ps 28:6
38. Psalm 103:20 : S Ne 9:6; Lk 2:13; Heb 1:14
39. Psalm 103:20 : S Ps 29:1
40. Psalm 103:20 : Ps 107:25; 135:7; 148:8
41. Psalm 103:21 : S 1Ki 22:19
42. Psalm 103:21 : S Ne 7:73
43. Psalm 103:22 : Ps 19:1; 67:3; 145:10; 150:6
44. Psalm 103:22 : ver 1; Ps 104:1

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

He has rescued us, saved us, cleaned us and is restoring our purpose and access to the Father.  He is giving us a new name, unity, purpose, power, joy, life.

We are being made like Him.

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