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Our Daily Journey

daily journey Two millennia ago the Son of God came down to man in the form of a helpless child. He came not as a threat, but as the solution. He came not as a tyrant, but as a friend. Herod needed Jesus as much as any man or woman today. But instead of embracing the hope, Herod sought only to kill the child--and thus to kill the idea that His salvation was even necessary.

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Reflections by the Pond

#604: Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts

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May 20, 2013

Jesus wants us to live with Him as He lives with the Father: close, intimate, as one. Our relationship with Him is a marriage, and where intimacy and oneness are absent, there is no marriage. But where these exist, where the bond between husband (Christ) and wife (believers) is fused and cherished, we yearn for Him, gladdened by His "gracious smile" no less than man and woman yearn for each other.

Worship and praise of Christ Jesus is the believer's spiritual marriage bed. The physical intimacy between man and woman is essential to the sustaining health of a marriage. Just so, intimate adoration of his Savior is the necessary, regular energizing of the holy relationship between believer and Lord...

#603: Ancient of Days

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May 13, 2013

We begin with God. That is the easy part. Then, after a while we realize God is rather more than that: Trinity. Three in One. But then, even deeper, we understand that it all distills down, once again, to God.

It is the child in us that wants to keep things simple. We begin with that which is basic: the Ancient of Days. In the blood of Christ we push open the doors to His throne room and, bowed but confident, we press toward Him to kneel at His feet. And what is it we say to God? What are the words of our adoration?

#602: Holy, Holy, Holy

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May 6, 2013

Nothing correctly orders the believer's world so much as the contemplation of God's holiness.

Nothing else brings alignment, perspective, balance to the God/man relationship like the acknowledgement that He is, in His Triune completeness, holy.

Of all God's attributes, His holiness is set apart from the rest. All others, such as His mercy, His grace, His justice, find their diminished but real counterparts in this world. But we know instinctively that nothing in this world is holy. Man, machine, philosophy, even the creation itself groan under the weight of Adam's sin...

#601: Come, Thou Almighty King

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April 29, 2013

The first words of our worship and praise must be to invite the triune Godhead to attend, to fill our heart, our spirit, our mind and soul with the very language of holy devotion. For that language is not of this earth; it is born and perfected in the heavenly Tabernacle, then disseminated and translated by the members of the Godhead. Without it our words are too leaden with clay, too introspective, too base to reach higher than ourselves. With it, however, we are immediately and effectively speaking one language with the object of our adoration...

#600: Passing Through the Pitch of Night

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April 22, 2013

There was no light: no moon, no stars—nothing. The world had disappeared and left in its wake a black, empty void. Fingers held before the eyes were as invisible as if they were not even there. In that blackness I stood motionless, sweating and sand-dusted, afraid to move—afraid to move in any direction—afraid that I might somehow step off the edge of the universe...

#599: Christ, the Head

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April 15, 2013

As if seen "through a glass darkly," the earthly church is the faint reflection of the community of saints gathered around the throne of heaven. That eternal congregation does not look to itself, but to Christ seated upon His throne and, on His left, Father God.

This is what should set Christians apart from the rest of the world: We have a Lord, a Head, a King. We, even as a group, do not tell Him what to do; He tells us what to do. And when explaining the priorities of faith, we place Jesus Christ first. My allegiance is not to my church; my allegiance is to my Lord Jesus Christ. If in any point the two part company, I will go with my Lord, not the church...

#598: Standing

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April 8, 2013

We can sometimes feel as if we are in a tug of war between the forces of heaven and the battalions of earth. Like the tree, our feet are planted in the soil, but our heads—our spirit and spiritual purpose—are reaching toward the brilliance of God in the clouds. Our spirit aches to dwell with His.

Meanwhile the soldiers of the soil hack away at us, struggling to bring us down to their level, trying to pull us out of the light of righteousness. And we hold on, tenaciously refusing to join them...

#597: He Lives!

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April 1, 2013

This is where we lose them. Easter is where we lose all those who have been agreeably saying that Jesus was a righteous teacher, a nice guy who told us to "love our neighbor," an all-round honorable, sympathetic fellow. Easter is where we lose all those who end any remark about Jesus of Nazareth with, "But he certainly wasn't God."

Easter is the dividing line between polite condescension and true faith. The resurrection event winnows out the fence sitters and leaves only believers. For "nice guys" don't walk out of tombs; "righteous teachers" don't come back to life after death on a Roman cross; the dead do not squat on the beach and roast fish for breakfast. Only God could rise out of cold death to an unnatural body, then ascend into heaven with it forty days later.

At this point the fence sitter smirks, "Yeah, right."

#596: Is This the End? (Special Issue for Easter)

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March 25, 2013

In the heavy darkness just before dawn, the walls of the city loomed ominously over the Garden of Gethsemane, nestled in the valley beneath. Hidden deep in the shadows of the ancient olive grove, two men huddled together. Pursued by the guards, those with orders to arrest anyone associated with the rabbi from Nazareth, they had escaped. And even though it was no secret that the rabbi and His disciples had frequented this garden, the two brothers were willing to risk the danger. This had been not only their home away from home, but in its precincts they could still feel the presence of their Master and Lord.

James, the older of the two, finally broke the silence. "Is this the end?" He asked. "Is this the end of it?"

John answered his brother with a weary sigh. "I don't know, James. I really don't..."

#595: Unlocking the Ice

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March 18, 2013

This is the time of year when humans are transitioning. Those of us living where there is real winter are anxious to break the seal on our windows and once again let fresh air into the house. After almost four months of smelling nothing fresher than the layer of dust deposited on the furnace filter, it's time to throw open the shutters and inhale the revitalizing aroma of spring. Give us temps marginally higher than freezing and we're quick to shed our layers of winter protection, to strip down to shirt sleeves and embrace the quickening warmth, to inhale the forgotten musk of thawing soil and the sweet fragrance of reborn grass.

The cloistering winter can also bring a stale lethargy to our connection with God, as if the leaden clouds of snow have somehow shuttered our view of Him—as if our normally Spirit-rich oxygen has been replaced by stale, recycled air...

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by Dr. Radut