Lord, You are the glorious King who is reigning right now and has conquered all by the blood of Your cross. Even though you are a King, You made Yourself nothing and suffered the penalty of our judgment in Yourself, and by Your perfect life’s work have made us not merely subjects who are forced to serve You, but rather You have made us Your own children who delight in You, who love to lift You up and make you known. Lord we praise You and rejoice in these truths, even though now at present we carry in us pain and suffering because of the outworking of sin in our own lives and in our world: the way our own sin causes havoc within ourselves and our families and relationships, the way oppression and violence seem to have no end like the Mosque bombing in Egypt this week that senselessly killed so many, natural disasters that destroy lives and upend communities, and health issues affecting us and those closest to us. We long for and look forward to the day of Your return, when you will demonstrate Your power, execute justice and usher in your eternal visible reign within a re-created, glorious heaven and Earth, where all things will be made new and we will live in Your presence forever. You are reigning and extending Your kingdom even now Lord and we pray that because of our union with You, that You would work in us to extend the grace and message of Your gospel and also the work of Your church to those who are suffering themselves within our congregation and those in our communities.
Tag: Trinity Presbyterian Church
Glorious Father, It is in you that we live and move and have our being. You have captivated our hearts through the unconquerable love You have demonstrated toward us in creation and redemption. You have united us together with Your Son. His death for sin is our death to sin. His resurrected life is our resurrected life as a new creation. His justification in His perfect life lived and sacrificial death on our behalf is our justification before You, through faith alone. You have adopted us and made us Your very own children through the work of the One who laid down everything so that You could have us as Your own. You have transferred us from the domain of darkness to the Kingdom of Your beloved Son. Through your embrace of us, would you free us from the attachments and entanglements the world has on our hearts, with all of its distracting joys and delights, and replace those things we wrongly cherish more than You with an unfading joy and desire for You, surpassing the love of all things that so easily captures our hearts. Remind us throughout all our days of Your faithfulness and tender care and affection toward us, in order that we would remain faithful in this world.
Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. – Isaiah 52:13
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. – Isaiah 53:12
In His lovingkindness toward us, before the foundation of the world, Christ purposed to redeem us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. In time, He descended to our level, put on this body of flesh, living and fulfilling all righteousness before the Father from our side, in our place, and suffering a sinner’s death, the very death we deserved for our wickedness against the rights of our Creator.
This is the time of contemplation and remembrance in the church calendar when we consider the intentionality of Christ in pursuing the cross. The love of God is magnified and displayed in its brilliance at Calvary: the complete and total orchestration, pre-planning, ordering, and sovereign, loving providence surrounding the events leading up to and fulfilled in Christ’s incarnation, life, death, and resurrection on behalf of His people, unto the ultimate restoration of all creation.