aids

Awestruck Wonder

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

“Filled with wonder
Awestruck wonder
At the mention of Your name
Jesus, Your name is power
Breath and living water
Such a marvelous mystery” (Jennie Lee Riddle).

I listened to Revelation Song this morning and was struck again by the power and beauty of these words taken almost directly from Revelation 4 and Ezekiel 1. I can almost picture in my head the saints and angels gathered around the throne of God in perpetual worship and praise.

Two words jumped out at me this time: awestruck wonder. It reminds me of a phrase that I learned from my old church. When you have a WOW moment, you’re left WithOut Words. It’s like all the best moments of your life combined and then multiplied by thousands and millions.

Heaven will be one continuous state of awestruck wonder. It will never get old for us or become something that we eventually take for granted. It won’t ever be something we get tired of hearing or singing. It will be like starting a new book where every chapter gets better and better and it never ends, as C. S. Lewis puts it in The Last Battle, the last of the Chronicles of Narnia series.

When life gets difficult and the days seem longer than we can bear down here, it helps to remember that awestruck wonder is coming. We will go from anxiety and suffering to nonstop uncontainable joy. Everything that could possibly cause us to worry or fret or that brings us pain will no longer exist.

I eagerly await that day. Even now, I catch glimpses of the glory that’s coming. I have moments of joy and short seasons of peace and rest that remind me that the toil and heartache won’t last forever but will one day end. There will be no more night or cancer or AIDS or dementia or anything else evil and bad. We will be fully healed and restored and will know fully just as we have been fully known and loved by this God and Jesus that will be in our midst for eternity.

Holiness and Mercy

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I was watching a podcast video with Andy Chrisman and Steve Camp talking about how Steve took such a bold stand in the late 90s against what was going on in the Christian music industry at the time. He also spoke about a couple of his songs related to the emerging AIDS crisis in the 80s. One phrase that stood out to me was “holiness never compromised, mercy never restrained.”

That’s the essence of the gospel. We’re never to tolerate sin in the name of mercy, but we’re also never to condemn the sinner in the name of holiness. The same Jesus that told the woman that He didn’t condemn her for her adultery also said, “Go and sin no more.”

Jesus never accommodated sinful lifestyles, but He also never withheld His love from those in those lifestyles who earnestly sought Him in their need. The message He proclaimed was not “I’m OK, you’re OK, just do the best you can” but “I’m calling you out of your sin into something better because I love you enough to want God’s best for you.”

I can’t say that I’m the best at balancing holiness and mercy. I can testify that I’m really good at looking down on sins that I don’t struggle with. I can be more permissive with my own faults than forgiving of others with theirs.

But I believe that Jesus is the one who perfectly embodies holiness and mercy as the 100% God, 100% man who is both just and the justifier. I believe in the gospel message that Jesus can change and transform anybody from anything into something holy. I’m seeing it in my own life and in so many lives of the people I know and love.

The challenge is to hold to both holiness and mercy, not pitting one against the other or elevating one at the expense of the other. We need both. Most of all, we all need Jesus.