The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.
When I consider the heavens, the work of Your hands, the moon and the stars which You have ordained, what is man, that You are mindful of him? or the son of man, that You visit him? You set him a little lower than the angels, and crown him with glory and honour....
He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
And when she had given birth to her firstborn Son, she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, for there was no room for them at the inn.
Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men."
They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand, and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" They spat on Him, and took the reed and beat Him on the head. After they had mocked Him, they put a scarlet robe on Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to be crucified...
For Christ has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive through the Spirit...
... and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the [angels] said to them, "Why do you seek the Living One among the dead? He is not here, for He has risen, as He said."
When you were dead in your transgressions... He has made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, and has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to His cross. When He had disarmed [spiritual] rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
In Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.
... that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
He said to me, "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, and the living One. I was dead, and see! I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of hell and of death.
... the Lion of the tribe of Judah is worthy ...
I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne ... and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands upon thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing." And every created thing ... I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honour and glory and power forever and ever!"
The first time I read CS Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia" I was in my 20's. (We won't talk about how long ago that was...)
I was visiting my sister-in-law. Glenda was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, at a time when shunt operations were still experimental and nobody survived them. Her parents had decided not to approve the operation and pray instead. The water on her brain stopped being produced and her head stopped growing. She survived, and brought such joy to our lives during her 41 years. (I might write more about her in a later post.) Her reading level was about a grade 6 or 7 but her comprehension was around grade 3 or 4.
Somebody had given her the entire set of CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. I'd heard of the books, knew they were allegory, but had never read them. She saw my interest and said I could borrow them: "I'll probably never read them," she said. So I took them home.
For two weeks I devoured those books, one after the other. They transported me to Narnia, a mythical place where Aslan the lion was king, where the animals could talk, and where sons of Adam and daughters of Eve were kings and queens.
Shortly after that I discovered the 70's group, The 2nd Chapter of Acts. And I found out they'd done a tribute to CS Lewis' 2nd Narnia book, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." My favorite scene in that book is when Aslan rescues Edmund from the White Witch's clutches and talks to him. (Soon after, if you've read the book or seen the movie, Aslan fulfills his part of the deal to redeem Edmund - by dying for him.) So when I heard Edmund's song on the 2CA album, (ok - vinyl, that dates me) it touched something deep in me.
Here's the song -
I love that line - "I've looked in Aslan's eyes, now fears can't hide my lies..."
There is something about Jesus (we all know who Aslan is) that reaches past those fears, exposes the lies of life lived from the outside in (religion, in other words) and grants the simple joy of sins forgiven, erased as though they never existed. I need to be reminded of it. Often.
I can hear His roar of love.
