May 30
Everybody testifying You are good; You are good Jehovah You are good 2x.// I will lift Your Name higher 2x O Jehovah Alpha Omega, I will lift up His Name higher 2x.
Gracious Father, hallow be Thou Name. Thank You Lord for another great opportunity given us to Praise and worship Your Holy Name. With the twenty and four elders in heaven we bow before You. Holy is Your Name, greatly to be praise forever and ever. Amen. Who is like unto Thee? None that I have ever seen. Praise the Name of the Lord!!!!!!!!!!!
Beloved, keeping in mind that the grace of God comes only through Jesus Christ and it is channeled only through Jesus Christ. The second person of the trinity opened the channel and grace flowed through. It flowed right from the day Adam sinned in the garden, all through the Old Testament times and never flows any other way. Grace flowed out of His wounded side. The grace flowed out there saved Abel- and that same grace saves you. (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
We are saved by His blood, but how are we saved by His blood? We are alive by His death? Atonement was made in His death, but how was atonement made in His Death? Let us not vulgarize it by trying to understand it. But let us stand and gaze at the cross and say, “Oh Lord God, thou knowest! Worthy is the lamb that was slain!”
Beloved, we cannot conclude the work of grace without considering Lk 15. We will be taking off with the story of “the prodigal son.”
We saw in that story what we consider as a willful son. Who would have wait for the death of his Father to get his inheritance, however on getting his share he that blotted away after few days. Things did not turn out the way he planned but rather it got worse and worse. He got degraded from dignity to eaten husks meant for the hogs, that also did not come easier as the owner are not willing to part with it either.
Then one day he “came to himself” (15:17). That’s repentance! And he think about home, about Father, and he knew that Father hadn’t changed. That is what Jesus is trying to tell us – the Father hasn’t changed.
Most of us view the story of the prodigal son as a backslider but that wasn’t what was written in the fifteenth chapter of Luke, nor did it fit in as a sinner, but I couldn’t hear God say of a sinner, “this, my son was dead and alive again.” what you are going to hear now will shock you but that was how God revealed it. God said “the prodigal son is neither a backslider nor a sinner. The prodigal son is the human race; they went out to pigsty in Adam and came back in Christ, my son.”
There are two other parables in that chapter, – the Parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. The sheep that wandered away was part of the human race that would be saved, and when he comes back he is the part of human race that is redeemed and will accept redemption. So those of every race and color around the world that have come back all come back in Christ, they all come back in the person of the prodigal.
Do you know what they found the Father to be like? They found He hadn’t changed at all, in spite of the insult, wrongs. His Father was humiliated and ashamed and sorry and grieved and heart broken, but when the boy came back, he hadn’t changed at all.
Beloved, the story above is what our topic for the today further on where the supposed servants rides upon horses while the prince walks as servants upon the earth.
But never mind, God will rights all the wrongs, be not afraid for our redeemer did it all by washing of His blood and atonement on the cross. Let’s ride on:
“I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.” Ecclesiastes 10:7
Upstarts frequently usurp the highest places, while the truly great pine in obscurity. This is a riddle in providence whose solution will one day gladden the hearts of the upright; but it is so common a fact, that none of us should murmur if it should fall to our own lot.
When our Lord was upon earth, although He is the Prince of the kings of the earth, yet He walked the footpath of weariness and service as the Servant of servants: what wonder is it if His followers, who are princes of the blood, should also be looked down upon as inferior and contemptible persons?
The world is upside down, and therefore, the first are last and the last first. See how the servile sons of Satan lord it in the earth! What a high horse they ride! How they lift up their horn on high! Haman is in the court, while Mordecai sits in the gate; David wanders on the mountains, while Saul reigns in state; Elijah is complaining in the cave while Jezebel is boasting in the palace; yet who would wish to take the places of the proud rebels? and who, on the other hand, might not envy the despised saints? When the wheel turns, those who are lowest rise, and the highest sink. Patience, then, believer, eternity will right the wrongs of time.
Let us not fall into the error of letting our passions and carnal appetites ride in triumph, while our nobler powers walk in the dust. Grace must reign as a prince, and make the members of the body instruments of righteousness. The Holy Spirit loves order, and He therefore sets our powers and faculties in due rank and place, giving the highest room to those spiritual faculties which link us with the great King; let us not disturb the divine arrangement, but ask for grace that we may keep under our body and bring it into subjection.
We were not new created to allow our passions to rule over us, but that we, as kings, may reign in Christ Jesus over the triple kingdom of spirit, soul, and body, to the glory of God the Father. let’s continue the discoveries:
“Thou art My servant; I have chosen thee.” Isaiah 41:9
If we have received the grace of God in our hearts, its practical effect has been to make us God’s servants. We may be unfaithful servants, we certainly are unprofitable ones, but yet, blessed be His name, we are His servants, wearing His livery, feeding at His table, and obeying His commands.
We were once the servants of sin, but He who made us free has now taken us into His family and taught us obedience to His will. We do not serve our Master perfectly, but we would if we could. As we hear God’s voice saying unto us, “Thou art My servant,” we can answer with David, “I am thy servant; Thou hast loosed my bonds.” But the Lord calls us not only His servants, but His chosen ones—”I have chosen thee.”
We have not chosen Him first, but He hath chosen us. If we be God’s servants, we were not always so; to sovereign grace the change must be ascribed. The eye of sovereignty singled us out, and the voice of unchanging grace declared, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Long ere time began or space was created God had written upon His heart the names of His elect people, had predestinated them to be conformed unto the image of His Son, and ordained them heirs of all the fulness of His love, His grace, and His glory.
What comfort is here! Has the Lord loved us so long, and will He yet cast us away? He knew how stiff-necked we should be, He understood that our hearts were evil, and yet He made the choice. Ah! our Saviour is no fickle lover. He doth not feel enchanted for awhile with some gleams of beauty from His church’s eye, and then afterwards cast her off because of her unfaithfulness. Nay, He married her in old eternity; and it is written of Jehovah, “He hateth putting away.” The eternal choice is a bond upon our gratitude and upon His faithfulness which neither can disown.
Beloved, Jesus was saying to us, you went away in Adam, but you are coming back in Christ. And when you come back you will find the Father hasn’t changed. He is the same Father that He was when you went out, every man to his own way. But when you come back in Jesus Christ you will find Him exactly the same as you left Him- unchanged” and the Father ran and threw His arms around Him and welcomed him and put a robe and a rang on him and said, “this is my son was dead, and is alive again”(15:24).
Beloved, this is grace of God, isn’t it worth believing in, preaching, teaching, singing about while the world stand still?
Remain blessed in the Lord.
Evang. Ifeoma Ohondu
