Friday, July 15, 2022

GENTLE AND LOWLY

Gentle and Lowly.Think kind and humble. Merciful coupled with humility. (Matthew 11:29)
Anyone known people described by those adjectives? Sadly, I would not qualify for those descriptors.
Gentle and Lowly. The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers as Dane Ortland's book title says. Sinner. Sufferer. That's me.
Maybe that's why it's so hard for me, a sinner,  to think I receive that kind of love, forgiveness and comfort in my sufferings, over and over from the Lord....from His heart. 
"Perhaps it isn't sin so much as sufferings that cause some of us to question the perseverance of the heart of Christ. As pain piles up, as numbness takes over, as the months go by, at some point the conclusion seems obvious: we have been cast out." (Ortland, p.64-65) What's God's answer to that. "Come unto Me." (Matthew 11:28) He will never cast me out. Jesus never rejects His own.....those who come to Him. (John 6:37)
Ortland goes on to share more comforting words: "For those united to him,  the heart of Jesus is Not a rental; it is your new permanent residence. You are not a tenant, you are a child. His heart is not a ticking time bomb; his heart is the green pastures and still waters of endless reassurances of his presence and comfort... " (Ortland, p.66, emphasis mine)

He is worthy of our worship. May we "Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness." (Psalm 29:2) May I see the beauty and holiness of God today.
Gentle and Lowly, 2 words that succinctly sum up His holiness.
Son Buddy sums up the book in 2 words. "It's rich."