open invitation
Media Credit: http://www.verngator.com/images/versailles6.jpg
June 22, 2009
READ: Ephesians 2:14-22
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. —Hebrews 4:16
Versailles was made the capital of France by King Louis XIV in 1682 and remained the capital (except for a short time) until 1789 when it was moved back to Paris. The beautiful palace of Versailles included an opulent 241-foot-long Hall of Mirrors. When a visitor approached the king, he had to curtsy every five steps as he walked the entire distance to meet the king sitting on his dazzling silver throne!
Foreign emissaries to France submitted to that humiliating ritual to court the French monarch’s favor toward their country. By contrast, our God, the King of kings, invites His people to come to His throne freely. We can come to Him anytime—no advance appointments and no bowing required!
How grateful we should be that our heavenly Father is so much more inviting! “Through [Christ] we . . . have access by one Spirit to the Father” (Eph. 2:18). Because of this, the writer of Hebrews urges us to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
Have you responded to God’s open invitation? Come in awe and gratitude, for the God of this universe is willing to hear your petitions anytime. — C. P. Hia
Access to God’s throne is always open.
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Loading ...the foolishness we find
Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted (v.1).
READ: Psalm 127:1-2
I’m not into Christian T-shirts, but I recently saw one I’d like to own. Walking downtown in our city, I passed an elderly man with this caption across his chest:
Step back and let Jesus do what He do.
Bad grammar aside, that’s a pretty good thought. All the evil and sadness and poverty and darkness in our world ought to compel us to haul ourselves off our comfy couches and do something about it. As one writer put it, “Jesus rose from the dead; and we’ve got work to do.”
However, the psalmist, along with the steady theme of the whole of Scripture, cautions us against ever thinking that we are the central cause or effect in any of our efforts. God’s engagement with the world is not swinging on a thin thread, barely hanging on in anxious hope for us humans to show up.
All our exertion and skill and expertise fall fallow without God’s intervention. “Unless the Lord protects a city,” the psalmist writes, “guarding it with sentries will do no good” (127:1). In fact, “it is useless for [us] to work so hard from early morning until late at night” (v.2) because frantic activity ignores the truth that we are dependent on God’s kindness and mercy.
Oblivious to this truth, we toil and worry and sweat. We plan and manipulate and fret. We seldom rest. We rarely pray. And as a result, we find ourselves in the foolish place of living as though we are God.
This is no argument for a flaccid life, for living drowsy or inert. Rather, this is a call to be engaged with God’s redemptive work in the world—remembering always that it is His work in the world.
Tyler Wigg Stevenson put it well: “The world is not mine to save, but I can serve the mission of the God who has already done so.” —Winn Collier
Why might you resist trusting in God’s power and work? How would you experience your world differently if you stepped back and trusted God’s work in and around you?
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