His Majesty

I have tennis elbow.  Pretty strange since I haven't held a tennis racket for YEARS!  There's a more technical name but it amounts to the same thing, a sore arm that will take a while to heal.

It's my right arm but I can be careful and, while it's a pain (literally!), still do most things.  The worst is brushing my teeth.  Arm bent up and small motions.........Ouch!  I've been brushing left handed and am not doing as good of a job, so look forward to having a really clean mouth again soon as it heals.

The strange thing is that I actually hurt my left arm first.  I had one of those, "I hope no one was looking!" moments with a clear glass door in a public place and had a sore left wrist for a while after.  I then hurt my right arm much worse because I was favoring my left.  The physio said that he hears that story all too often.

It's all about balance. Things meant to be working together a certain way that can go ill if they don't.

I read something the other day somewhere that I didn't write down and I don't remember where it was (!).  The author of the article basically talked about how so many Christian songs in the last 50 years or so have painted a picture of Jesus as 'sweet' and how we need a bit more well rounded view of Him than that.

I think that perhaps that's what people then needed to hear. That a couple of generations who had been through The Great Depression and a couple of wars perhaps had no problem with the idea of a God of justice and power but needed to know the gentle healing of His love.

And now perhaps my generation somewhat and the current one especially is a little too familiar with His grace and can tend to, well, not take His holiness as seriously as we should.  Stomp all over it really.

"Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?  Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?"  (Rom. 6: 1-2)

And yet far too often we do.

One thing that surprised me in learning about the religion in our recent Third World home was the fierceness of their many gods.  There is festival after festival with rather violent and fierce images of gods and goddesses pictured in statues and prints all around the city.  

Why?  One of the FS women told me that it's because you want to choose the most fearful, powerful god to stand for you and help you to get what you want.  So it's fine that you're afraid of them.

Wow. 

But our God IS the most powerful! (Those others are just wanna-be's!)  AND loving and kind.  He is "gentle and humble of heart" (Matt. 11:29).  But He is also the Creator, the Alpha and Omega. He is awesome in spender and mighty in power!!!  He is just, holy and entirely righteous.  The King of kings and Lord of lords.

The MOST powerful.

Picture this:

"God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.  To him be honor and might forever.  Amen."  (1Tim. 6:15-16)

"His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.  His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.  In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.  His face was like the sun shining in all it's brilliance." (Rev. 1:14-16)

I feel the need to pause and reflect.  

Selah.

God is a 'consuming fire' (Heb. 12:29) yet through His sacrifice for us we can "approach the throne of grace with confidence!" (Heb. 4:16) And He merely spoke and made THIS:

He is the Divine balance.  More amazing than we can ever imagine.