All That’s For The Heart’s Lifting
He’s “King of Kings and Lord of Lords!” He’s the “Ruler of the princes/kings of the Earth!” He sits “Far above all rule and dominion, above all the powers, above every name that is named in this world and any other world, present or future!” He “is the Lord of the dead and of the living and the Lord of Sin, Death and Life itself!” In Him, “all things without limit ‘hold together’!” He’s “the Prince who brings peace and hope and assurance that on a coming day of His choosing all wrongs will be righted and both victims and their impenitent, exulting abusers will receive what unlimited wisdom and love with bring to pass!” When He was here, visible to the human eye, touchable by human hands and hearable by the human ear He revealed His Holy Father by going around healing and blessing and delivering and assuring and fiercely opposing and exposing injustice and greed and corrupt teaching!
He did all this in living! He rebuked disease in every form
and ordered demonic power to leave; He confronted Death at funeral
processions and in tiny bedrooms and with a word transformed sobs and
heartache into laughter and praise that God had made Himself present
there and He brought fellowship and self-respect to people who were
shunned and isolated by their powerful and fearful neighbors. All this
He did in living and He did no less in His dying—He did more in
His dying because as he said Himself, “My Father loves Me because I lay
down my life that I might take it again!” (John 10:17-18)
Like His Holy Father who sends the rain on the thankless, the evil, the
rabid atheist, the godless abusers, the religious leaders who are
whited-sepulchers and lukewarm believers, Jesus gave and offered purpose
and power, life and understanding to humans of every class. And He did
it not only because they needed it—He did it to proclaim that this is
what GOD wanted for them. In watching Him people were seeing without
understanding that God was reigning in their presence, in their bodies
and minds, in their homes and in their families, in their daughters and
sons.
And it’s true—much of it was miraculous and could only be manifested
by someone such as He was. But it was bigger than miraculous—the miracles were also messages within a grander message.
In Him we’re not just seeing astonishing temporary transformations—in
Him and what He did God was saying, “See Me! See what I’m offering you!
See what kind of God I am! Don’t just see the miracles—don’t just see
the bread that could be a meal for a family becoming a meal that fed
thousands. See ME expressing My heart by healing and feeding and
liberating! Try not to worry about why all weren’t healed and fed and liberated! Try not to wrestle with why I didn’t make Myself miraculously present at all times and everywhere—rejoice that I showed Myself anywhere at any time.
Know that I Am! Know that in Jesus Christ you have seen Me and so,
trust Me. Know through Him, the resurrected and glorified Lord Jesus,
that I can be trusted and that a day will come, in the “fullness of
time” when you in wide-eyed speechless joy will see that what I have
done in a series of startling acts. In Him was a revelation of the nature and unchanging character of My Kingship and reign. In Him you will learn that I am the same yesterday, today and forever.
“In Him did you ever see Me cruel or heartless? In Him did you ever see
Me smile or shrug at injustice or greed? In Him did you ever hear me
speak in profound anger to anyone but the powerful who dominated and
humiliated the vulnerable they were supposed to protect and upbuild?
“I never ordained the torment of the human family. I find no pleasure in
the awful pain of the human family; nor could I! But I created the
human family with capacity to reject Me and my overarching purpose
knowing that it would reject me and that agony would enter human
experience. So I take responsibility for allowing cruelty and corrupt power to be part of the human condition because I choose to allow what I allow. But I joined you in and as Jesus of Nazareth to make it clear your hurt matters to Me and that it does not last forever and
that it comes to a conclusion in an unending climax of inexpressible
glory and justice for all, with unrepentant tyrants dealt with and
everlasting LIFE for all embraced in my redemptive work. In the meantime
in the light of His death see your own! In the light of His mission see
your own purpose for being! In the light of His vision of Me, make
it your own! See the rain and the sunshine the way He saw them—My gifts
to all. Don’t doubt Me because right now not everyone everywhere
experiences My gifts; be happy that anyone, anywhere, experiences
them. I purpose all that enriches and is for the heart’s lifting. See
the past miracles as tokens of My reigning presence in a world that’s
lost its way by walking away from Me. Know through Him that
My way of reigning is not by violence or corruption or sheer punitive
means. Imagine how this world could have been and could be if the human
family—if you, the Church—acted and thought and taught as He did and believed as He did.
“In and as Him, within the limits of just one human
life, I have experienced the hurt and the pleasure, the ugliness and the
beauty, the glory and the gloom of life as a human. I have taken all
that on Me as a human and by this I wanted you to know that I take your
pain and loneliness seriously and in raising Him from the dead to an
unending climax of all that is wondrous and right and joyously thrilling
I show you who I am and what I’m about.
“You wouldn’t like me nor could you worship Me freely in love and joy if
I were nothing but almighty power. You could never trust Me and gladly
commit yourself and all your beloved ones to Me if I were heartless
wisdom and self-centered in My limitlessness. You could never share with
anyone a Story about Me if I loved only some of you that I have created
and if I had purposed to bring only a select handful to life eternal.
Believe Me, believe in Me and believe in Me through Him.
“And believe this, My work in Him has not ceased because you can no longer see Him (though you will see Him in a coming day). In light of Him I continue to express My kingly reign in its nature and purpose in the midst of My enemies (Psalm 110).
“A day of My choosing will come when My Lordship will be known to all but in the meantime remember this, you can see My reign in anyone, anywhere that you see human life respected, where leaders, men and women, nations and governments, reign in solidarity and unity, where a just and righteous order is sought and worked for, where orphans and widows, the vulnerable, powerless and voiceless are noted, where their pain is felt, where their needs are supplied or at least where the wise attempt is made to supply them; there, where human beings are given the opportunity to be what I intend them to be, THERE I am revealing My kingdom power! “Imagine these in One perfect One and this is My Beloved.” I am the Lord of all and I am for the heart’s lifting!” (Much of this last paragraph is from Mortimer Arias.)
(Holy One, in your Beloved, the Lord Jesus, you have not only saved us for you and one another, you have saved yourself for us for in Him we see you in truth. Though there were and are times when due to our pain, our confusion, the gloomy teaching we’ve heard about you we might have serious doubts about you and your purpose toward us, the human family, in Him you have blessed us with a clear vision of who you are. Make it even clearer we ask through your Holy Scriptures and your work among us in daily living that we might admire you more, be empowered more with a grander view of you by the nearness of you. We’re coming to trust you more as we begin to see you more and more in Him through whom we offer this prayer. The Lord Jesus Christ.)
