Prayers of Adoration

Heavenly Father,  

We come to You at Your invitation through the way You provide for us, through the judicial murder of an innocent man.  You gave Your only Son to become a creature like us and then made Him fall victim to the worst evil.  You crushed Him and turned Your back on Him.  You condemned our sin in His death and then raised us up with Him when You raised Him from the dead.  Jesus Christ now lives and reigns with You and rules over all creation.  All authority is His, all glory, power and honor belong to Him.

Please fill us with Your Spirit Father and make our worship pleasing to You.  We love You Father!  God bless You!

Amen

One of the temptations facing anyone holding a high view of God’s sovereignty is to doubt His goodness. Case in point: me. I pulled some weeds Friday evening and evidently there was poison ivy among them. Today (Monday) my mouth and surrounding face are swollen, blistered and oozing. Yuck! I must have been sweating and wiped my face with a contaminated hand. My hands oddly enough are not affected but some other parts are. Yuckety yucking yuck yuckers!

So, this is all part of God’s eternal plan? Yup. Is it good? Depends what you mean by good. Is God good? Yup–much more profoundly good than we can grasp. Good gets its identity from Him, not the other way around. Am I ready for more serious trials? Please, Lord, no! Thank You though for the way things are and what You’re doing, even in this.

Something else happened today that made me notice how circumstances that to us look mundane or annoying can be connected to glory. I worked at home today because of the hideousness of my face. I am that vain. Mrs. Deacon Rob was out in the afternoon running errands including picking up steroids for me. She called from the road asking me to meet her at our mechanic’s shop so she could give me drugs and groceries and then go on to an appointment she was late for. While we were at the shop our mechanic’s landlord came over and told us that Bob, our mechanic, was laid up at home after an ordeal and that we might want to mention him in our prayers.

Bob had gone to the emergency room last week suffering from back pain. They loaded him up with medication and sent him home without taking any pictures. That night he went back by ambulance and learned that the buldging disk causing his pain was the least of his problems. He found out he has dangerously high blood pressure, type II diabetes and a hernia. It’s like going in for an oil change and finding out you need new breaks, a muffler and a radiator.

So Bob’s pain lead indirectly to his finding out vital things about his health, things that might save his life. And my uglification lead indirectly to our being asked to pray for him, thus maybe making us useful to our neighbor. God most certainly is good. With the temptation he provides a way of escape, in this case evidence that all these circumstances are connected and that He knows what He’s doing.

Instapundit has a neat entry on a debate on natural law from the 1970s. Arthur Allen Leff, an atheist, channels Screwtape and articulates perfectly the argument for the existence of God that is so difficult for our current crop of atheists to grasp, or at least for Christopher Hitchens.

Pastor Wilson again, this time saying that we should write public prayers ahead of time.

Pastor Wilson says public prayers should be short.

Your word, O LORD, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.

Your faithfulness continues through all generations;
you established the earth, and it endures.

Your laws endure to this day,
for all things serve you.

If your law had not been my delight,
I would have perished in my affliction.

I will never forget your precepts,
for by them you have preserved my life.

Save me, for I am yours;
I have sought out your precepts.

The wicked are waiting to destroy me,
but I will ponder your statutes.

To all perfection I see a limit;
but your commands are boundless.