Majesty

Ps 45:4

In your majesty ride forth victoriously
in the cause of truth, humility and justice

Whatever we think about God we can always be sure there is more to the story. He is more and bigger than we ever can imagine or think.

“Deus semper major” in Latin

I have had some issues with God's majesty and power and bowing down to Him, calling Him Lord and King and all that. I am sure this is related to wrong ideas of authority and I have just never seen a perfect example - like none of us has! People, even the most good hearted ones, tend to misuse power sooner or later, at one level or another. But not so God! He is not like us! He is Holy, different, Perfect Love. That is why Jesus came, to show us how and who God is.

Interestingly enough - the word "humility" is in the center of this verse. I picture this majestic king riding forth victoriously, defending truth and justice, I get that, but wait a minute - how do you ride forth in the cause of humility? I am going to ponder on that for a while. There is always more to the story.

Thesaurus

My new best friend is thesaurus.com. I punch in a word and - bam - it opens up a world of synonyms. I use it for scriptures and it has rocked my world already. For example with Psalms 45:11. This Psalm has been a special Psalm to me the last few years and I keep returning to it and find comfort and amazement. Take this verse:

Let the king be enthralled by your beauty.

How crazy is that? God taking delight in a human being, his creation, to the point of "being enthralled". Of course it makes sense when you think of your own children and how you are mesmerized with their beings, just with them being who they are, but I am not usually thinking about myself in those terms and God going bananas in His love for me and how cute He thinks I am... But that is what this verse tells me. Enthrall means:

absorb, beguile, bewitch, charm, enchant, engage, enrapture, enslave, entrance, fascinate, grab, grip, hold spellbound, hook, hypnotize, intrigue, mesmerize, preoccupy, rivet, spellbind, subdue, subject, subjugate

Now, this is the kind of attitude God has towards me. And viceversa. As I am digging into His heart for me, words like "subdue" and "subject" get a new meaning. I am not bowing down to Him because I have to, but because I WANT to. It is not a relationship of power but one of LOVE. God doesn't want servants, or subjects. He wants lovers. Now that is crazy.

C'mon ye people stand up for your love

Holiness and resting

Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Genesis 2:3

Apparently holiness is connected to RESTING.
We usually think the other way around in our distorted ungodly ways of thinking, turning everything upside down when God many times is the exact opposite to our beliefs... At least if we have been poisoned with any kind of religious thinking which very easily happens in this world we are living in. We tend to think that holiness has something to do with our behavior and we start measuring ourselves and others to see how holy we are. When it actually has nothing to do with us but everything to do with GOD. He is holy. And He invites us into His rest and the enjoyment of His completed work. We cannot add anything.

Rest and Silence

Wow. I just felt an urge to pick up my blogging again. It has been a year of silence. I guess I am slowly waking up from my hibernation.

11 See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
12 Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.


I have been sick for a few days. Just a regular cold but it can be very annoying when you want to get stuff done and your body is not quite following your mind. It took me longer to get over the cold because I just didn't rest enough. I felt so much better after a couple of days and then I spent the whole day running around, going to the store, cleaning the house, going to the park when it probably would have been much more effective - in the long run - if I would have rested some more and done less of running around... The best way to fight an infection is to BE STILL and REST and let God work in mysterious ways inside of you through His servants the white blood cells. This became a powerful testimony to me as I was telling somebody I was planning on fighting this cold through resting - when I finally took a day of rest this last Sunday. That is how we should fight every war I thought to myself. That doesn't mean being irresponsible but to let God do His job. Let God be God. "Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady" as U2 puts it in their brilliant song "Stand Up Comedy". That is the most effective way of living. Although it might not look like it from the outside.

More on redemption

Another favorite movie, especially in Christmas time, is the old classic "Scrooge". It has such a redeeming message. In the movie Scrooge meets the spirit of Christmas and he gets to drink deep from the cup of kindness. It says in the Bible that it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance (Rom 2:4). This is when Scrooge is starting to melt and repent from his negative attitude and he eventually changes completely and becomes a new man, canceling people's debts left and right. This is exactly what God has done for us. He canceled our debts and our only proper response is to celebrate and say: "THANK YOU VERY MUCH. That's the nicest thing that anyone's ever done for me!"

Redemption

I love movies that picture forgiveness and tell a redemptive story. One of my favorite scenes of redemption of all times is from The Color Purple. I saw this movie at least three of four times when it first came out when I was a teenager. Still, every time I watch this scene I just cannot keep it together.

In the church I last attended, CTF in Raleigh, they used to lovingly refer to God as "Jehovah Sneaky", meaning that He sneaks up on you when you least expect it to surprise you with His love or tell you something. He is speaking all the time, we just miss a lot of it because we are not tuned into the flow and we might expect Him to speak in a certain way, not so much in our every day, ordinary, messy life. That is also why I love this clip from the Color Purple. God is definitely trying to tell us something ALL THE TIME and He has good things to say. Words of redemption, forgiveness, reconciliation, peace, encouragement, love...