Child. Lamb. Citizen. Friend. All of these are true and important images describing our relationship with God. But in the end, there's one relationship descriptor more important than them all, and John resorts to shocking imagery to make sure we get it. Join me for a few minutes 'in the wilderness' of Revelation 17.
Devotional - Dec 2, 2020
Music Today: 'She' by Laura MvulaMvula has a gorgeous voice, and this tender song simply sketches the hopelessness the world's abuse can heap on women - and yet also the voice of our divine Redeemer. 'This is what the Lord says - he who created and formed you, Jacob; 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.' (Isa. 43:1)
'Hosea's Wife' by Brooke FraserThe Lord likens his love for us to a jilted spouse so much so that he called this Old Testament prophet to marry a woman he knew would be unfaithful to him. Chapters 2-3, 11 are some of the most poignant in all the Bible. Fraser does a beautiful job describing the painful price we pay when we lose our way with intimacy, and the hope God provides in a way out.
2020 certainly feels like a dark year. What do we have to be thankful for? Common grace and saving grace are two places to begin. Revelation 16 gives us a glimpse of what losing the first would look like, and 16:17 gives us a glimpse of how to find the second. The Lord bless and keep you in the face of Armageddon - which is actually a word of GOOD news for the Christian!
Devotional - Nov 24, 2020
Music Today: "Land of the Living" by Matthew Perryman Jones.One of the most beautifully evocative songs I know calling someone to leave the false hopes of Babylon for the city of our true love and true home. 'You cannot love in moderation/dancing with a dead man's bones/lay your soul on the threshing floor.'
'You Want it Darker' by Leonard CohenNeither of these songs are hymns or praise songs, necessarily, but it's hard to define this as anything other than a Christian confession, written only weeks before Cohen's death in 2016. Cohen was famously decadent in the '60s, '70s, and '80s at least, but, like Bob Dylan, had biblical and Christ haunted lyrics occasionally peeking out of even his earliest music. His last three recordings show this spiritual wanderer moving more and more directly to the cross of Jesus Christ. The key word 'Hineni' here is Jewish for 'Here I Am.' Many of his late songs describe a despair that a life without God can lead to.
