"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us."
Martin Luther wrote on this passage: "Learn to know Christ and him crucified. Learn to sing to him and say, 'Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness. I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You became what you were not, so that I might become what I was not'." What a great and wonderful exchange! Was there ever such love???
The love of God - an amazing topic to consider. Think about the people of Israel. Although they were rescued out of slavery in Egypt and saw God do amazing miracles, they time and time again strayed from God and went back to worshiping idols. God called their idolatry adultery. They forsook him over and over again. And God over and over again, rescued them. He never forsook them or stopped loving them. It is amazing to think about. I would have given them up after a second or third time. But God never gave them up. NEVER! Then how can we doubt his love for us. After Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice of his own blood for us, God tells us in Romans 8 (verse 39) that nothing - nothing - can separate us from his love. His love is powerful, eternal, faithful.
1 Corinthians 13:13 says that "these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." Love lasts forever. When we see our Lord face to face, we will no longer live by faith and our hope will be realized. But love will remain - stronger than ever.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Words & Music © 1923, Ren. 1951 by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188.
It was a rough week for our daughter, Amy. Her father-in-law spent a week in the hospital after suffering two strokes, a brain bleed and a brain hemorrhage. He had a day when he seemed to be perking up so everyone went back to work. Amy was with him when he coded. The next thing she knew there 20 or so doctors crowded in his room. She called her husband, Ricky and Ricky's sister. With everyone at the hospital, a consultation with the doctors revealed that Ricky's dad had another stroke and would not make it. He died that night with his family all with him. He was only 60 years old.
I love the verse in 2 Corinthians 5:4 where we are told that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. So when Ricky's dad died, he was granted new life which just swallowed up his death.
Andy and I are planning to attend the funeral on Tuesday morning. It will be somewhat uncomfortable for me because the service will be held in a very conservative Mennonite church. This is too close to the painful memories I have growing up in this kind of environment. But I am asking the Lord to help me forget about myself and think of the privilege I'll have to minister to our daughter and her family in their time of grief.
Andy and I went hiking both yesterday and today. Yesterday was very pleasant, although gray and gloomy. But we like to be outside in those conditions. We went to the Rancocas State Park and hiked over four miles. We started out on the blue trail that goes along the Rancocas Creek (although it really looks more like a river at this point). We came to the yellow trail and I didn't remember having been on that one, so we took that to see where it would end up. It must have gone in a circle because after a while, I started seeing familiar stumps, trees, turns that we had seen before. And then somehow, we were back on the blue trail again. Andy was a good sport and seemed to be up to it yesterday. My legs were very tired by the time we got to the car - what a workout! But I got some good pictures!
The forecast today called for snow this afternoon, so we decided to see if we could beat it and get in a hike before the snow came. We went to Franklin Parker Preserve and got some more good pictures but the wind blowing across the water was stingingly cold, and we turned around after only walking a quarter of a mile. Well, we walked enough yesterday to last for several hikes!
There was no one at this park today except us. It was easy to understand why. And we didn't stay long either. But isn't there a certain beauty about the wildness of the place?
And now it is snowing! So much for the first day of spring!
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