Admiring and Applauding God - R. Bruce Stevens

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with us. He always keeps his stipulations, even while we struggle to hold up our end. Even so, he continues to faithfully bind himself to us in these wonderful covenant relationships so that we might be blessed.

      • Praise God for his commitment to us as displayed in his new covenant, sealed by nothing less than the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

      • Praise God that our inconsistencies and sins do not cause him to give up on us.

      • Praise God for his decision to take upon himself the penalty for our covenant violations. How gracious and merciful!

      Covenant-rememberer

      He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations.

      —Ps 105:8

      • We tend to forget all kinds of things—people’s names, places, appointments, what we promised, phone numbers, and more.

      • The United States government has made many treaties with First Nation peoples over the past two hundred years, most of which have been forgotten. To our shame, we are a forgetful people.

      • God’s covenant with Christians promises several things: “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me” (Heb 8:10b–11).

      • Reflect on the reality that God is not a forgetful God. When he makes a promise, he keeps it. A thousand generations may come and go, but he remembers his covenant with us.

      Coverer

      He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

      —Ps 91:4

      • It is amazing how many chicks can squeeze under the wings of their mother. When the mother hen sounds the alarm, they hurry under her protective shelter until the all-clear is sounded.

      • Praise God that we vulnerable “chicks” can flee to him, finding a safe haven under his wings. Whereas a mother hen may be unable to protect her sheltered chicks from all danger (an attacking fox, for example), God’s wings are much stronger; no predator will prevail against him.

      • Praise God that he is always close by and that we can find refuge under his wings.

      Craftsman

      For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

      —Eph 2:10

      • It is amazing what gifted craftsmen can produce. Shapeless blocks of stone or wood are sculpted into works of art. Old dilapidated houses are transformed into modern, attractive homes. Craftsmen create that which is both pleasing and functional. They don’t make junk.

      • God is the finest Craftsman. He takes the base material of our lives and transforms it into something beautiful and useful for his glory and service. Just as people admire a craftsman’s handiwork, so we ought to strive to be the kind of people who reflect favorably on our Master Craftsman.

      • Praise God that even though we are still under construction, we are confident of the end product: “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6).

      Creator

      Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

      —Isa 40:28

      • Humankind has created some amazing works of art, architecture, and technology. In this way we reflect God, the Creator of all things.

      • Humankind’s creations pale in comparison to what the Lord has made. This world is amazingly complex and wondrous. Whether we turn our eyes to the small parts of God’s creation (molecular) or to the large parts (a universe choked with galaxies), we are amazed at what God has created. And the most mind-boggling aspect of this is that God had no materials to start with! Building the Millennial Falcon from Legos is one thing, but creating a tree or a mountain from nothing is something else entirely. God is amazing!

      • A magician can produce a dove seemingly out of thin air. and when he does, people applaud and ooh and aah. How can we not be more impressed with the One who produced a universe from nothing!

      • Reflect on God’s creation, and ponder the Genius who made it all.

      Cross-bearer

      Carrying his own cross, he went out to the Place of the Skull [which in Aramaic is called Golgotha].

      —John 19:17

      • Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, is powerful and disturbing. The depiction of the violence of crucifixion in ancient Rome was sobering, sickening, and realistic. Death on a cross was intended to shock and sicken those who watched as a deterrent to law-breaking.

      • Praise the Lord Jesus, who carried his cross to Golgotha—not because he had no choice, but rather because he did have a choice. He was not out of options. This was the option he chose. Rome’s military was not strong enough to compel him to be crucified against his will. He chose to carry the cross. He chose to suffer. He chose death—this particular kind of death. He volunteered for this suicide mission. Why would anyone do that? We know the answer. Because of his love for us and for his desire to display the gracious nature of the God who made us. This is a shake-your-head kind of amazing.

      Crowner

      Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.

      —Ps 103:4

      • When Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy were crowned at the end of C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, they were honored as the kings and queens of Narnia. Despite being children, they were anointed as royalty.

      • Praise God, the One who alone deserves to wear a crown, who yet chooses to crown us with love and compassion. May we wear this love, richly bestowed upon us through the Lord Jesus, like a crown. May the awareness of God’s kindness and compassion settle on our heads and heart today, reminding us of his greatness.

      Curdler

      Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews?

      —Job 10:10–11

      • The making of cheese is an intentional, multi-step process in which the cheese-maker transforms milk into a product of his liking, shaping it into a block or a wheel.

      • Job declares that just like the potter, the cheese-maker invests time and effort into making his product. Job understands that God’s work in his life is like that of the cheese-maker, in that God is involved in a process Job neither understands nor likes. He wonders why the great Cheese-maker would go to all the bother of making cheese of his life only to have him suffer and die. Job struggles with the “why” question.

      • God brings various pressures upon us as part of the processes of life’s circumstances for purposes that are often as unclear to us as they were to Job. It is by faith that we understand that “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28).

      • Praise God, who is making something good out of our life circumstances.

      Curse-bearer

      For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law . . . Christ

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