Christ

I love this audio devotional from the excellent book Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund. When I really love a book, I tend to either read it quickly or slowly. In the case of this book, I read it very slowly and spent multiple days reading some of the chapters.

In the journal she kept throughout her cancer years, Nanci wrote these reflections about the healing Jesus accomplished on the cross: “I needed, and have received in full measure, a healing from my guilt and sins. No physical healing compares to complete spiritual healing.”

This will be my first Christmas without Nanci since 1968, the year we met. It will also be her first Christmas in the direct presence of Jesus. Writing that just filled my eyes with tears of overwhelming joy. She is having Christmas with the One it’s named after, with the One who bought our way to Heaven, with the One who is both her best friend, and mine.

Human logic says the King of kings should have been born in a palace, surrounded by luxury. Instead, the only door open to the humble Savior was a dirty stable. Amazingly, and revealingly, this was all by God’s design. 

The angels must have been stunned to see the second member of the triune God become a human being! The baby of Bethlehem was Creator of the universe, pitching His tent on the humble camping ground of our little planet. God’s glory now dwelt in Christ. He was the Holy of holies. People had only to look at Jesus to see God.

I am reading this wonderful and thrilling book, Heaven, which you have written. On page 172 you refer to your novel, Edge of Eternity, when Nick Seagrave at last sees Yeshua: "I saw before me an aged, weathered King.” My question to you is, God is also known as The Ancient of Days, but aged could also mean old. Isn’t old age part of the Curse?

Eight years ago, Nanci and I did a question and answer time with the group of young moms at our church. One of the questions we answered was, “What do you like most about Jesus?” I remember this question and Nanci’s answer well.

There’s nothing I find more meaningful or satisfying to contemplate than Jesus Himself. In his new book Rich Wounds, David Mathis has written a warm, concise and celebratory treatment of the Jesus who is everything we need, and—may God use this book to help us realize—everything we want. Hope you enjoy this excerpt from the book.

We can’t say “He just doesn’t get it or care,” because God’s love comes to us soaked in divine blood. He has firsthand experience in life under the Curse. Christ’s suffering on the cross atoned for our sins, but His suffering, tests, and temptations allowed Him to understand, empathize and help us.