April 7, 2012

• Her Eyes Were Still Restrained ~ "When it looks like he is buried for good..."

  

  Luke 24:13 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.

  Her Eyes Were Still Restrained

  "O! Surely my Hope has died!
  I am destroyed on ev'ry side

  Bow Your ear: Hear my sighs!
  My bridegroom! Hear my cries!"

  Her eyes were still restrained
  Blinded by crushing pain

  My chosen bride, do not fret
  Can your Bridegroom e'er forget?

  Your eyes as yet do not recognize
  I needed to suffer and to die

  Misreading Divinity's design
  My thoughts are of a heav'nly kind

  Can eternal counsel ever fail?
  Will the purpose of God ever derail?

  I have formed the smith and his fire
  He works according to My ev'ry desire

  Her eyes were still restrained
  Blinded by crushing pain

  Your redemption is drawing nigh
  I am God, can I ever lie?

  Do not fear, nor be dismayed
  In the ground, Christ was laid

  Behold! I do a new thing
  From the depths He will spring!

  There in the crypt, the still and lifeless tomb
  Wisdom manifest on My inscrutable loom

  Hope woven in secret, the silent womb
  Only believe: the Sun awakes very soon

  Through the veil, Light will shine
  Mountains shall drip sweet wine

  A glimpse of Christ! His lovely face!
  A table in the wilderness

  From the Rock, refreshing grace
  In the howling desert place

  Lengthen your cords! Make haste!
  Do not tarry, come and taste!

  Enlarge your tent, sing, and make room
  The calves will leap, the fig will bloom

  My glory will flow, and I will rain
  I will make you a joy from age to age

  "He has answered my complaint!"
  The just shall live by his faith.

  Her heart was sweetly constrained
  By His love she leapt by faith

  * * *

  Isaiah 54:16-17
  “Behold, I have created the blacksmith
  Who blows the coals in the fire,
  Who brings forth an instrument for his work;
  And I have created the spoiler to destroy.
  No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
  And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
  You shall condemn.
  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
  And their righteousness is from Me,”
  Says the Lord.

  

  Luke 6:20-23
  Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said:

  “Blessed are you poor,
      For yours is the kingdom of God.
  Blessed are you who hunger now,
      For you shall be filled.
  Blessed are you who weep now,
      For you shall laugh.
  Blessed are you when men hate you,
      And when they exclude you,
      And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,
      For the Son of Man’s sake.
  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
      For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
      For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets."

  Isaiah 48:21
  And they did not thirst
  When He led them through the deserts;
  He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them;
  He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.

  

  From John Piper's "Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions" (Baker Books: Grand Rapids, 1993), 65-66:

  Victory Even From Inside the Tomb

     It will often look as though Christ is defeated. That's the way it looked on Good Friday. He let himself be libeled and harassed and scorned and shoved around and killed. But in it all he was in control. "No one takes [my life] from me" (John 10:18). So it will always be. If China was closed for 40 years to the western missionaries, it was not as thought Jesus accidentally slipped and fell into the tomb. He stepped in. And when it was sealed over, he saved 50 million Chinese from inside––without western missionaries. And when it was time, he pushed the stone away so we could see what he had done.

     When it looks like he is buried for good, Jesus is doing something awesome in the dark. "The kingdom of God is like a man who scattered seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, but he knows not how" (Mark 4:26-27). The world thinks Jesus is done for––out of the way. They think his word is buried and his plans have failed.

     But Jesus is at work in the dark places. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). He lets himself be buried, and he comes out in power when and where he pleases. And his hands are full of fruit made in the dark. "God loosed him from the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it" (Acts 2:24). Jesus goes about his invincible missionary plan "by the power of an indestructible life" (Hebrews 7:16).

     For twenty centuries the world has given it their best shot to hold him in. They can't bury him. They can't hold him in. They can't silence him or limit him. Jesus is alive and utterly free to go and come wherever he pleases. "All authority in heaven" is his. All things were made through him and for him, and he is absolutely supreme over all other powers (Colossians 1:16-17). He upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3). And the preaching of the word is THE work of missions that cannot fail.

  
  * * *

  Romans 11:33-36
  Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

  “For who has known the mind of the Lord?
  Or who has become His counselor?”
  “Or who has first given to Him
  And it shall be repaid to him?”

  For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.
  Amen.

  ---

  Related:

  Isaiah 54, Psalm 23, Jeremiah 31.

  • My posts on death
  • My posts on Lent & the Resurrection
  • All things (even bad things) work together for good...
  • Our Twisted View of God
  • the best-laid plans ..."To-day the groans of Hades rise"
  • Letter 1 on assurance and fighting for joy
  • Letter 2 on assurance and fighting for joy
  • Letter 16 on assurance and fighting for joy (our prayers, His wise denials and joy)
  • Shall we not drink the cup the Father has given us? (Letter 53 on assurance & fighting for joy)
  • Are you a radiant Christian or a drunken old woman? (letter 82 on assurance & fighting for joy)
  • Embittered, pricked in heart? Go into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73)
  • You speak as one of the foolish women would speak ~ Job 2:9-10
  • Can our God forget! O! Covenant grace! ~ Jeremiah 31:20
  • "So you led your people to make for yourself a glorious name" (Isaiah 63:14b)
  • Encouragements to press on in battling sin, # 2: moving beyond despondency | Scougal
  • As the Visible Disappoints
  • Lenten Reflections: When he broke all supply of bread (My breaking is for your blessing)
  • Are Clouds Covering Your Sun Today?
  • When We Think the LORD Has Forsaken and Forgotten Us
  • Third Sunday of Advent: His Kingdom is unshakable even when we're being shaken
  • In hope against hope believe, Blessed are all who believe
  • Lessons from the Slurry Wall: "What Remains When Everything Else Falls Down"
  • God's sovereign grace & care in Genesis (the story of Joseph)
  • escape the vial of deception
  • The art of life is the art of avoiding pain?
  • What is your attitude toward trials and sufferings? ~ Whitefield's Journals

  Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Photo credits:

  Work found at http://www.artbible.info/art/large/27.html / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}
  Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blacksmith_firing1.JPG  / CC BY-SA 3.0
  Original work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desert_Qatar.JPG / I edited the picture, which was PD

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