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Listen while you read: "Glory To His Name"1 (Lyrics) |
Mark 15:34 – And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (ESV)
I am the maddy: the mummy-daddy. Caroline and I work as a team. She earns my living so that, for my part, I can enjoy being at home. I do the majority of chores, running the day-to-day stuff of life and wrangling with the children. I sometimes think that I am a bit mad myself. Conversely, the rest of the family says that I am the dummy: the daddy-mummy.
It is all about relationship, perspective, and how we see ourselves.
One of my daughters has been entreating me for more breakfast treats — biscuits, chocolate, and other sweet stuff — having already had her breakfast. In the end, I had to gently send her away from the kitchen because, at seven o'clock in the morning, there is only so much grace and patience that I can exhibit before sitting down to eat my own breakfast. I could have justified it by saying that it was not good for her, but that would not have been the real reason!
Fortunately, unlike me, God has endless patience and more grace than I can pull together early in the morning. Today's verse focuses on the broken relationship at the cross between Father and Son. God had to distance Himself from Jesus because of the Father's holiness as Jesus became sin in order to pay the price for our sin. I believe that it must have been a real emotional shock for Jesus, but not a surprise, because it is a consistent consequence of what Jesus had to do. For Jesus, this was His first — and last — experience of separation from the Father. His Father was not impatient or displeased — it was a requirement of His holiness. It must have been hurtful, too, for the Father, but a Father bursting with love for His Son.
Father and Son did all of this for us, so we can rest assured that God is always listening, always willing to commune with us via the Holy Spirit.
Grace is a marvellous thing, and in it God models how a loving relationship works. Love overcomes and reaches out. The capacity for a loving relationship is hardwired into our being, and it is an important part of why we are created: to live eternally with Him in relationship as His bride.
So, as God's loving children, we can follow Jesus' example. As we live in His Spirit, we become more like Him. The next time when we find ourselves coming up short in the grace department, we can hold out our hands and cry out for more grace to handle whatever is going to happen in our day. Remember that however desperate our situation, however far we have fallen from grace, or whatever we feel, God will never turn His back on us.
Prayer: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we rejoice that You have prepared the way for us to be in relationship with You forever. Thank You, Jesus, that You did not shrink back from dying a messy death, to open up the way for us to be loved and accepted, and to be heard without limit or rejection. Amen.
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Good word this morning Rod.
Great devotional, thank you.
Love a clear presentation of the Gospel!!
Thanks for the wonderful encouragement Rod.
Thank you, Rod, for this inspiring message.
Blessings.
You sound like a patient, loving maddy (I like thay better than dummy.)
Blessings!
Hi Rob
What a great way to give us the true way to the Grace of God through Jesus our Saviour!
Great message, thanks Rod. Love the ‘maddy’ ‘dummy’ mum-dad combo … never thought of that one before but it works!!
May the Lord bless your dad-at-home times with lots of love & grace.
(BC)
Good Morning, Rod. It is always a joy to read your devotionals. The minute I start to read your devotional or John Stuart’s, I know who the author is and feel connected.
Grace … the greatest blessing we have, both human and divine.
Hope you are enjoying a beautiful May.
Blessings and thanks.
Dear Rod,
Thank you for sharing with us again. Your admonition to remember that no matter who we are or have been – “or how we feel” – that God draws near to us through Jesus, is so true, and such a blessing.
I want to say a “thank you” to you for your devotionals – and your faithful sharing of God’s grace to you. And I hope the adjustment into your new home goes well.
Blessings in Christ,
(BC)
Thank you Rod.
Dear Rod –
Thank you for this loving devotional of the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit as they relate to our loving relationship with our earthly children.
And the hymn matched up with your thoughts was perfect – Glory to His Name!
May God continue to bless you and your family. I love hearing from you.
Morning Rod,
Thanks for the meditation. Our Lord has given us so much and of course GRACE. He covers all basis with us, He who gave His son for us on Calvary’s Cross.
I’m glad to hear you’re a maddy with your little girls teaching them the lessons of everyday faith in this world.
God Bless you and the family.
(ON Canada)
Dear Roderick,
A precious devotional.
May God bless you and all of us readers with a realization of Jesus’ grandiose abundance of grace so that we will pass it on and on and on…
Keep writing.