In my recent interview with Dr. Dobson, I shared the story of how all my daughters and my only daughter-in-law gave birth to little girls in the same summer and how overjoyed we were, how our mouths were filled with laughter.
I received an e-mail from a neonatal nurse that tore at my heart. She wrote that all of her life she had dreamed of marriage and motherhood, but now she is 66. She asked, “Does that mean God loves you more than He loves me?”
Oh!
Of course we, and I’m sure she, knows that Jesus doesn’t love fertile women more than barren women, or wealthy women more than poor women, or healthy women more than sick women. If anything, the heart of Christ is compelled toward those with afflictions. It’s all over the gospels.
I also told her about Isaiah 54, and how there was going to be a great reversal in heaven, for more were the children of the barren woman than she who could give birth. While this passage has multiple layers, it should be a comfort to single women who have invested their lives in others out of obedience to God. We have so many stories of Christian single women who invested their lives in eternity, in a way they probably could not have, had they had families to care for: Amy Carmichael, Florence Nightengale, Corrie ten Boom — so many. My e-mail writer had been a neonatal nurse for decades. I imagine, in the new heaven and new earth, that she will need an enormous tent or mansion — for her table will be filled with those so grateful to her for their rescue! I picture them laughing, loving, and filling her heart with joy for all eternity.
But there is something else. His heart doesn’t just move toward those who are afflicted, His heart moves toward the sinner, as the heart of a father moves toward the child with a loathsome disease. How do you think the parents in the days of cholera and smallpox reacted to their suffering babes? Did they not take them in their arms — compelled by love? How much more our God!
Dane Ortland says that we are “apt to think that God, being so holy, is therefore of a severe and sour disposition against sinners, and not able to bear them.” It was Thomas Goodwin,” Ortland writes, more than anyone, who opened my eyes to who God in Christ is, most naturally and easily, for fickle sinners.”
Leprosy, in the Bible, is a picture of the horrors of what sin does: eating away at the flesh, covering the victim with oozing sores, isolating him from others. People ran when a leper came into view. Watch this, from The Chosen, for I think it gives a reasonably good picture of how Jesus responded to leprosy, and can also show you how He responds to your sin.
Next week we will start with the Reformers, who lived before the Puritans, but I wanted to give you a good picture of what we can expect from the Puritans, and again, Reeves will help us catch the essence of Goodwin in a very short clip. It is so pregnant that I suggest you get ready to type quickly and pause him, for I don’t want you to miss anything. Or watch it twice! (I’ll ask you for your notes on Monday.)
On Tuesday, prepare your heart with this.
Sunday: Getting Started
- What stands out to you from the above and why?
Monday: Michael Reeves on Thomas Goodwin
2. Share your notes and comments from the above clip from Reeves on Thomas Goodwin.
3. If you have Gently and Lowly, read chapter 2 and share your notes.
Tuesday: Marinating in Hebrews 5:2
Prepare your heart with Softly and Tenderly above.
Goodwin wrote many commentaries on Hebrews. He wrote 200 pages about Hebrews 5:2! We’ll take it in context.
4. Read Hebrews 4:14-16
A. Who is our high priest, where is He, and how does He feel about us when we sin? (Draw on this and
Reeves)
B. How do you think the experience of being tempted affects Jesus’ feelings toward us when we sin?
C. What conclusion is made in verse 16?
5. Read Hebrews 5:1-2
A. What is the calling of a high priest?
B. How will Jesus deal with us, as sinners, according to verse 2?
C. Why will He deal with us gently? Find everything you can.
6. Either here or in your prayer closet, come boldly to Jesus with your sin and ask Him for help.
Wednesday: Song of Songs and Psalm 45
The Song of Songs can help us see this truth of Christ’s compassion as well as hear it.
7. Read Song of Songs 1:6 and describe how the Shulammite feels when this Shepherd/King begins to gaze at her.
8. All through the Song He is praising her, wooing her, finally wedding her. What does He tell her in Song of Songs 4:7?
9. Do you believe, with all your heart, that when God looks at you, that because of Jesus, He sees you as altogether beautiful?
Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan of great intellect, found so many comparisons between The Song of Songs and Psalm 45 that he said that the Song of Songs can be no common love song.
10. Find, in Psalm 45, a similar thought to the following thoughts in the Song of Songs about our wonderful Bridegroom:
- In the Song, the bride saw her bridegroom as altogether lovely. Psalm 45?
B. In the Song, the bride said his lips dripped with honey (his words were kind) Psalm 45?
C. In the Song the bride said he was fragrant with frankincense and myrrh Psalm 45?
D. In the Song, she looked forward to a lovely home with him Psalm 45?
E. In the Song, she is altogether lovely and cherished Psalm 45?
F. In the Song, there are mighty warriors to protect her Psalm 45?
Thursday: Marinating in Hebrews 13:5-8
11. Why should we keep our lives free from the love of money according to verse 5?
12. Why should we not fear what man may do to us according to Hebrews 13:6?
13. What are we to consider according to Hebrews 13:7?
14. What do you learn about Jesus in Hebrews 13:8?
15. If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, you should be able to share a way:
A. He has provided for you so that you do not need to worry about money
B. He has helped you in the midst of trouble
16. Praise your beautiful Bridegroom here.
Friday: Gentle and Lowly
17. If you have the book, read chapter 3 and share your thoughts and comments. (We will skip to chapter 6 next week for those who want to read 4-5)
Saturday:
18. What is your take-a-way and why?
213 comments
17. Chapter 3 notes.
When I read “His very heart is engaged in a new way in our foibles and failures,” my reaction was to say, ‘What?!? Goodwin goes on to say, “His joy..is increased..by His showing grace and mercy, in pardoning, relieving and comforting His members here on earth.” This reminds me of when I complained to the Lord that I ought to be better than I was, and why wasn’t I? His answer to me is that I am spiritually retarded; I am not capable of being what I dream of. But He isn’t put off by that. He is OK with my learning the same lesson over and over. As long as I keep turning to Him, He is satisfied.
Jesus endured it all “for the joy,” the joy of seeing us forgiven. Ortlund points out that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God, and that is associated with His priestly atoning work. Somewhere else in Scripture, it is pointed out that there were no chairs in the temple. Priests do not sit, because their work is never done. But Jesus sat down because His work was, and is, finished.
When we today .. commune with Him despite our sinfulness, we are laying hold of Christ’s own deepest longing and joy. Jesus is comforted when you draw from the riches of His atoning work, because His own body is getting healed.
I am so grateful for the healing God has granted me here this week. There have been two friends that God has seen fit to let me talk with about His character and reliability. Without His healing, I could not have spoken with confidence.
18. My take away this week and why.
The understanding that He sees me as altogether lovely because He has made me to be that. He has not forsaken me nor cast me aside in disgust over my failure to be what I want or what I think I should be. He is delighted when I turn to Him, no matter how many times I need to do that. He doesn’t want me to ever stop turning to Him.
Oh Mary, it’s so hard to believe in His kindness at times, isn’t it? We can be so hard on ourselves, expecting perfection when God wants to be our perfection for us. What you went through sounds so similar to this spiral of shame I was stuck in recently also.
We so need Him to remind us of His character over and over again. He is not like man that He would ever lie to us, but when we have been through betrayal and abuse, it’s hard for our bodies and souls to believe that.
But the beautiful thing is that He gets that also and so rather than wagging His finger at us, He gets down in the dirt with us, picks us up and holds us close, as He washes us in the truth of His Word: “the dirt is not who you are, my child. Look in the mirror and see My face, My beauty reflected there.”
Mary: that it was the song that broke through doesn’t surprise me. I think that’s why many of the Psalms were put to music also. Even today there is what people call “music therapy”: Jesus knew that our bodies are healed through heaven-sent music. My Prodigal friend is really musically talented and has a dream of helping people recover from illness through music.
I have a feeling God’s kindness to you will become a thread of redemption in many other lives, as you continue to boast in your weakness to His glory.
I never knew much of my Dad’s life story growing up. Since Mum got sick and died, God has broken him open to share so many things he kept hidden. And yet those stories are healing to me and others also. It is showing us the tender loving kindness of Christ. Nothing is beyond the mercy and healing compassion of our God.
The Word encourages us to boast in our weakness and to confess our sins before one another freely – and yet, how often do we really do so? But there is such power in doing so, isn’t there? I know you have blessed me so in being so open about your struggle and of Jesus meeting you in it.
Oh Mary — I feel His love is truly beginning to bring you real peace!
Friday: Gentle and Lowly
17. If you have the book, read chapter 3 and share your thoughts and comments. (We will skip to chapter 6 next week for those who want to read 4-5)
These bits spoke to me especially: “He does not get flustered and frustrated when we come to Him for fresh forgiveness, for renewed pardon, with distress and emptiness. That’s the whole point. It’s what He came to heal.”
It made me think of the verse I prayed through today: 2 Thessalonians 3:3 “But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.” I looked up evil one and curiously the lexicon spoke of: “pain, laborious trouble, misery”. And that reminded me of that verse: Romans 8:36 “As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Which connects to this bit in Gentle and Lowly (p.42): “That is why the risen Christ asks a persecutor of his people: “Why are you persecuting me? (Acts 9:4) Jesus Christ is comforted when you draw from the riches of His atoning work, because His own body is getting healed.”
It took me back to that moment where I tried as a little girl to show my parents that they were persecuting my little brother as they “followed the law”, just like Saul was doing when Saul ignorantly believed he was serving God, just as my parents did too. My parents applied the law and repeatedly physically wounded my little traumatized adopted brother, punishing him for his sin.
If they had gone before Jesus and prayed for His discernment in applying the Word, rather than applying what a Christian parenting organisation taught them to do, they would have been led to discipline my brother in another way, as my mother had her eyes opened to, more than twenty years later.
Likewise, when my Christian teacher told my parents there was something wrong with me, as Jesus repeatedly led me to repentance from my sins (sins that I fled to to numb the pain of watching my brother being hurt and believing God was behind it), Jesus moved to protect me from harm. I now see how God was behind my Dad sending me to a non-Christian school. My open repentance had Christians in authority over me, condemn me and see there as something being terribly “wrong” with me. In one sense this was true: there was something wrong with me- I was repeatedly being traumatized in my own home and that was breaking me apart. Yet, now I see that that very brokenness Christ was unveiling – my open confession of my sin disease – is what always defined me as His – and that breaking apart was necessary to begin to put me back together in Him.
I am simultaneously reading “A Severe Mercy” that Dee recommended to Susan, and something the author said had me stop in my tracks. He said he wanted to give up on God, but couldn’t. It reminded me of how I too could never say to others that I didn’t believe in God. Even as a Prodigal I believed in God, but did not trust Him.
I remember how that got me in a heated argument, when my husband and I went on holiday together for the first time. He told me: “but you said you weren’t religious.” And I replied: “and I’m not. But I still believe that God exists.” It made him furious, but despite that I couldn’t change my mind to please him or get him to calm down.
I now realize that had he known that from the beginning, he would have steered clear of me, but the anger was in fact proof that he was now so attached to me that he couldn’t give up on me, even though this difference in belief felt like too big of a chasm for him. He felt cheated by my open confession of faith, but one day, I know he will see that Jesus in me is what drew him to me in the first place.
Eternity has always been bound up in this family’s heart and Christ is unveiling that piece by piece: I see their yearning for Him more and more. Christ in them is so beautiful.
I love that you couldn’t stop believing, Anna! My boys, who each had prodigal years, said they couldn’t get away from Jesus! I love that love. No one can snatch us out of His hand!
Amen, Dee! What I love about that Promise, is that God illustrated it visually for me, right before I began to run away. My Catholic nun teacher gave me a goodbye present in Germany (less than two weeks after we adopted my little brother): a sketch of huge hands, palms open, holding a tiny little sparrow. I don’t remember what she wrote below it, but I will never ever forget that sketch.
I visited her years later in a convent in Nuernberg, and I felt the palpable love and peace of Christ inside of her. I remember my Dad saying that she probably got into deep trouble for coming to our goodbye party at the church my Dad pastored. That was just not done for a Catholic nun visiting a non-Catholic church.
11. Why should we keep our lives free from the love of money according to verse 5?
To be focused on the most important thing; Jesus. Money is fleeting; Jesus will never leave us.
12. Why should we not fear what man may do to us according to Hebrews 13:6?
Because we have Jesus with us. He will be our helper. If this is so, why should we worry about man?
13. What are we to consider according to Hebrews 13:7?
We are to remember and consider those who have gone before us who were believers. We should think of their way of life and imitate their faith.
14. What do you learn about Jesus in Hebrews 13:8?
Jesus never changes. He is the same today, tomorrow and yesterday.
15. If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, you should be able to share a way:
A. He has provided for you so that you do not need to worry about money
I have the most financially intelligent husband a woman could have. I trust his decisions for our lives with respect to our family money.
B. He has helped you in the midst of trouble
In the times that were stressful with the kids, He has been there if I allowed Him in. There were times I thought I could control the situations myself. When I gave into Him, the problems worked themselves out for the good of all.
16. Praise your beautiful Bridegroom here.
Thank You Lord Jesus for being our guide! You are King! I love You more and more as I grow older. I pray for my family today. Help us grow closer to You, as many are not in a place where they trust You as I do. I pray that they may get a glimpse of Your glory this week so they remember who they are and where they really belong. Help them know that this world is not their home, rather being with You is where they should long to be, in eternity.
Oh man, Laura! So much this: “There were times I thought I could control the situations myself. When I gave into Him, the problems worked themselves out for the good of all.” Sheesh. How many times have I done that – and even believing it’s what God wanted and expected of me too: to be good, to do the right thing, to set the good example. And it’s then, when I crumbled, He was like: “will you let me take over now, Anna?” And I realized that goodness and setting the good example flows from that surrender: the admitting I can’t in my own strength, but I can in His strengthening.
Yes!
Friday: Gentle and Lowly
17. If you have the book, read chapter 3 and share your thoughts and comments.
In Chapter 3 the point is well made that Jesus finds His greatest joy in coming to us and providing us with forgiveness of our sin. He finds delight in healing us from our sinful ways, I find in the flesh I live my life so conditionally but with Jesus He is completely unconditional in His love, acceptance and forgiveness of my sinful state and my active sinning. He lives to cleanse and heal me from sin so He and I can have complete and unbroken fellowship. This comment stood out to me.
“And he doesn’t just want us to be forgiven. He wants us. How does Jesus speak of his own deepest desires? Like this: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me” (John 17:24).”
Bev, I don’t have the book “Gentle and Lowly”, but this really sums up my “take away” for this week. I am in the midst of moving and I have to condense a 4 bedroom house into a 2 bedroom move! So I am systematically sorting my “treasures” for a moving sale in 2 weeks! I am sorry I have not had the time to comment all week, but I am receiving inspiration and encouragement from the lessons and comments! Thank-you all so much, I really need this. God Bless us all as we surrender to His Love daily and learn to trust Him more and more!
I love that quote, Bev. He wants all of us. Amen! I remember discovering that many of the passages translated as “all” in the Bible literally mean: piece by piece to make up a whole. That so fits with how He transforms us, doesn’t it? Piece by piece by piece: until in heaven He unveils Christ fully in us.
I love the iron sharpening iron here. God is truly working, at least in my own heart. So much shedding of the old and so much unveiling of the new.
Thursday: Marinating in Hebrews 13:5-8
11. Why should we keep our lives free from the love of money according to verse 5? We can be content because He is forever with us and providing our needs.
12. Why should we not fear what man may do to us according to Hebrews 13:6? We surely know that God is our Helper, man is powerless against God who is for us.
13. What are we to consider according to Hebrews 13:7? We are to consider the outcome of the conduct of our faithful spiritual leaders who have taught us God’s Word. I think this means we should remember how God has been faithful to our spiritual leaders, how they live their lives for God and enjoy His blessings, even in difficult times.
14. What do you learn about Jesus in Hebrews 13:8? Jesus never changes, He is eternally loving, kind, generous, caring and a keeper of His promises.
15. If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, you should be able to share a way:
A. He has provided for you so that you do not need to worry about money – My husband and I have never lost a day work through this pandemic, and my daughter found a great job in the midst of it.
B. He has helped you in the midst of trouble – when my husband lost his job and we just had our 2nd child and I was on maternity leave, we had no medical benefits, God opened a door for me to return to work, full benefits, the timing was impeccable. The Lord healed my youngest daughter from seizures, the Lord kept us through it all.
16. Praise your beautiful Bridegroom here. Lord, Your caring Hand has always been on me and my family. Even my wayward daughters have been witness to You protecting them even though they don’t seek You. I love You Lord for loving us so completely and hiding us under Your feathers.
Friday: Ch. 3 Gentle and Lowly
“And this keeps up in his heart, his care and love unto His children here below, to water and refresh them every moment.”
It is Christ’s deepest longing and joy to see people come to Him for forgiveness, “communing with Him despite our sinfulness.”
Jesus want us!
Love all these stories of God’s faithfulness, JoVeda. I was editing a piece on hope today and it so struck me how God builds up our own faith in Him, as He moves to intercede through us for the Prodigals and unbelievers we know.
He sheds our own unbelief and doubts, even as He draws them unto Himself. And this is coming from a former Prodigal daughter- even I have been so prideful and so lacking in faith, despite God’s amazing mercy to me. Oh how faithful He is to us.
BTW what you shared about our leaders made me think of how sweetly and tenderly God cared for my Dad in hospital when he went through a five-fold heart bypass operation. We traveled to Germany to be there with him.
When he was recovering in hospital it brought back so much trauma from my Mum’s last few months. Dad dragged himself to the little chapel one night, when he was grieving so deeply.
That very night a well-known Christian opera singer felt drawn to go sing at that chapel. She was visiting Munich. As she sung a hymn he knew well, it broke my Dad open and covered him in the love and comfort of God.
So good and healing, JoVeda!
, “communing with Him despite our sinfulness.”
Jesus want us!
My take-away from this week is that God LOVES us completely, He has a great compassion for sinners. He delights when we turn to Him for forgiveness, His purpose in coming was to turn the sinner from his sin to the Lover of His soul. He delights in forgiving me – as He fills me, He also is filled (filled with joy!) God’s heart is pure loveliness and kindness.
Saturday
Take-aways
I have kept thinking of Matthew 16:25:
“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
As I read of Christ’s compassion and gentle heart of mercy toward us, it made me recall every surrender JESUS has birthed and is birthing in me. How He’s led me to lose my life on this earth to follow Him. These are just some of the surrenders He has birthed:
My oldest child: who I had to leave behind with my husband and in-laws on the other side of the world, to go and help my Mum when she got sick (with my one-year-old who I still breast-fed, joining me). Not just once, but twice. She was only three years old. Jesus compelled me to surrender my failings to her as a Mum during that time to Him and I am watching Him restore and redeem.
Mum: who died of cancer in 2014. He has broken my idol of my Mum and given me back my Mum, by having me rejoice in His Presence in her. I can now acknowledge her failings to me as a Mom and God’s grace to me in giving me Himself to me in all those places my mother wasn’t there for me. He honored my mother’s dedication of me unto Him.
My identity as the doer and helper, when CPTSD made it impossible for me to keep teaching and I needed to lean heavily on the mercy and strength of Jesus to even keep breathing.
One of my sisters (giving birth to her first alone) and I couldn’t be with her: my vicar’s wife gave me a Bible verse that helped me to release her into God’s hands – Isaiah 40:11 –
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
My husband: Christ showing me that my goodness could never save him, but that His goodness already has, and in His yielding of my heart to His Word of truth that says my husband is already made holy through the faith He has birthed in me. And through His yielding of my heart to His (Christ’s) authority speaking through my husband and seeing the love, truth and mercy of Jesus arise and flourish in him.
My Dad: God asked me to speak the truth to him, which caused great loss. But God has been restoring that: giving me back a relationship now being built up on truth, compassion and mercy – on Jesus.
Church, church leadership, myself: God compelled me to speak the truth and to continually yield to His intercession of truth, compassion and mercy through me, as I walked through spiritual abuse. He broke my idol of my own strength, my idol of church and of church leadership. I no longer see myself or others as Teacher or Savior. Only Jesus is.
He can speak through us and teach and move through us, but when we do not walk in step with the Living Word of God, it is no longer Jesus speaking, moving or teaching. It is our flesh. I and not just my pastors and parents have been guilty of this and I am so thankful to God for His mercy to us and for bringing me to my knees to confess Him alone, again and again.
My church friends: God asked me to release them into His hands, trusting Him to save them from the enemy’s schemes at work in their churches.
My identity as the church ministry worker. God compelled me to leave and give up my roles in a Mama’s ministry, as worship leader, writer of a Mama column and helper. But in so doing I discovered my identity as daughter of the King – an identity not contingent upon my doing, but only upon Christ’s doing.
There was a time when I literally felt like I had no one, but God left. He held me up, when I wanted to give up. He wouldn’t let go.
My Prodigal friends and family and myself as their Savior: by reminding me who had saved me. He and He alone.
A loved one: when He exposed how my offers of “grace” without truth were only enabling this person to do evil. I now have minimal contact and trust God to do the work in this person’s heart I could never do.
My little brother: when God showed me how He had never left my brother through all the trauma and spiritual abuse and how that deep suffering has and is shaping him into someone after God’s own heart.
My youngest: when she got sick and I had this deep sense of impending doom. It didn’t eventuate, but through that time God asked me: can you give her to Me. I said I wanted to, but couldn’t and asked Him to help me to do so. He told me that’s the answer He wanted. Because only He can yield us to His will. And He has.
I know He is preparing me for an even greater surrender I do not yet fully see. But because it is no longer I who live and I live by faith in the One who loved me and died for me, I know that I shall stand before God at the end of my days and He will say: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” He won’t be saying it to me, but to Jesus in me, who ever yielded me to the Father’s will.
Yes, fear of the LORD is the beginning of all wisdom, but knowledge (yada: as husband and wife, a living relationship) of the Holy One is understanding and discernment. It’s the difference between the cold stone law and the living law of Jesus at work in us. And only Jesus can awaken us to that Living Law because He is the Living Law and the Law fulfilled for us. And only Jesus can complete and perfect us in and through Himself.
We can claim no honor in and of ourselves, for our human hearts are desperately deceitful. There is only One who can search and know us and yield us to HIS pure heart of love, truth and mercy for us and for others. That’s why I cannot judge even one other human being on this earth. May God forgive me for all the times I have done so in thought and deeds.
Only Jesus knows our hearts and only He is our righteous judge. Our sacrifice gets us nowhere. Only His righteousness and His justice and His sacrifice at work in us and through us.
What a wrenching but necessary parting with you three-year-old!
It was one of the hardest things I have walked through. But oh how faithful Jesus was to wrap her in such love and care – through various people – during that time.
And then, He also helped her afterwards to release her anger, her fears and her grief, also through His call to me to repent before her for my absence, when she had needed me most.
I believe God was purposely acknowledging the loss she had suffered in my decision to be there for my Mum. I think He did this to show her He always saw her pain, and so that one day she will be able to see how HE has redeemed this time. I know it will also help her as a Mama to release her own failings into God’s hands to redeem and restore.
BTW Jesus in Kara Tippetts taught me a lot about how Jesus wants to shepherd children’s hearts through our weakness as parents. We should never ever explain our inability to be there for our kids or others’ inability to be there for them away in “grace”, but always reach out to them in truth, acknowledging their pain, and in grace. Here a quote from Kara, before she died:
So, I listened and I turned to my beloved son and apologized. I simply said I was sorry. I told him I’m sorry his mama has cancer. I told him I’m sorry for the ways that is making his heart sad. I could not make promises, though in my heart I hear myself screaming to do better, play harder, fill this growing hole in my sweet Lake’s heart. But this is a new edge my young son must meet. In my weakness, Jesus will teach him strength. Where I am less, Jesus will be more. I cannot work, I cannot fix this edge, but I can love my boy honestly where we are today.
Source: https://www.mundanefaithfulness.com/home/2014/07/15/inevitable-pain-stunning-grace-2
Friday: Gentle and Lowly
16. If you have the book, read chapter 3 and share your thoughts and comments. (We will skip to chapter 6 next week for those who want to read 4-5)
a. Jesus’ very heart and joy is engaged in a new way in our foibles and failures…increased and enlarged by his showing grace and mercy, in pardoning and comforting his members here on earth.
I do not remember where I have read this of Abraham Lincoln. During the civil war, when a soldier would abandon the troops, the punishment was death. But Lincoln would pardon them, one by one, much to the ire of the Secretary of War then. But because of the pardon, the soldiers learned to respect, and love Lincoln because of the mercy extended to them.
If a human being like Lincoln could continue to pardon these deserters, how much more would our gentle and lowly Savior? Here is his promise from Jeremiah 31:3-4
The Lord appeared to us in the past,[a] saying:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt.Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful.
b. Hebrews 12 who for the joy set before Him- the joy of seeing His people forgiven…when His people partake of Jesus’ atoning work… His very own body is being healed when we draw from the riches of His atoning work because we are part of Him.
Oh that story makes me cry, Bing. Oh the mercy of Jesus. This song has been reverberating in me so much:
https://youtu.be/I1GiZL60c80
My husband introduced me to that song, Anna. His mercy is new every morn. Thanks for reminding me again. Our sins they are many; His mercy is more.
Beautiful song – our sins they are many, His mercy is more!
Saturday:
17. What is your take-a-way and why?
Our High Priest is also our Bridegroom. He is the greater Boaz and Hosea. Whom He has interceded for, He claims for His Bride. What more could we ask for?
A song that so fits with this week’s study and what JoVeda said- we are beautiful because He is beautiful:
https://youtu.be/_CedBWG01uw
I loved this song growing up. May it bring back sweet memories for others of you also.
4. Read Hebrews 4:14-16
A. Who is our High Priest, where is He, and how does He feel about us when we sin? (Draw on this and Reeves)
Jesus is our High Priest, and He is in heaven. When we sin, Jesus looks upon us with pity and compassion, understanding our weaknesses fully. because He, as a human man, faced the same trials and tests that we do, yet He did not fall into sin. When we turn to Him after sinning, He will receive us with mercy and give us grace.
B. How do you think the experience of being tempted affects Jesus’ feelings towards us when we sin?
He can relate to us. It’s kind of like we feel a sense of relief and experience understanding when we meet someone who struggles in the same area that we do; we know that they “get it”, they understand, because they’ve been there.
C. What conclusion is made in verse 16?
Because we have this compassionate, caring, understanding of our weaknesses High Priest, there’s no need then to be afraid to approach Him, even when we’ve sinned. We are told to come before Him boldly (not meaning, of course, a flippant attitude about our sin), but rather to have confidence that we will be met with mercy and grace.
5. Read Hebrews 5:1-2
A. What is the calling of a high priest?
A high priest is a man who is chosen to represent other people before God. He is the one who presents gifts, offerings, and offers sacrifices for the sins of the people.
B. How will Jesus deal with us, as sinners, according to verse 2?
He will deal with us gently because He was subjected to the same weaknesses as we are.
C. Why will He deal with us gently? Find everything you can.
He is the God-Man, chosen by God to be our forever High Priest. He offered the final sacrifice for our sins. He deals gently with us because He understands our weaknesses, having been fully human as we are. He was subjected to trials and temptations when He was on the earth.
7. Read Song of Songs 1:6 and describe how the Shulammite feels when this Shepherd/King begins to gaze at her.
She feels uncomfortable under his gaze. She feels she is not beautiful enough for him; her complexion, she says, is darkened by being out in the sun, which to her is not appealing.
8. All through the Song he is praising her, wooing her, finally wedding her. What does He tell her in Song of Songs 4:7?
He tells her that she is “altogether beautiful….beautiful in every way”. And, he calls her “my darling”.
9. Do you believe, with all your heart, that when God looks at you, that because of Jesus, He sees you as altogether beautiful?
I can’t say, if I picture my heart as a whole, that I 100% believe it with all my heart. I’m not even sure what percentage I’d say I believe it right now? It fluctuates, I know that. When I act badly, the percentage decreases for sure. As I continue to read and study His Word, I am hoping this will change and I’ll be more convinced.
10. Find, in Psalm 45, a similar thought to the following thoughts in The Song of Songs about our wonderful Bridegroom:
A. In the Song, the bride saw her Bridegroom as altogether lovely. Psalm 45?
Psalm 45:2 – “You are the most handsome of all.”
B. In the Song, the bride said his lips dripped with honey (his words were kind). Psalm 45?
Psalm 45:2 – “Gracious words stream from your lips.” I heard a great example of this on Thursday at work. I was on the other side of the curtain in a semi-private room at the hospital. On the other side, a female patient was talking to a man on her cell phone, and she had it on speaker, so it was impossible not to hear. The man was telling her how much and how deeply he cared about her, how much he loved her and was going to be there for her through her illness. Later that day, I told her that I couldn’t help but hear his words, and I told her how obvious it was that this man really loved and cared about her. She replied that it was her boyfriend of fifteen years, and that yes, he really did. His words were so tender and kind that I took notice of them.
C. In the Song the bride said he was fragrant with frankincense and myrrh. Psalm 45?
Psalm 45:7 – “Myrrh, aloes, and cassia perfume your robes.”
D. In the Song, she looked forward to a lovely home with him. Psalm 45?
Psalm 45:15 – “What a joyful and enthusiastic procession (of the bride and her bridesmaids) as they enter the king’s palace!”
E. In the Song, she is altogether lovely and cherished. Psalm 45?
Psalm 45:11 – “For your royal husband delights in your beauty”. Psalm 45:13 – “The bride, a princess, looks glorious in her golden gown.”
F. In the Song, there are mighty warriors to protect her. Psalm 45?
Psalm 45:3-5 describes the king as a mighty warrior, glorious and majestic, riding out in victory, defending truth, humility and justice, and performing awe-inspiring deeds. His arrows are sharp and piercing and his enemies fall before him.
You inspired me to look up the Word “gracious” in that verse. The root Word it comes from means, among other things, “to long for”. Isn’t that beautiful? You’ve given me such a wonderful visual of God’s love for us with your patient. Especially in thinking of Gentle & Lowly and our sin disease. So, even with our desperately deceitful hearts of sin, our God is like that boyfriend in his demeanour toward us: longing to be nearer to us and loving us through the healing process, as each part of our sinful heart is exposed, cleansed and we are drawn ever closer to Him.
It fits with God’s kindness leading us to repentance. It’s like the Shepherd going to pull the little lamb out of the thorn bush. The little lamb ran away from the Shepherd’s care to even fall into that thorn bush in the first place, but the Shepherd doesn’t stand there lecturing the lamb (like I do my kids sometimes), but picks the lamb up and places it on His shoulder to carry it home. These gracious actions of the Shepherd build up trust and will slowly break the lamb’s fear and its habit of fleeing and going its own way. The Good Shepherd doesn’t tire of our diseased hearts, but perserveres and continually moves toward us and lifts us out of harm’s way. I see how He did that for me in my Prodigal years too – He proved His love and care toward me, not after I repented of my sin, but in my sin. He was reminding me He is the Jesus who breaks bread with sinners, who touches the unclean and heals the diseased, even if only their friends have the faith and not the diseased person themselves. He is so unlike us humans. So trusting of His Father that He will go where no one else would dare tread, for fear of being infected.
Comments on the book – Gentle and Lowly. Great book and so many wonderful take aways. The example Ortlund uses with respect to the compassionate doctor in the jungle….his joy increases to the degree the sick come to him for help and healing. I am searching my heart to determine if I feel the same when I encounter others that are needing help and healing. I believe this study is going to help me in my journey to become more and more like Jesus. And I was so encouraged when I read “Jesus Christ is closer to you today than he was to the sinners and sufferers he spoke with and touched in his earthly ministry.” Wow, I’d never thought that way and cannot wait to share with others!
I loved that bit in the book, Patricia, about the jungle doctor. I was praying just this morning for God to search and know my own heart, to see if there be any wickedness in me in regard to my own exchanges with people. So often, we do not even understand our own hearts and why we lack gentleness and kindness for others. We so need God’s searching. Our own searching will not give us God’s eyes and God’s heart.
Patricia — wasn’t that a wonderful example? So different than the way we tend to think!
Patricia, I am not reading the book so I am curious about the quote here about Jesus being closer to us than He was to those when He lived on earth. I don’t understand. I don’t feel close to Him at all right now. If He were in front of me, in the flesh, I would feel that He was close to me. Not getting it 🤷🏻♀️
Laura, if I can stick my two cents in here….
He is closer to us today because His Holy Spirit lives within us. We don’t have to wait our turn to have His physical presence. He is with us continually, every single moment. And that is true whether we feel Him or not.
I’ve been in your shoes, Laura, and I feel your pain and discouragement. In that time I kept going back to the truth of His word and telling Him that I was going to stay with Him no matter how long it took until He gave me His presence again.
O, Lord, I plead with You for my sister Laura, that You would wrap Your arms around her today and give her a ray of hope.
Laura, as I read your comment, I immediately saw you dancing and was like: but I see and feel Him in you, Laura. His love moves through you to touch my soul.
And I thought of your grandkids and the life and joy of Jesus that is so visible in them. And I thought of this verse:
Acts 17:28
for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
And because you love music:
https://youtu.be/o9dLm0Yj8xM
As Mary mentioned – it it through his Spirit. “Christ’s own heart envelops his people with an embrace nearer and tighter than any physical embrace could ever achieve…..for we are now his body.” While I know the Holy Spirit lives in me, I guess I never had given it a thought that He is closer to me than those he physically interacted with.
Laura and Mary: Miriam sent this to me because it made her think of me. It so expresses what you have both shared here. That there are times we do feel forsaken and lonely, when God purposely sets us apart from those around us:
https://youtu.be/p-dJU7KFdys
I have experienced times like this and even now am experiencing it, but now with my eyes opening to God’s Presence with me in His purposed setting apart for His purposes. May God’s blessing to me through Miriam, bless you also. It so encourage me.
I very much appreciated the link, Anna. I will most likely listen again when I can take notes. It speaks to what I feel more and more in the world. But I don’t think this is what Laura was expressing. I think what she was saying is that she isn’t feeling God’s presence, and in that way feels alone. And there seem to be times when God pulls back just a little, as far as our perception is concerned. I’ve come to see it as His desiring for us to live by faith in what He has said to us in His word, and not relying on our feelings, which can so often be hijacked. Good to be able to dialogue with you, dear sister….
I used to think that, Mary. But I realized that those times I don’t feel Him are an invitation of His to draw nearer and listen. I used to recite the Word and cling in my own strength through those moments, calling that faith.
Now, I cry out for God to make Himself known to me, bringing Him all my angst. He ALWAYS does, moving through His Word to lift off my sin of unbelief/pride/other sins to give me His pure emotions flowing in faith, hope and love.
This change in how I relate to God in those moments happened when I was walking through PTSD and put about 12 different Promises from the Word before God, asking Him why I didn’t see evidence of their truth in my life. Not long later, He gave me very tangible proof of Him fulfilling each one. It was incredible. It taught me to stop trying to be so “good” in mustering up “faith” and to instead come before Him as myself and let HIM change my mind (cause me to repent).
Am I making sense?
Week 2 – Thursday
Thursday: Marinating in Hebrews 13:5-8
11. God always provides and we should not place anything before Him.
12. The Lord is our helper and He always takes care of us.
13. The teachings of the Word of God by our church leaders.
14. He is always the same; never changing.
15. If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, you should be able to share a way:
A. He has provided for you so that you do not need to worry about money
He has opened doors for me and provided ways to care for me and my family.
B. He has helped you in the midst of trouble
He has kept me in His care and saved me from poor decisions and kept me protected.
16. Praise your beautiful Bridegroom here.
Jesus, you have always had mercy and love for me and kept me in your care. You always show me your faithfulness when when I am in dark times. Thank you for always loving me and providing for me.