{"id":10443,"date":"2023-04-05T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/?p=10443"},"modified":"2023-04-05T09:38:37","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T15:38:37","slug":"great-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/?p=10443","title":{"rendered":"Great Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Greatest Of All!<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday, April 5, 2023<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

What Word Do We Have<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Will Bring Light<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Into the Deepest Darkness?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalms 33:5<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Corinthians 8:9<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words of Grace For Today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a windfall is to unwieldy debts, how is an Easter sermon to our heartbreak, loss, helplessness, and struggles to live, sinners as we are?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We understand how debts can become oppressive, sucking the life and hope and joy right out of us. Yet we try to deny that we owe God and so many other people because of all our sins. We run up a debt load that is impossible to deal with. Our debts suck the life and hope and joy right out of us, even if we do not admit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God planned for that, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God took all the riches of God\u2019s own self in Jesus\u2019 purity and sinlessness and God gave that all up. With our sins God ran Jesus into poverty so deep he would not escape it. He paid for our debts with his unjust death, and transferred the greatest riches of innocence, purity, and the best unconditional love to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God did this through Jesus\u2019 death … and his resurrection. For God would not in any way stay poor. God spread the riches of all creation, all around … even to us who are such great sinners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we live, with hope, joy, and love enough to share with all who encounter us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With what words could a preacher in an Easter sermon communicate such undeserved freedom to those who anticipate already that they have earned their place in God\u2019s good graces?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What words communicate the largest windfall possible: blessed life that cannot be taken from us!? This is the same question for everyone who receives the gift of faith, not just the preacher on Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps with great humility the preacher\/believer must confess that there are no such words to be chosen. With \u201cChrist is Risen!\u201d \u201cChrist is Risen, Indeed!\u201d we can say great things that bespeak the wondrous mysteries of God\u2019s love for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to communicate that our sin-debts are paid once and for all time … well that is up to the Holy Spirit to give the people ears to hear, and hearts to learn, and faith to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each day, after we have confessed our sins and begged again for forgiveness, let us pray that God will give us ears to hear, hearts to learn, and faith to know God\u2019s Grace for our enemies (us among them, for most often we are our own worst enemies.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Greatest Of All! Wednesday, April 5, 2023 What Word Do We Have That Will Bring Light Into the Deepest Darkness? Psalms 33:5 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though … Continue reading “Great Mystery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21,86,62,27,64,34,39,47,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grace","category-holy","category-hope","category-injustice","category-moon","category-night","category-sacramental-mystic","category-sky","category-trees","category-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10443"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10472,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10443\/revisions\/10472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}