Thoughts on Discipleship by Dr. W. A. Dillard - HTML preview

LUNA TUNE OF AN INFERRING OBSERVER

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,” Psalm 19:1-4

The handiwork of the Creator is still the most mesmerizing of wonders of the universe. I refer specifically to a full moon on a clear night. On the 17th day of October, I awakened early and donned shoes for a usual early morning walk long before dawn (I sleep in warmups). The approximate mile and a half walk yielded beautiful patterns of silhouettes highlighted by golden moonbeams from the cosmic center stage. It is hard to look away.

The moon is known in scientific circles as the lunar satellite of our terrestrial ball. One may speak of a lunar day, a lunar cycle, a lunar eclipse, but those who gaze at it or study it are sometimes referred to as Lunatics. Although more base connotations have been associated with that word, it still claims a higher sense in those who appreciate its arresting presence in nighttime domination. I confess to being one in the latter sense.

Blessed to live in Central Arkansas, there is no shortage of large trees of abundant foliage. In the early morning walk, they create a variety of darkened frames to enhance the fascinating picture that is as brilliant as it was on the morning of its creation.

Walking on, as the ornate, golden disk sunk lower in the western sky, from somewhere a couple of fluffy clouds found a place beneath it. It is as though they were making a soft bed for the giant luminary at the end of its nightly patrol. Soon, the gold began to change into silver as the ever broadening eastern sky grew brighter, and brighter, announcing the king of the solar system, and the source of lunar light moving in cosmic precision to soon appear over the horizon. The gladness of daylight permeated the valleys and hills; shadows fled away. It was a new day of glorious morning beauty that God had made. Flora and Fauna alike stirred to their tasks in the new measure of time.

One can but wonder, if prone to animate the heavenly neighbor, just how many meteorites have pocketed its surface in the millenniums of its patrol; does it ever tire of its repeated mission of blessing creation and glorifying the Creator. And what is the number of the hosts of earth who have stood at least momentarily spellbound by it in its never-ending testimony of both.

Adam saw this glorious owner of the night and marveled. Abraham looked to it often. Aaron knew the sight; Adonijah, Amos, and Andrew (just to keep things parallel) beheld its beauty and testimony. But for that night, that moment, that view was mine. It was mine to revel in its beauty; to be humbled by its presence; to be thankful for its Creator, and to know that in the cosmic arrangement of things we both have a purpose to fulfill that came from the same Creator. I can only wish I were as faithful to mine as it is to its own.

FOR THOUGHT: Creation speaks (Psalm 19) but do you have a hearing ear to its voice? If so, what is the message it is telling you? If you hear it, what are you doing about it?

MAN OF SORROWS, ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF

(A Christmas Observation)

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Isaiah 53:3. Thus is the description of Jesus recorded by the prophet Isaiah, hundreds of years before He was born. How miserably do the words fail to convey the depth of anguish, sorrow, suffering, pain, and shame that was to characterize the life of our Creator/Savior. Consider it.

Within the first two years of his life on earth, He was taken to Egypt to escape the mortal wrath of Herod. From Bethlehem went up a cry of pain and anguish unparalleled from that city as all the little boys were ripped from mothers’ arms, and slain by Roman soldiers due to the evil ego of Herod, who wanted Him dead. Sorrow and grief!

Early in His ministry, the good, religious folks of Nazareth sought to cast Him off a cliff, but he eluded them. Sorrow and Grief!

He came unto His own, but His own received Him not. Sorrow and Grief!

He reached out to His countrymen with goodness never before seen: healing the sick, restoring the blind; raising the dead; presenting to them the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand, but to no avail: Sorrow and Grief!

He pressed the terms of righteousness against the forces of sin and evil which led to an impossible situation: that one without sin should die. Sorrow and Grief!

In prayer, He sweat as, it were, great drops of blood as He obediently surrendered to “Not my will, but thine be done.” Sorrow and Grief!

He, without sin, took the sins of the world upon Himself, thus enabling Him to be subject to cruel punishment and death: Sorrow and grief!

His crown was of thorns; His flesh flayed to reveal His bones; His beard was ripped from his face: Sorrow and Grief!

He was left by heavenly powers, and in His own surrendered will, to die alone on the most hideous instrument of death: a Roman cross: Sorrow and Grief!

For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, despising the shame: Sorrow and grief!

Now, how do you see the Babe of Bethlehem’s manger? “ For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” 2 Cor. 8:9. Hallelujah! This is the real meaning of Christmas!

FOR THOUGHT: Do you believe that Jesus suffered more than any man? Do you realize that he bore your sins in His own body on the cross? Have you accepted what He did for you by receiving Him as your personal Savior?

Does Jesus have the focal prominence due Him in your celebration of Christmas?