God is a safe place to hide, we stand fearless on the cliff edge of doom, courageous in sea storms and earthquakes. Before the rush and roar of oceans, the tremors that shift mountains. Jacob wrestling God fights for us, God of angel armies protect us. River fountains splash joy, cooling God's city, the sacred haunt of the Most High. God lives here the streets are safe, God at your service from crack of dawn. Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten, but earth does anything he says. Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God of angel armies protect us. Attentoin all! See the marvels of God! He plants flowers and tree's all over the earth. Bans war from pole to pole, breaks all weapons across his knee. "Step out of the traffic! Take a long loving look at me. your h igh God. above politics above everything." Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God of angel armies protect us. Eugene H. Peterson Changed by what we see?
The first thing that strikes me about 2 Corinthians 3 is the confident air of freedom in it. Change is possible. We don't have to remain as we are. But change isn't automatic. And it isn't something inherent in us. It has a cause. Change is rooted in a relationship with Jesus Christ. In him, God becomes open, personal, and accessible to us. The person of Jesus shows us who God is. When we're with Christ, we're in touch with all who can apprehend God. In that environment, we're all changed by what we see, changed into the likeness of Christ. If we're exposed to the sun, our skin is changed. But if we are exposed to Christ our lives are changed. The change is a result of our relationship with him. By opening ourselves to him, we come under his influence and are changed into his likeness, "our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful", from one level of maturity to another, from one stage of development to another. Eugene H. Peterson I...
Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this? The servant grew up before God- a scrawny seedling a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried - our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he bought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him - our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises, we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him. He was...
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