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- Written by: Don Goulding
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13, 14)
It’s scary to look back on our failures. Before Jesus, we had to look back. It was the age of backward looking. The law required strict record keeping of slips and gains. Everything depended on my ability to climb God’s impossibly holy mountain. I was nervous, and grew sick from my guilt. It’s a dismal existence when a flawed human is forced to live looking back on his mistakes.
Jesus paid a dear price to keep us from the fright of looking back. How blessed I am to live in the age of looking forward. Because of the substitution on the cross, the failures of my past are nonexistent. They have been erased from the annals of time, forever removed from God’s books. Whatever mistakes I make between now and heaven will also crumble into oblivion the instant the present becomes the past.
I look down the mountain, and there is nothing but a few bright successes, and many blank voids where my sins used to be. It’s a rather boring view. Up ahead–now that’s a wondrous landscape. The way is steep, but in the treacherous places, there are colorful future successes. The top is crowned with yellow-white beams from the paradise wherein my Favorite dwells.
Satan wants us to look back until we sit down and stop climbing from discouragement. I won’t fall for it. For me, from here on out, there is only forward.
Prayer: King Jesus, keep me looking forward to you.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life because of me will find it. (Matthew 10:39)
Winter came to a close as sunshine warmed the soil after a rain shower. Moisture seeped into a dormant seed, and within days, a pale stalk pushed through the loam. In the night, the newborn plant was discovered by the eraser-of-a-nose on a young rabbit. Delicate whiskers twitched as the rabbit opened his tiny mouth, and chomped off the plant shoot.
A misty dawn found the rabbit still nibbling buds. In mid bite, a hawk snapped him into steely talons. The keen eyed bird was anxious to bring her prey to her downy eyas, frantic with hunger. But in her absence a falconer collected the chicks to train for sport hunting. He whisked them into the city, where his freckled son belted out, “I get the big one, I get the big one.”
It would seem for every creature, including man, that “the full exertion of all their faculties and all their energies is required to preserve their own existence and provide for that of their infant offspring” (A. R. Wallace). It’s the way of the food chain.
Jesus invites me to step out of nature, and forgo the struggle for physical life. He asks me to lose my life, sacrifice for others, and scorn personal advancement, so I can have life in the Spirit. He requires me to be more than an animal.
The true apex of the “Pyramid of Organisms” is where, by grace, my flesh succumbs to my spirit. And so, at the point where my old nature pushes through the loam, it must be chomped off, snatched up, and abducted. It must die, because my spirit only grows closer to God when there is death in the old me.
Prayer: Jesus, help me take my place at the head of creation by dying to self.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
Lover: I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. (Song of Songs 5:1) (NIV)
Jesus passed into the garden of heaven. Now he awaits union with those promised to him. That’s us. It’s tiny me. He satisfied himself on the bounty of paradise, and recovered from crucifixion. He is restored, fit, and ready for us.
Friends: Eat, O friends, and drink; drink your fill, O lovers. (Song of Songs 5:1) (NIV)
Angels watch our love and cheer us forward. “Go, rush into deep love.”
I slept but my heart was awake. (Song of Songs 5:2) (NIV)
On earth, my mind drags through the days in foggy slumber. But my heart is alert, straining for any whisper from my lover. Pacing the doorway, my spirit waits for his arrival.
Beloved: Listen! My lover is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one.” (Song of Songs 5:2) (NIV)
I’m a flawless lover because he absorbed my every mark. I’m left spotless, able to give what he deserves.
Friends: How is your beloved better than others, most beautiful of women? (Song of Songs 5:9) (NIV)
Beloved: My lover is radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand. (Song of Songs 5:10) (NIV)
How is the lover of my heart worth devotion? Let me tell you who he is. He is the image of the invisible God. He is the creator of all things in heaven and on earth. He holds everything together, right now.
When sin corrupted what my lover made, he was not bested. He sacrificed his life to reclaim creation. Peace reigns in me, because he placed himself under my sin mucked foot. He became the first of many to overcome death. He is the head of the living body of victors. The fullness of God dwells in Jesus, and together, they live in me.
Who is this lover of mine? He is the one who's perfection spills onto me so our hearts can entwine.
Prayer: Perfect one, you are outstanding among all the thousands.