 Autumn Glory
I love the fall season! Everything about it is a pleasant reprieve from the long dog days of the summer heat. In the fall, we celebrate the harvest that has been produced all summer long. As many are no longer directly connected to agricultural life. Maybe this celebration is more about pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin patches, and autumn holidays; but still there is joy all around. Again, we also get to begin to experience brisk mornings and cool evenings with the comfort of a warm hoodie or sweater. The weather begins to bring some nostalgic feelings from our childhoods trick-or-treating around town and playing in the leaves in our grandparents' front yard. We also get to witness some of the most beautiful vistas as we see the Lord paint a masterpiece with the fall foliage. But, today, I want to think about how we can reflect on the good things we have received from the Lord as the Autumn days usher us into the holiday season. His Benefits In Psalm 103, David is praising God and blessing His name! In this act of adoration he calls upon his soul to not forget the benefits of the Lord. If we were to attempt to name all the benefits we have received from the Lord that would be the rest of our existence for they increase faster than we can acknowledge them. However, David does give us an abbreviated list. David reminds himself that God forgives our iniquities meaning those horrible and twisted sins which separate us from God. God also heals all our diseases that focus our mind on how even in our darkest and most distressed moments God is able to make us whole and well. Next David moves to the grace of redemption that we have received from God. Ultimately, as new covenant believers we know that this reality of being redeemed from the pit is because we have received salvation through David’s descendant the Lord Jesus Christ. Then David begins proclaiming that God crowns His people with steadfast love and mercy. This crowning is a reflection of who God is, the one who is merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love (Exodus 34:5-7). The Lord is also the one who truly satisfies His people with good and with renewed youth. Of course, we could go on but I think we get the point that the benefits that we have received from God are tremendous. His Blessings As Paul writes to the Ephesians he instructs them that they have been blessed in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3-10). No spiritual blessings are withheld from those who are in Christ because He is the heir of all things and in Him we too receive this vast inheritance. Through faith we are also blessed along with Father Abraham (Galatians 3:7-9). For it is not the physical descendants that receive the blessing the God promised through Abraham to the nations but rather the spiritual descendants who are so called because of their true faith. We are Abraham children because we have the faith of Abraham. Finally, Paul also wrote to Titus telling Him that because of Christ we are waiting on a blessed hope (Titus 2:11-14) We are not like the world of unbelievers with only a wish that this life is all there is but we have a firm hope in the everlasting life provided for us by Jesus Christ! His Beauty The Prophet Zechariah when telling of the salvation that God’s champion the Anointed One would bring, emphasizes the goodness and the beauty (Zechariah 9:14-17). The Bible goes out of its way to not describe Jesus' physical appearance except in Isaiah 53 which shows how grotesquely He was beaten. Yet, we do know that regardless of His height or complexion or body composition, His beauty was in His moral virtue and perfection. Dear readers, this will be my final article on this blog. Thank you for reading each week and encouraging me to continue writing. This exercise really has served to improve both my thinking and my expression. As I bid you goodbye let me also leave you with the blessing of God. May God bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you (Numbers 6:22-27)!
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