If ever our souls were fully awakened to the vastness of our Jesus inheritance, they would most certainly beg for a respite, a halt to the sheer volume of pure excellence streaming in, washing over them. Like a child at his birthday party, in the excitement of the event, forgetting to watch how much he was eating and later seriously regretting that huge piece of birthday cake with icing and ice cream (it was several years before I could even consider looking at another piece of chocolate cake). This week of conference has been an intense Holy Spirit fire hose. All participants are breathless and relieved, regretting that it is over but wanting more. The whole week provides a sense of what it must be like around God’s throne in heaven, the eternal worship and adoration, the joy and celebration.
Scripture points us squarely to that very thing. All the letters of the New Testament teem with this idea of ‘so much more,’ this great gift of Salvation, the unthinkably, immeasurably, astonishingly wasteful, lavish love of the Father toward all His children. Translating that to the year 2023, we search for footing to understand what it looks like. We are inundated with awareness of scarcity, of want, of inequality, of struggle, of injustice, and these problems tend to blot out from our field of vision our hope that does not disappoint, the assurance of our place in the Beloved. And yet, amid these glaring and loud issues, Scripture stands tall and true and noble and pulsating with life. The beautiful, loving message of God’s Word still pierces the darkest places, the most hopeless circumstances. We are the recipients of too-grand-for-words Salvation, too-wonderful-for words Joy, too-amazing-for-words Forgiveness, too-much-for-words Love. We’ll take another run at this ‘too much’ tomorrow at 10 AM, 4 PM. PD
