Weird and sad: The world we lived in

My son-in-law is color-blind. So for his birthday, our daughter gave him a pair of Enchroma glasses, made just for color-blind people. They look like ordinary sunglasses, but actually allow a color-blind person to see colors as we see them.

My son-in-law peered through these new glasses for the first time. He looked off at the trees in his backyard, raised his glasses to get a comparison, then put them back on and said, “Wow, my world is weird … It’s actually sort of sad!”

The world that my son-in-law was living in was a world without color (as we know it), and as he described it, “weird and sad.”

How “weird and sad” is the world in which we once lived? A world dulled by the darkness of sin, and obscured by the gloom of the grave? Stark, hopeless, colorless, doom. But now, all of that has changed for the child of God.  We see the world, not as we once saw it, but we see it through the lens of Jesus. A world that was once without eternal purpose now has purpose. A world that was once lived for self, is now lived for others.

Last weekend, I was reminded how thankful I need to be to God for allowing me to see the world through the lens of his Son, who enables me to see the brilliance of his love!

Adapted from Steve Higginbotham, preachinghelp.org

The Humble Son to Lead

You, O Lord, created me,
A living soul,
A breathing spirit, full and free,
Complete and whole.

You gave me life, and I was filled
With joy and love;
You blessed, your presence spilled
From heaven above.

We ruined the best, your presence spurned,
Our minds rebelled,
To you, O God, our backs were turned,
Our hope expelled.

The Lord refused to leave us be,
He had a plan—
A rescue from eternity
To save his man.

Continue reading “The Humble Son to Lead”

We Fall, with Faces to the Ground

Our Father in Heaven, your hand is out
To give redemption to fallen souls;
Obedient faith brings full remission
Of sins, to find in Jesus’ blood
The hope of life, that holy love
Whose boundless height cannot be measured,
Nor depth or width or length or cost.
Our human praises fail the price
You paid to pull us back to you.
We fall, with faces to the ground,
In all humility, in reverent fear —
The thought that you came near to us!

The Heavenly Truths that Never Fail

O God, let heart with mind agree,
As thoughts saturate the soul —
The heavenly truths that never fail —
To rein the feelings, set them free
Of earthly passions, and quickly fill
With victory.

Extinguish every burst of desire
For selfish ways, tamp down the flesh,
And every spiritual impulse refresh —
Impose, within, the deeper fire
Of God, and burn all guilt to ash
Upon the pyre. Continue reading “The Heavenly Truths that Never Fail”