His Hands Extended

"He did what He did because He could do it."

DID YOU THINK His heart had changed? He loved people enough to become one and live and lay down His life so that all could be saved, but now, His heart has changed? Nothing is further from the truth. He weeps for mankind still. I've felt His sorrow over people's suffering and heard Him weep at their compassion for others.

There's a young man traveling third world countries, looking for the indigent to care for. He cuts their hair and bathes them, clothes them and sees to housing and medical support if they need it. In short, He leaves nothing out which he can do. What he can't do, God can and will do. Many, I'm sure, have prayed for those to know God's love for them, and I've added mine to theirs.

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And for the child at the local fast-food restaurant as well. Or the grandmother at the grocery store left with the care of her handicapped adult grandson. There are so many, and God's heart reaches out toward them. His power to heal the mind and the body encompasses them, from the endless depths of His mercy. We're all about faith. We, in the church, preach it and teach it and lay hands on those who are filled with it, but God does so much for people just because He can, and this was His heart at Calvary. He did what He did because He could do it.

In reading Hebrews in the Borean Study Bible translation (BSB), I saw an image of Jesus drawn from Genesis to John's revelation. Genesis is where He's God, the Word, speaking all things into existence. The Torah, the first five books of the Bible, are His shoulders, where the authority of His covenant was placed upon men. Then we move into Joshua and those books which follow which along with the prophets, draw the torso and the figure of Him, which is born on earth in the Gospels where He lived.

The birth of the church in Acts is us as His hands and feet (Act 17:28). We are His motion, His movement on the planet. We show Him living and loving and healing all men. John's revelation is His stance, the enemy once and for all, placed under His feet. He comes alive in the gospels because of the depiction of Him in the Old Covenant. He finishes His work on earth in John’s revelation because of our hands extended in the church.

“Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14)

We are meant to walk in peace with all men AND in holiness. That's not two separate things but two conjoined, and both required. You cannot seek peace, absent of holiness, and to have holiness means you are at peace. These are who He is. Not anger and vengeance, although that word is used in Hebrews. But it isn't swords and battle and lightning bolts. It is mercy to some and justice for others. There is a price to pay for men's and powers' rebellion and an end of death and sin coming. But God would have all men to be saved.

Including those precious ones that young man seeks out and cares for. And the son of an artist whose squiggly lines make a masterpiece. And the family with three children who scraped together enough cash to take them out to eat. And the restaurant manager, who might not see her family this Thanksgiving. He knows them all. He sees them all.

Do we?

“Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others.” (Philippians 4:8 TLB)

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Image by Jeshuah from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com