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My Husband, My First Guest Blogger
God's Arm is Long Enough
I found an old newspaper clipping from September 2nd, 1981 as I was looking through old letters, cards and papers I've saved and thrown in a box. It is an editorial that my husband wrote for the Hutchinson News. The clipping is old, yellowed and faded now, but the words are heartfelt and I share them here. The title in the paper is: God's arm is long enough to reach out to all of us. Mike says the title should be: God's Arm is Not Too Short that it Cannot Save. Here it is with a few changes:
The other day at the Lord's Supper a brother prayed something like this, "Dear Father, We thank you that we can openly assemble together as your children to praise and worship you. We thank you that your arm is not so short that it cannot save and that with it you reached out to save even me. Father, we truly do thank you for you Son who died on the cross for our sin. As we pass this loaf we ask that we will be reminded of your great love for us. In Christ's name, amen."
That simple prayer drove home afresh to me a wonderful truth from God's word, for just last year while at work the same brother who said this prayer brushed against a live wire, sending an incredible amount of electricity through his body resulting in the loss of half of his right arm. Corresponding to this, the Bible says, "Behold, the Lord's arm is not too short that it cannot save." Isaiah 59:1. And in another place it reads, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he loved us,even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive with Christ (by grace you have been saved)." Ephesians 2:4,5.
I find it very interesting that in our secular work we can have accidents that are very costly (the loss of an arm) that remind us of our frailties and human weaknesses, but when it comes to the things of God, things which surpass our understanding, many believe that we can save ourselves!
If we cannot even succeed in the things of this world, how can we imagine that we can earn our way to heaven? God said that we were all born naturally sinful (Romans 3:23) Because of our sinful estate it is impossible for us to please Him by our own merits (Isaiah 64:6), that only Christ, who is God in the flesh, could pay for our sins (Acts 4:12) and by believing he died for our sins we can have eternal life by His merit alone (John 5:24).
In conclusion I would like to acknowledge that someone might say, "only believing apart from good works is just too easy, Christ wouldn't have died to let us live lawlessly!" Agreed. But I ask, Is it easy to die? When we trust Christ's death for sin as our own we are putting ourselves on that cross and die with Him. "Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him." Romans 6:6.
Our arms are much too short to climb up to heaven, but God's arm is long enough to reach out to us. Why not take hold of that which is life indeed.
God's Arm is Long Enough
I found an old newspaper clipping from September 2nd, 1981 as I was looking through old letters, cards and papers I've saved and thrown in a box. It is an editorial that my husband wrote for the Hutchinson News. The clipping is old, yellowed and faded now, but the words are heartfelt and I share them here. The title in the paper is: God's arm is long enough to reach out to all of us. Mike says the title should be: God's Arm is Not Too Short that it Cannot Save. Here it is with a few changes:
The other day at the Lord's Supper a brother prayed something like this, "Dear Father, We thank you that we can openly assemble together as your children to praise and worship you. We thank you that your arm is not so short that it cannot save and that with it you reached out to save even me. Father, we truly do thank you for you Son who died on the cross for our sin. As we pass this loaf we ask that we will be reminded of your great love for us. In Christ's name, amen."
That simple prayer drove home afresh to me a wonderful truth from God's word, for just last year while at work the same brother who said this prayer brushed against a live wire, sending an incredible amount of electricity through his body resulting in the loss of half of his right arm. Corresponding to this, the Bible says, "Behold, the Lord's arm is not too short that it cannot save." Isaiah 59:1. And in another place it reads, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he loved us,even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive with Christ (by grace you have been saved)." Ephesians 2:4,5.
I find it very interesting that in our secular work we can have accidents that are very costly (the loss of an arm) that remind us of our frailties and human weaknesses, but when it comes to the things of God, things which surpass our understanding, many believe that we can save ourselves!
If we cannot even succeed in the things of this world, how can we imagine that we can earn our way to heaven? God said that we were all born naturally sinful (Romans 3:23) Because of our sinful estate it is impossible for us to please Him by our own merits (Isaiah 64:6), that only Christ, who is God in the flesh, could pay for our sins (Acts 4:12) and by believing he died for our sins we can have eternal life by His merit alone (John 5:24).
In conclusion I would like to acknowledge that someone might say, "only believing apart from good works is just too easy, Christ wouldn't have died to let us live lawlessly!" Agreed. But I ask, Is it easy to die? When we trust Christ's death for sin as our own we are putting ourselves on that cross and die with Him. "Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him." Romans 6:6.
Our arms are much too short to climb up to heaven, but God's arm is long enough to reach out to us. Why not take hold of that which is life indeed.
Comments
Wow, that was before Tab was even born!