Tremble In AWE

Read Jeremiah 5:22 

In seasonal transition, summer is passing the torch to fall. As I write, outside the palladium window I see the beautiful sunrise with radiant shades of pink and purple. It’s awesome!

The first time I heard a live performance of Handel’s Messiah I was filled with awe. I sat alone for a while in the auditorium worshiping God with adoration as the Hallelujah Chorus echoed in my heart. Every Advent season I look for a time and place to hear again the Messiah.

George Frideric Handel composed Messiah with little sleep or food. He never left his house during the three weeks he was writing. A friend who visited found him sobbing with intense emotion. As Handel described what he had experienced, he alluded to Saint Paul's words, “Whether I was in my body or out of my body when I wrote it, I know not.” When he completed the Hallelujah Chorus, he told his servant, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne with a company of Angels” (Revelation 19:6).

This awe and adoration must be a small measure of what Jeremiah sensed when he wrote this verse.

QUESTIONS:

1. What grips your soul? Is awe by itself worship of God?

2. How do you move from awe to adoration?

PRAYER:

Father, open to me the mysteries of the Gospel of Your Christ Jesus. Fill my whole being with the presence of Your Holy Spirit.

Diane Ward

A Masterpiece

Ephesians 2:10

Many masterpieces have been created over the centuries. Michelangelo’s sculpture of David; Shakespeare’s Hamlet; Handel’s Messiah; Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, just to name a few.

 An argument could be made that God has created His own masterpieces in nature. The beauty of a sunset; the wonder of the Grand Canyon; the power of Niagara Falls; the gale force of a hurricane; the serenity of a mountain stream. But have you ever considered that you are one of His masterpieces?

 ¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. NLT

The NLT introduction to Ephesians states: “Every once in a while, God grants his people a glimpse of their place in the grand scheme of history. There is a brief moment when they can assess who they are, where they have come from and where they are going. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians provides the church with such a vision.”

God has a plan to create a masterpiece, and you are an integral part. In addition to the verse above, consider these.

 ⁴ Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. ⁵ God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 1 NLT

 ⁶ And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.    Philippians 1:6 NLT

¹³ For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.        Psalm 139 NIV

Have you considered whose you are, where you have come from and where you are going? Without even knowing you, I can say with certainty that you have God given gifts that He wants you to use for His work. You are His masterpiece!