The sky, sleep and the gazebo of imputed righteousness

The Sky.

Psalm 19:1 tells us that the heavens declare the glory of the LORD, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Obviously on days like these that has been easy to see. The powder blue sky and wispy clouds giving way at dusk to clear starry nights. There's God's glory manifested for all to see. And how blessed are we as Christians that when we fear or worry about the nature of our Lord, we need only to look to the sky to see His grace and glory displayed for all to see. Remember for a second how permeated and broken by sin the world is, and not just on a personal level but on a creation level. Creation groans and longs for the coming of the Lord and it's restoration. And yet despite God still gives us days and night like these. Days of brightness and heat to enjoy and thank and worship Him for, and nights covered in stars, all of which are mindblowing distances away from us, and all of which He created. How amazing the sky is, and how awesome God is. Imagine what sort of days we will have in Heaven!

Sleep.

So maybe i occasionally give sleep a bad press. On thursday night/friday morning i was up untill well after dawn (insert your own names in bold here) and loved it, and i do enjoy ebing around in the wee small hours when the world seems empty. But man, sleep is great. Sleep exists to show us and remind us that we are not God, and He is the only one who doesn't need sleep. He will sustain us through to morning, filling our lungs with breath. Sleep keeps us humble. Reading Mahaney's chapter on sleep in Humility really changed my mind about tiredness and sleep. I used to hate being tired, it used to frustrate me that i couldn't always function at 100%, or even what i take to be 100%. But being tired is ok. You have to protect yourself of course, because the enemy loves to attack us when we're weak and lie to us, and tell us what is not true about our Lord and Savior. I love falling asleep knowing that i am totally safe in the hands of my Father. Nothing beats it.

The gazebo of imputed righteousness.

Man. How to write about Fam this morning without making the family in salisbury, wales, the greater brighton area, bristol, southampton and frosty hollow jealous. I love my church. I love the fact that when Sean asked us to erect a gazebo inside for an illustration for today's message no one really batted an eyelid. At the 'road end' of the hall was another tent, which Liz, who was very fired up from yesterdays womens breakfast, helpfully pointed out halfway through the message was a 'toilet tent'. So yeh, Sean was preaching on the second half of Romans 5. One of my favourite bits of the Bible, but also containing some of the most difficult verses. And man, i love the doctrine of imputation, so to hear someone as passionate and wise preaching on it was great. The whole federal head aspect of it really struck me this morning. Thinking that before we were under Adam's headship, the one who bought sin and death into the world, and now we are under Christ, the holy, sinless and unique Son of God is amazing. There's no way we can leave that Gazebo once we're in. There was something so good, so soul refreshing to have these verses presented in such a visual way...such a way thats makes so much sense. When its on the internet (which may not be for a while because of mobilise) you got to listen. It was brilliant. I can't really put it into words!

Trust.

I was getting worried yesterday about a couple of things like what i'd do after Relay (i really don't like the way that two weeks after being certain i now am not...grr) and about some other stuff, feeling the enemy dancing on my insecurities in myself and in my relationship with the Lord...and He told me...'just trust Me'. So, it would be great to have all the answers now, it'd be great to know the answers to all my fears. But what is great is to know the Trustworthy one. The One who has seen me through this far and will not let me down, who's plan is perfect, righteous and holy. So perhaps like Elijah in 1 Kings 19 i was looking for too much, and God comes and reinforces what we already know of Him, essentially that He is God. Trust Me, He says. So trust is what i will try and do, by the grace of God.