There’s by no means no more is a phrase my treasured buddy Rose-Marie makes use of when speaking about God’s plans, functions and provisions. My highschool English trainer would wince and wield her crimson pen over that phrase, however I’m satisfied it’s one of many truest issues ever spoken. How can a forbidden “double unfavourable”, utilizing two unfavourable phrases in the identical phrase relate to God’s functions and add as much as profound fact?
There’s by no means no more.
We’re getting into the season of the liturgical yr often called Strange Time that spans half the yr from Pentecost to the start of Introduction. After a number of seasons targeted on the miraculous lifetime of Jesus, a life that’s something however odd, what can we do with odd? What can we do with a season stuffed with days and weeks ordered one after one other, generally to the purpose of monotony? Most of us don’t need monotony and we don’t need odd. Strange looks as if much less. We would like extra. We would like extraordinary-the form of life that’s “immeasurably greater than all we might ever ask or think about.” Ephesians 3:20.
The issues we’ve realized from the lifetime of Christ in the course of the first half of the yr are the “extra” we have to rework odd days into extraordinary ones.
Think about what God has performed for us.
The God Who spoke the world into being and breathed life into folks crafted in his personal picture, individuals who listened to a lie, turned from God, contaminated all creation with the lethal virus of sin and broke their communion with God–this God despatched His personal Son to those damaged folks on this damaged world to show what actual love is: selfless, sacrificial and positive.
Ponder the seasons of the liturgical yr and what they train us about God’s extravagance towards us. Every superb provision is adopted by one other superb provision.
Introduction is a journey of craving that culminates within the marvel and pleasure of Christmastide. Right into a darkish world Jesus, the Gentle of the World, is born.
Epiphany broadens that reward from tiny Bethlehem to the broader world, and we’re flooded with hope. However that hope is tinged with the reality that it’s not simply the world that’s damaged.
In Lent, we face the truth that we’re damaged, we’re contaminated by sin. So damaged, actually, that we will’t repair or save ourselves. We want a savior.
The grief we really feel throughout Lent’s 40 days, rising in depth as Jesus makes his method by way of Gethsemane towards Golgotha and the backyard tomb, explodes into unimaginable pleasure together with his resurrection on Easter Day. And the season of Eastertide, when Jesus walks with, teaches and eats together with his followers prepares them for Pentecost and the reward of the Holy Spirit.
The frequent themes in these seasons are preparation, celebration, and progress. And they’re all a part of God’s extraordinary plan to redeem and restore his folks, to carry them again into an intimate, unending relationship with Himself.
Double negatives could be complicated as a result of two negatives can cancel one another out and create a optimistic assertion.
There’s by no means no more doesn’t simply create a optimistic assertion. It expresses the truth that with God and in his kingdom, all issues are attainable. (Matthew 19:26)
Within the palms of a Mighty God, not double negatives however two opposing forces—justice and mercy—intersect on the Cross of Christ. Justice is a given as a result of sin can’t go unpunished by a Holy God. However somewhat than carry the penalty down on the responsible, excellent justice is met with mercy–God the Father sacrifices God the Son to pay our insurmountable debt of sin. The offended One pays the debt of the offender.
Excellent justice and lavish mercy don’t cancel one another out, they converge by way of the blood of Christ to fulfill God’s holy necessities with steadfast love and mercy. And that’s extraordinary.
So how do these realities supply a option to rework odd days, difficult days, unhappy days, monotonous days?
My buddy Rose-Marie is a prayer warrior. She would inform you that God has proven her over and once more that there’s by no means no more when she prays believing God will reply. She’s an odd girl who trusts in a unprecedented God. She lives in pleasure that he has come and with the positive expectation that he’ll come once more. She celebrates the various methods he has blessed his folks and the methods he solutions prayers, large and small. She grieves the brokenness in our world and lifts the damaged items to the throne room of heaven. She’s in fixed communication along with her Father God within the identify of Jesus the Son by way of the facility of the Holy Spirit. She lives in vibrant relationship with the Holy Spirit, who’s God in us.
Strange Time is a chance to supply to our extraordinary God our very odd days, and thru an intimate relationship with the One who made us, the One who redeemed us and the One who, with superb grace and infinite love, tells us there’s by no means no more for us in his kingdom.
“He who didn’t spare his personal Son however gave Him up for us all—how will he not additionally, together with him, graciously give us all issues?” Romans 8:32
Think about a number of additional sources:
