The Throne of Grace
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace,
that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
(Hebrews 4:16, ESV)
What a beautiful home!
(Psalm 84–adapted with my own comments from The Message Bible)
“What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
I’ve always longed to live in a place like this, even though I didn’t recognize it until recently. As a grammar school age child (and beyond), I think would have loved this Throne of Grace (TOG) filled home with my earthly family together: Dad, Mom, and my two brothers sitting around the living room, sharing, laughing, reading (Scripture and other things) and praying (happily, spontaneously and casually like we do here at the TOG).
I’ve always (consciously, in the last few years) dreamed of a room in your house
where I could hangout and listen and sing for joy to God-alive!
Birds find nooks and crannies in your house, sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young, singing their songs in the place where we worship. God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God! How blessed they are to live and sing there!
Lord, your Throne of Grace is a fun-filled aviary!
Yesterday I saw that it opened from its grand pavilion and spilled into the out-of-doors, but I didn’t know it was a gathering place for sweet birds living and nesting there up in the nooks and crannies of the ceiling and roof. What fun! How free! And the weather is so perfect even when there are storms around us we are safe with you at the Throne of Grace.
The Throne of Grace!
What a great place!
Sin is erased!
We gain face
as we sit face-to-face with you,
seeing your face shining upon us and
enjoying your Jesus-peace within us.
He is our peace.
He has finished the journey.
He looks with us with confidence at the road ahead of us.
Holy Spirit will always go with us making the invisible visible and faith substantial—
clearly evident in its power to give us love, power and a sound mind!
And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel.
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
And as we live out our earthly journey in the dusty day-to-day,
we travel these Jesus-traveled roads that curve up the mountain, and at the last turn—
Zion! God in full view!
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen: O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!
Look at our shields, glistening in the sun, our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.
One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
than be honored as a guest in a God-less palace.
All sunshine and sovereign is God, generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.
It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.”
(Psalm 84, The Message)
Have a blessed day!
John Parker
from my desk and The TOG–with the birds!
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