Knitting

 Today we begin worship with:

Psalm 139:13-14

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Yes, how God made us should make us think and wonder.  

This process of knitting the DNA together from two parents into a new child is glossed over in the teaching of the theory of evolution.  The design is so detailed and complex.  It even protects the information contained within it.  Yes, information.  Something that must be created and designed.

Job knew this as well.

Job 10:11-13

“You clothed me with skin and flesh,

    and knit me together with bones and sinews.

You have granted me life and steadfast love,

    and your care has preserved my spirit.

Yet these things you hid in your heart;

    I know that this was your purpose.” 

He realized that the life that he had been granted, which just chapters before he wished never had happened, was proof both of God’s existence and His love for him.

Possess

This week we begin worship with:

Matthew 25:21
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

A little further down in the passage, the destiny of the unfaithful servant is also described in a confusing verse:

Matthew 25:29

For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

This verse turns on the single word "has" (echō) and more specifically on its case.  It is used three times, twice with its grammatical case.

• "to everyone who has will more be given" - Dative - Indicates Action
• "from the one who has not" - Genitive - Emphasizes Possession

But what do we have that we need to possess?  Reading a little further we find:

Matthew 25:41-43

“Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’

We all have the opportunity to serve our risen Savior.  How often do we let the opportunity be taken away, because we failed to possess it?

Clay

 This morning we begin worship with

Isaiah 44:1-3

But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! Thus says the LORD who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

As we raise our children, we can be overcome with our responsibility and our failures.  In those moments, God's command to us is not to redouble our efforts, but rather to "Fear not".

They are clay in His hands, not ours.  He is the potter and we are not.  The same God who formed (yāṣar) us, will pour His Spirit on them.

Isaiah 45:9

“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,

a pot among earthen pots!

Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’

or ‘Your work has no handles’?

Exchange

 This week we begin worship with:

Colossians 1:19-20  

In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Peace is not the fallen world’s natural state.  Peace must be made.  Peace is not the lack of war.  It is a state of harmonious exchange.  For example, North and South Korea are not fighting,  but they are also not at peace.

To return to peace one must reconcile (apokatallassō).  The word has as its root the idea of exchange (katallassō). That exchange must be of equivalent value, such as changing currency at the border, or the exchange of goods.  But to that idea is added separation (apo).  To reconcile, what must be mutually exchanged, is what separates.

In our verse today, our peacemaker exchanges his righteousness for our sin, and thus removing what divides us.