Proverbs, Chapter 27, Verse 6 tells us: ‘Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful’.
An enemy’s kisses are a clear contradiction; enemies seek not our good with kisses. Think Judas Iscariot. But why would friends wound? One song of worship reminds we have a friend in Jesus, the Son of God. Yet scripture assures ‘He was wounded for our transgressions' by His Father, ‘smitten by God’ as Isaiah 53, verse 4 tells us, because of the Father’s love for us and for Him also.
Jesus satisfied our need; perfectly covering our sins and showing His fallen creation the infinite mercy of God. Both expressed together in the Father’s sacrifice of His Son on the cross and the Son’s acceptance of wounding by the One who loved Him from before the foundation of the world.
The Father wounding His own Son for the love us; the Son accepting wounding for the love of us as well. The Father faithful to fulfill His plan to release us from our sin must wound the Son for the love of us. The Son faithfully serving as our substitute, our Lamb, wounded for His love of us as well.
Loving wounds continue among the creatures of God bringing merciful cleansing that draw us to Him. Thomas experienced this when he beheld the wounded hands and feet of Jesus and put his hand in His side confessing belief with conviction where doubt had been, ‘My Lord and my God’; John 20, verse 28.
The Sovereign One, the All Faithful One, wounds His own thus evidencing ownership, great purpose and mysterious lovingkindness. Jacob’s chronic limp was not accidental but deeply intentional in remembrance as were the woundings of Job and Stephen.
God has assured Martha her terminal cancer is a continuation of her pilgrim journey with her Lord Jesus, not an unplanned interlude or an unfortunate shortening of her earthly life. Neither has it been so for the connected hundreds brought near and mentored by the Holy Spirit in the matters of The Creator of all and life eternal. Each one lovingly wounded directly or vicariously, each one experiencing His faithfulness, each one hearing and seeing more clearly new outlines of the Infinite, now drawn closer where blindness and deafness had formerly prevented.
I told martha when I saw her last year that she was more Martha than I had ever known her to be. This cancer thing was not a mistake or a fluke, or untimely. God in His wisdom has used it to make her more of what He made her to be. She has lost so much of the fear that was a former cancer in her life... and was given instead a deep and profound trust and hope. Praise Jesus for these sanctifying wounds...
ReplyDeleteI continue to pray and think, daily, waiting...
praying.... God Bless the entire family.
ReplyDeleteContinuing to pray for you all. I have been so blessed by Martha's sharing of her journey with the Lord. She truly has been such a courageous woman in the face of all that the Lord has asked her to go through. I am humbled and encouraged by her strength through Christ and her willingness to fully participate in this journey. Thank you again for sharing. Praying.... Megan
ReplyDeleteI am praying for your family daily. I feel sadness when I think of the suffering Martha has endured but at the same time I feel happiness to know that she will be in Heaven soon. She has been such a great witness through all of this and a wonderful example to all who have been blessed to know her. Thoughts, prayers, and blessings to you all.
ReplyDeleteHey Marth,
ReplyDeleteI recently learned of your condition from Lydia and had something to share with you that I could not shake. I'll trust your folks to determine whether they think it's appropriate for you right now or whether you have the strength to either read an email or listen to a song. Thanks, Mr & Mrs Depp. Much love to you two and the whole family.
First, you are one of the brightest stars in my memories from Fourth. How many times did I pick you up and give you (and/or your brothers) rides places? How many times did we drive around and you ranted about something or another? Haha! Not enough, my friend. Not enough. Your friendship has always been a delight to me and I praise God for you. I'm grateful to have known you and to have shared so much time, thoughts, worship, and laughter together.
Now, for what's on my heart to share.
I'm praying for you and wondering what it's like with Jesus whispering in your ear as he prepares you to come home to him. I have so many questions about God and you're going to learn the answers. Because you are one with God in Christ, you'll get to see him as he really is. You'll be beyond space and time. Beyond limitation. Filled without interruption by the Spirit. You'll realize our true reality. Your hope will be fulfilled, your faith object seen and your greatest love experienced.
I believe that artists of all kinds, mediums and genres are grasping at some recognition of this perfection--this experience of God and of the timeless and ultimate. As an artist, I'd bet you've wondered about the colors of heaven. Even the lines, ideas, shapes and expressions--well, we just don't know what perfection will be like.
I have the idea, like C.S. Lewis tried to described in the Narnia Chronicles, that earthly experiences and things will turn out to be mere shades, shadows and forms of their trueness that is found in God's presence. I think that music will somehow be integral to our souls and our existence and will flow among us, from us, and between us, and between God and us, like we can't even imagine.
I know music has always powerfully worked in you, as you know it does in me. And this led me to write you today, to send you a song that, every time I hear it now, I think of you and what and Who you are about to see face to face and all that you'll hear firsthand. It's called "The Sound of Melodies" by a group called Leeland. I hope it blesses you and ushers you into the Lord's presence as he calls you to himself, to his joy, to his worship, to perfection, to the ultimate. It is what we long for in Christ.
Joy be with you, sister.
With love,
Nat
The Sound of Melodies
By Leeland
Listen to it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmU2gIxhY3I
We who were called to be Your people
Struggling sinners and thieves
We're lifted up from the ashes
And out came the song of the redeemed
The song of the redeemed
The song of the redeemed
Can you hear the sound of melodies
Oh, the sound of melodies
Rising up to You
Rising up to You, God
The sound of melodies
Oh, the sound of melodies
Rising up to You
Rising up to You, God
We have caught a revelation
That nothing can separate us from
The love we received through salvation
It fills your daughters and your sons
Your daughters and your sons
The sound of Your love
The sound of Your love
Is what You're hearing
The sound of Your sons
The sound of Your sons
You've won Your children
The sound of Your love
The sound of Your love
Is what You're hearing
Your daughters in love
Your daughters in love
You've won your children
The sound of melodies
Oh, the sound of melodies
Rising up to You
Rising up to You, God
I pray -- yes -- and I know what David prayed -- and I am not discouraged even when I know that I am discouraged! What cheer and joy -- blessed that Martha knows that joy! As she comforts us all!
ReplyDeleteAs David wrote! Psalm 39
12 “Hear my prayer, LORD,
listen to my cry for help;
do not be deaf to my weeping.
I dwell with you as a foreigner,
a stranger, as all my ancestors were.
13 Look away from me, that I may enjoy life again
before I depart and am no more.”
Yes, Martha -- you show us -- remind us -- that this is true -- we can show our fists and ask hard questions and even rebel! Yet our Daddy does NOT turn away! It is wonder and joy that you give us dear Martha!
Thank you for sharing, Martha, Jean, Fred. You are all in my prayers and in my thoughts. Isaiah 40: 5, 29-31.
ReplyDeleteWith much love from your cousin in S.C. and your sister in Christ, Bree