HIS SHEER MAGNIFICENCE WHO IS OVER ALL

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JOYFUL JOTTINGS 6
HIS SHEER MAGNIFICENCE WHO IS OVER ALL

The sheer magnificence of the mercy of the Lord, is like a jutting cliff,
abutting into space from glorious high ground.
His purity, like streams in heights unthinkable,
dazzling with light,
His peace like a profundity
both illimitable and lovely,
His love, like torrents of iridescent waters,
cascading in vertical fall, touching the rocky surfaces as they go,
sweetening the air and enlivening the verdure.
His creativity, from which myriads of dependent creativities pour like drops from the spray,
His depths which are as unfathomable as His wisdom,
His mockery of space, a mere item of expenditure from the celestial magnitude, which created it,
a play-pen for man,
His time which overarches all occurrence, and gives it scope once it is set up in its puny position, like toy soldiers:
it is the wonder of God which is so blatant that it makes bill-boards look discreet,
so beautiful that it leaves all examples of earthly beauty like children's books,
and so humble that it is not even seen by the wilful and the arbitrary.

He has spun like a spider, the web of life. Out goes the material, like a fence around a new property. Then comes the information storage unit, to enable action to be orderly. Next arrives the executive wing, to translate the information into action, and the concepts into occurrences. With that soon arrives consciousness, that attestation of life which is as real as a motor, compared with mere hand work, and defines in thought, the entity, the reality of the life form in mind, and now in hand. Thence, instinctive powers, to pre-dispose to wiser ways, lest the work be lost through its own level of freedom; but not so determinate, that it cannot be individual in measure. Mind and its analytical force, predictive power and its discerning discretion, all, as it were, enter left, or right, onto the stage of life. It is built like a skyscraper, each element discreet, all plan integral.
The spirit of man comes like a box for mind, a self-consciousness, a God-conscious capacity enshrined, for the mode the Lord will chose, a display unit for conscious reflection and self-control, a mandate to investigate and subdue the earth, equipped with ejection seat from the mind of God, like pilot able to leave his vehicle, but not space, so that the fool who says in his heart, There is no God, may be appeased in his wholly undivine wrath, and enabled to act if he should so will, in his futile fiasco of investigations of what is not there, having left what is.
Like a banquet are spread by the Lord, the sheer ingenious multitudes of inventions, freedom waving the flag; and the power to love, that is there also, and with it of course, to hate; to do good, and with that naturally, to do evil, for there is no ‘good’ in program, but the programmer's mind; but in man, there is scope for real good, and genuine evil, in which he is expert, but not nearly so clever as is the devil in that domain, who runs it with a bitter smile, and an inventory of wrath, because his time is short, and he is smart enough to know it (Revelation 12:9-12). Man however, he is often dull enough not to know it, and wilful enough to dash himself on the rocks of reality, without the purity of the spray or the delight of the scene. As to that, this deal may be distasteful, but it is asked for; it is empty... but popular.
God over all in His mercy does not reclaim it all, in this like a slag-heap chemically re-processed. His offer is to all, and His selection criteria in reclamation are such that "He would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2:4), but the way being narrow, and the door, the crucified Christ: many are they who avoid it as if it were Auschwitz, and thus voluntarily go to what is worse! (cf. John 6:56-68).
As to Hell, it is not reached because God is short of love, like an athlete short of breath, or a vexed school-teacher, who has "had enough of kids"! It is the exclusive domain of the devil and His angels, prepared for them as the Lord has said, and accessible also to man, when he so prefers darkness to light that this is his condemnation, even in the face of light (John 1-3:19).
His divine mercy then ? Have you read the poem,
The Everlasting Mercy, of John Masefield. I seem to remember that, quite amazingly, he visited our Heidelberg School in Victoria when I was a child. If you have not meditated on this poem, could I suggest you remedy the omission.
But God ? He makes no omissions. If you have not called on His name, and sought His mercy, do so. There is none like Him. His self-declaration is definitive in His eternal Word, vested in flesh as the Christ, Jesus Christ the Lord, His being the power in remedy which parallels the divine power in creation in which, as the living word of God, He also acted (Colossians 1, John 8:58). It is His salvation is the alternative to slavery to sin, self-sufficient sin (which is quite illusory - try being born, some day), seedy sin, splendid self-glorifying sin (why ? did you make yourself ?), ANY sin except the sin which WILL NOT COME to be cleansed, in a life which will not receive correction!
There is a sin to death, and it is not good to play with fire (I John 5:16). Chronic and inseparable sin can sear the soul into a rejection set like concrete, the fabric of life into a charring that reeks with what is destroyed (I Timothy 4:2).
That sin in essentially is the sin of severance from the call to mercy. It is the sin of the beggar who will not acknowledge need, of the starving who would rather die than accept charity. Except note this: THIS CHARITY, it is the charity of the one who in charity made you, so that you could receive your need, or deceive you soul. The sheer grandeur of His conceptions, like the refined diminution of His humility, of Him who faced the cross of contempt to deliver His children from it, and calls all with a sincerity which His words attest, His deeds demonstrate: these are like Him. To love Him is to love what is lovely, yes its source.
To receive His salvation is to bloom, and not to go to seed. It is what life, sentenced in sin, is now for; and it is the beginning which does NOT end (John 10:9,27-28), because on HIM, for all who are His or will come to Him, on HIM, is laid the iniquity of us all, and BY HIS STRIPES, are healed all who are His (Isaiah 53). There is nothing that is too hard for the Lord; and if you fear you may not be one of His sheep, and try to convince yourself you are not invited, forget it. IF YOU COME, that proves you are one of His, for all who come to Him, the only Saviour, HE WILL NOT CAST OUT! How do I know ? He said so, and so it operates (John 6:37, Acts 4:11-12). If you do not DESIRE HIM, why complain ? If you DO, then come. His call is clear, constant over thousands of years, and in the same terms of salvation (Isaiah 55, Ezekiel 33:11, Lamentations 3:33).
If you have come, then GO and spread His salvation-news, His Gospel, acknowledge His greatness and operate at the level, which continually is there, like a vast and delightful plateau, set on the hill-top of His presence, to which this so free access is given.
It is said once, but let it be said again: NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR THE LORD. That message resounds from Sarah's time to that of Mary, from age to age. Mountains CAN be moved by faith. If THEY are there, GOD is beyond them. NO GOOD THING will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. It is because He is good, and the road for such traffic, is the road of faith. See Mark 11:23, Psalm 34:19,17, 37:39,7, 40:5, 84:11.
For Further in this area of the magnificence of god, see for example, Biblical blessings, appendix 1v, repent or perish 2, pp. 41ff., A Question of gifts VII, pp. 73ff., and SMR Ch.6.