He who has eyes to see...
(Tim) The wonder of this world is that in His wrath against sin God doesn't consume every last one of us. Not your neighbor, but you. Not the Roman Catholic priest or Mormon elder, but me. By all rights, each and every day should end with a universal flood that consumes us all.
But God Who is rich in mercy has promised He will never do it again and the rainbow is His covenant sign that this promise of mercy will stand until the end of time.
That is what this means. And our friend is right to be overwhelmed and cry. Our Heavenly Father made a sign of terrible beauty and splendor to point to a covenant of unbelievable mercy and love.
It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.(Genesis 9:14-16)
Clearnote Churches
Clearnote Fellowship
Christ the Word
Monthly archive
- May 2013 (21)
- April 2013 (33)
- March 2013 (43)
- February 2013 (28)
- January 2013 (41)
- December 2012 (31)
- November 2012 (37)
- October 2012 (38)
- September 2012 (21)
- August 2012 (28)
- July 2012 (46)
- June 2012 (50)
Popular Posts
Tags
Recent Comments
- Robert Woodyard on Some pics for your enjoyment...
- Tim Bayly on Some pics for your enjoyment...
- Christopher Lee on Some pics for your enjoyment...
- Sandy Pryor on Why move to Bloomington?
- Roger Keane on Why is there no ADHD in France...
Comments
That's awesome! Yes, AWE-SOME!
It would incredible if God regenerated that man's heart through the power of His promise in that rainbow. And revealing to him the gospel by the Holy Spirit. ...Him asking "what does it mean?!" God is omnipresent and so powerful.
Call me a cynic but I somehow doubt that this man is having a spiritual awakening. If I was the betting type (and I'm not, LOL) I'd place my money on psychedelics.
So why did I put this video up? A brother just wrote saying he thought I ought to pull the clip, so I thought about it and asked Mary Lee what she thought.
When I first watched the video, it was because another web site linked to it, making fun of the man. At first I thought it was just the stupid "Like wow, man!" of a dopehead.
But the more I considered it, the more inclined I was to think that the man really was blown away by the splendor of God's covenant sign. What beauty our Father has placed in all His creation, but especially the rainbow.
Then too, I was taken by the man asking, repeatedly, "What does it mean?"
So this post is to answer what appears to be a genuine question.
Love,
Tim Bayly
PS: No, I don't think he's just a stoner.
PPS: I thought long and hard about running a video with a sound track composed largely of what, at first appearance, seemed to be taking the Lord God's Name in vain. Over and over again, he explodes "Oh my God." Then, I concluded that this is the natural response of a man who sees the beauty of our Creator for the first time, with eyes to see. Who else to explode towards than his God, Who he's wise enough to know made it? And so, even that profanation came to be sweet to me, needing a loving response from someone who actually knows the Creator, and is prepared to answer that timeless question about the rainbow, "What does this mean?"
So I picture all of us, being there in Yosemite (or You Tube) with unbelievers who may fear God, explaining the rainbow rather than censoriously condemning his exclamations. Maybe that's why we Reformed folk don't evangelize? We're so busy thinking he's dropped a button of peyote or smoked dope; and so busy condemning his "Oh my gods," that we don't hear his questions and hop up in the chariot to answer them.
The worst part of the video is my reacting to his reacting ("okay, I get it already...dude, just chill and enjoy...quietly"). But "decently and in order" means one thing in a budget meeting and something else entirely in front of a double sign of God's patience and promise.
Yeah, I'm cynical, too. It's in my blood, you could say. And it's why I also have a history of not raising my hands in worship and keeping my mouth shut when it needs to be opened. So I am not in the best position to judge the amount of uninhibited joy appropriate to a given occasion.
The real question is...why don't I respond in the same way? I do claim to know what this means. Isn't this heaven itself, to keep responding to the glory of God even when words fail (though I reckon in heaven the words may come easier)? Let all of us sinners be careful not to wince when a momentary blast of glory knocks the dignity out of our neighbor.
To sum up: I should be so foolish.
In the ninth chapter of the John's Gospel, a man was born blind and the Disciples asked Jesus if he was born that way because of his sins or the sins of his parents.
Jesus responds, saying the man was born blind so that God would be glorified. He then proceeds to restore the blind man's sight.
Later on, after the healing, He also says, "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind."
The Pharisees then ask Jesus if they are blind as well, to which He promptly responds, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." In other words, because they claimed to have sight, they were blind.
We know, in retrospect, the Pharisees, of course didn’t have sight. They were the bad guys. But if you think about it, if you were living then, you’d probably have a lot of respect for them. They were the ones who followed all of the laws really well, prayed the most, and knew the most Scripture.
They were probably the sort of people we would consider the best Christians now, but it was because of their Jewishness, for us now, I would say, because of our Christianity. We are blinded by our Christianity and Jesus is obscured.
The blind receive sight. But how long is it then, before they become the Pharisees and start judging other people who are blind? And then God has to make the ones who have sight go blind again. The only way I can see around it, is a continual blindness of our own. Sort of like a blind man groping in the dark, an exercise of complete faith, an admittance of powerlessness and sheer wonder at God’s goodness, with dove’s eyes, not distracted by things that divide or bring factions.
Add new comment