Elliott's Muses

It's one of my favorite hymns, "Be Still my Soul, the Lord is on thy side bear patiently the cross of grief or shame Leave to thy God to order and provide In every change, he faithful will remain Be still my soul, thy best, thy heavenly friend Through thorny ways, leads to a joyful end It's one of my most needed needs in my spiritual life:   "Be Still and know that I am God"  (Psalm 46:10) By nature I'm restless...not easy for me to just sit quietly in anything.  I like to be active, doing something, being productive...or at least engaged in watching.  I strain to be still before God... he's quiet, and I'm impatient. When Jesus said,  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord." He ended this with the words: ...

This last Sunday I spoke of what it means to know Christ - not only as the Gospel promises us that he saves us, by Grace alone, through faith alone, in his own work alone - but also in personally knowing HIM, as our mediator... the one who stands before the Father on our behalf, making intercession with the Father for us. The author of Hebrews says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 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 4:15-16] You notice the words " sympathize with our weakness ". Sympathize is a good word, but a better word would be " Compassion with our weakness ". Thomas Goodwin was a 17th century Pastor who gave me some new insight into Jesus' compassion. Jesus has compassion on us in both our afflictions (sickness, pain...