As we go forth from here to the nations
Let your Fragrance fill this place
As we gather to seek your face
As voices filled the sanctuary with these words, I cannot help but feel the undeserved graciousness of God upon us, His sheep. Indeed, like sheep we have all gone astray. There is no one found righteous, save the Lord Jesus Christ.
Emerging from General Elections 2006, which took place on 6th May 2006, I felt drained and extremely burdened by some facts not reported in the local media. I have not posted anything political on this blog, and I do not intend to, as this site's focus is on Jesus. But the fact remains that I felt burdened in a way that detracted me from focusing on God last Sat. You can imagine how relieved I felt when strains of this song greeted me on Sunday morning. I immediately made my way to the altar to just stand and soak in His presence, surrendering all my burden in exchange for His which is light and easy to bear.
I thank God that his leadership & love is unconditional. He is the Servant King, the leader who surrendered His rights as God to take up the feeble form of man in this sin-cursed world, the master who washed his disciples' feet, and the Shepherd who was sacrificed as the unblemished Lamb of God for our sins and folly. God's concept of a leader is totally different from that of ours in this world, and I thank God for that. I thank God for showing me excellent examples in the form of our Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles. They are influential but refused to be involved with politics or the associated power struggles, choosing instead to reach out to each man, woman, and child at the personal level because at that level, the most basic level, love is most effective and intimate.
I think I understand now.
Their focus has never been on this world, and their hearts have been firmly anchored in heaven where their treasures are. They have never sought to make this a better world, or pretend to be able to, either for themselves or their future generations. Instead, they saw each person as a life, not some faceless statistic, and selflessly reach out and point people to the eternal kingdom that is to come, something that's inherently and many times better than this world, her mammon & creature comforts. In a world that degenerates & darkens further, the light we shine needs to be seen and desired by more.
Lord, let your Glory fall on our nation and have mercy on us.
Thomas
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