Father, why? why would you afflict our elder with this heartbreaking abandonment of his son? please bring him back into Your good grace--deliver him from this rebellion! send Your children to minister to him, demonstrating Your sacrificial love, that he might be saved. You know who i speak of--and You know i could very well be in his place. why not me?
you have set eternity in our hearts so that we will never be satisfied with the eighty or ninety years You give us, though You are most blessed for giving them! we barely have a chance to grow old before we're buried again. how ironic! from dust you came; to dust you go. return to dust, o sons of men. blessed be the Name of the LORD.
taste and see that the LORD is good and has sent Jesus to taste death for you, or you will taste death yourself, and cling to that which does not satisfy.
did You predestine this man's son to taste, Father? did You intend for him to condemn himself in the sober taking of Your supper, a small glimpse of heaven's feast? did You mean to incorporate him into Your body, only to reveal himself to not be a proper graft? did You mean to crush his father's heart?
(O, foolish me! for how much greater is Your pain, O Father, for the sheep that wander without being lost, who refuse to seek and refuse to see and refuse to hear Your gospel! help me to be broken for his sake, and bring me zealous grief that moves prayers into action.)
but i am comforted. for i know that You predestined the cross, and that You have all things in control, for our benefit and for Your praise, which is our benefit. this is my comfort--that the cross, the climax of sin, was a triumph and an atonement and a substitute and a scapegoat and justice and mercy and love all wrapped up in swaddling cloths. if i do not trust in Your powerful sovereignty in the cross and resurrection, this dawn of Christ's victory, i will not maintain my sanity, as the people do by sweeping all questions under the rug. but He loves me, and this is enough.
Father, i will not cease praying for this man and his son.
you have set eternity in our hearts so that we will never be satisfied with the eighty or ninety years You give us, though You are most blessed for giving them! we barely have a chance to grow old before we're buried again. how ironic! from dust you came; to dust you go. return to dust, o sons of men. blessed be the Name of the LORD.
taste and see that the LORD is good and has sent Jesus to taste death for you, or you will taste death yourself, and cling to that which does not satisfy.
did You predestine this man's son to taste, Father? did You intend for him to condemn himself in the sober taking of Your supper, a small glimpse of heaven's feast? did You mean to incorporate him into Your body, only to reveal himself to not be a proper graft? did You mean to crush his father's heart?
(O, foolish me! for how much greater is Your pain, O Father, for the sheep that wander without being lost, who refuse to seek and refuse to see and refuse to hear Your gospel! help me to be broken for his sake, and bring me zealous grief that moves prayers into action.)
but i am comforted. for i know that You predestined the cross, and that You have all things in control, for our benefit and for Your praise, which is our benefit. this is my comfort--that the cross, the climax of sin, was a triumph and an atonement and a substitute and a scapegoat and justice and mercy and love all wrapped up in swaddling cloths. if i do not trust in Your powerful sovereignty in the cross and resurrection, this dawn of Christ's victory, i will not maintain my sanity, as the people do by sweeping all questions under the rug. but He loves me, and this is enough.
Father, i will not cease praying for this man and his son.
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