proclaim the excellenciesWhat I was chosen, made a royal priest and part of a holy nation to do. Whose excellencies? The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What are His excellencies?
His steadfast love which endures forever. I exist in it. Because of it I know I am never alone, that there is always Someone who holds me in His heart.
His grace. I like James Ryle's definition of grace: the empowering prescence of God which enables me to be who He created me to be and to do what He created me to do.
His mercy. I have been set free from so many snares and the consequences of so many sinful and foolish things done and left undone.
All of which have been perfectly and beautifully expressed in His Excellency, King Jesus, who is the radiance of His glory, the exact imprint of His nature and who upholds the universe by the word of His power (Heb 1.3).
What other excellencies might I proclaim? Jude, and our more than 40 years together. Our children, Kate and Anth; our grandchildren, Emily, Samantha, Levi and Seth; that Kate and Anth have both chosen to follow Jesus and are both doing that with intelligence and grace.
On another level, but still excellencies that delight me, all God-made and provided: good coffee and my Bible in the early morning (especially when the windows can be open and I can hear the warblers commenting on the day in the back yard), beaches (sunshine, salt on your skin, the sound of the surf), mountains (the smell of the spruce, the way the air seems to crackle in the higher elevations, the colour of the new leaves in contrast with the darkness of the evergreens), open prairie (I can almost see Regina from my living room window), Jude's garden (and her very non-linear approach to it), driving through new country, the sound of a hand-made guitar.
Excellencies, indeed.
With this post I'm beginning a bit of a series (not necessarily every day, mind, every now and then) on what I'm calling "bible triads;" three-word phrases that have lit up for me in my reading over the last few months that can be prayed or obeyed.
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