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Worthy

Melanie - October 15, 2009

For about the last twenty-four hours I've been trying to write this post. I don't know why it's been so hard, but I think it has something to do with the fact that there was just so much pure goodness in Beth's message at Living Proof Live Memphis that I can't seem to narrow down my focus.

I keep writing something about how the part that spoke to me the most was the part about how God teems with compassion, but then I decide that the part I liked the most was the thing about God being scandalously forgiving.

But wait! Maybe the best part was being reminded that Jesus loves me this I know and that God abounds in love for me.

It's just a lot to process.

One thing keeps coming to my mind though and I'm almost afraid to write about it because I feel certain that I can't do it justice because if there's a book in the Bible that intimidates me, it's the book of Revelation. I've read it several times and usually end up just deciding that I trust that God's going to work it all out in the end and that's good enough for me.

But on Saturday afternoon, Beth really got into Revelation, specifically Revelation 5. She referenced Ezekiel 1 and talked about how God always remains seated on His throne. He is always on His throne. And in front of His throne is a glass sea, a sea where He hurls our iniquities. He hurls them. He doesn't just toss them lightly; He hurls them.

There are flashes of lightning, rumbles of thunder and indescribable creatures that sit at the feet of God and cry "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come" while the twenty-four elders cast their crowns and say, "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." (Revelation 4)

Even writing those words makes tears come to my eyes because I realize it's just a glimpse, a hard to comprehend glimpse, at the power and majesty of God. You just know there is no way that John was able to do justice to all he saw and experienced. We serve a God that never gets off His throne, a God so pure and holy and radiant that man cannot look upon His face and live.

Yet He's a God that loves us abundantly, who is filled with compassion for us and, as Beth said, is scandalously forgiving. He doesn't have to be any of those things. He doesn't need us to achieve His purposes, yet He uses us anyway because He loves us. Is it just me or does that blow your mind when you really think about it?

Anyway, Beth read the following passage from Revelation 5:

"Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?" But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.'"

She talked about how there was a moment when John wept and wept because it didn't appear that there was anyone worthy to open the scroll. There was a moment in time, even in the midst of all that glory, that he was filled with unbearable sadness. But then, all of a sudden, the One who is worthy appeared looking like a lamb that had been slain and reached out to take the scroll.

The Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ, is worthy.

Beth compared those moments that John had to wait, those moments when he grieved that no one was worthy, to the times in our lives when God allows a season of lonely, a lack, a gap between what we want and what we have, so that we will know there is only ONE who is worthy. There is only ONE who will never leave us, never forsake us, and never let us down.

It made me think of all the times in my life that were so painful at the time, yet God used them to draw me back to Him, to remind me that He alone is worthy. He alone can fill the gap. And He does over and over again.

Honestly, I'd like to tie this up in some perfect way, but all I can say is that it humbles me to my core.