-

MOMENTS OF GRACE – Under His wings

By David Woodbury

There is something in the human soul that yearns for a tangible communion with our Creator God. As God walked in the Garden of Eden and sought communion with Adam and Eve, He still longs for that same intimacy with us. Sometimes it takes us by surprise, like a peaceful sunrise over the bay, yet other times it comes as a response to the yearning of our own heart and soul.

In today’s Army where the mercy seat is utilised for various reasons: to pick up a stone, write on a piece of paper etc. I’ve sometimes wondered if we might miss those precious moments of grace which we once knew around the mercy seat.

For numerous Salvationists, the mercy seat holds a pivotal and treasured place in their spiritual pilgrimage. For many of us, it was a place of a childhood encounter with Jesus and because of it our relationship with Him has grown over the years and its sacredness has never left us. For me, it was at eight years of age in a decision Sunday meeting that I first knelt there and found my heart strangely warmed, an experience that is still tangible in my memory today.

I have found that the Bible indelibly confirms that here is the place where we can meet with God in a unique and deeply spiritual way.  You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold … Then make two
cherubim from hammered gold, and place them on the two ends of the mercy seat … The cherubim will face each other and look down on the mercy seat. With their wings spread above it, they will protect it. … I will meet with you there and talk to you from above the mercy seat between the gold cherubim that hover over the Ark of the Covenant. (Exodus 25 – NLT)

We have often taken the phrase under His wings to refer to the wings of the mother hen with the symbol of God as our protector. It may well be that there is another explanation. In Psalm 61:4 the writer cries out to God: Let me live forever in your sanctuary [the resting place of the Ark], safe beneath the shelter of your wings!  For me, to be under His wings is rich with the meaning and import of the Ark with its mercy seat, between the wings of the cherubim’s where God promises: … I will meet with you there and talk to you.

In 1998 the International Spiritual Life Commission called on Salvationists to recognise the wide understanding of the mercy seat that God has given to the Army; to rejoice that Christ uses this means of grace to confirm his presence; and to ensure that its spiritual benefits are fully explored in every corps and Army centre.

Perhaps one day we might just recapture the immeasurable significance and the rich spirituality of The Salvation Army mercy seat.

Please listen to this video clip on YouTube and recapture something the sacredness of the mercy seat experience. May it be a moment of grace for you!

https://youtu.be/fXH6yjvU1Hw


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN GOD IS ASLEEP? By David Woodbury As we cannot share Christian fellowship in our usual church community, perhaps this video along the lines of my post will bring some comfort. Please click the link below: https://youtu.be/WssOBl3xbfk Humanity is now facing a pandemic that threatens to take thousands, if not millions of lives. Within the matter of a few weeks, our entire world is facing a threat the like of which few, if of any us, could have ever imagined. Thousands of business closed, many millions now facing unemployment and the world economy in total chaos. The reality is that the world, and our nation as we currently know them, will never be the same again and we may well ask: “Where is God in all this?” We feel that in times of great suffering and trauma on an extensive scale God should somehow intervene, however, history tells us that He rarely does. There are two things to consider here, the first is the operation of nature and the sec
Read more
-
Image
THE CONDITIONS FOR SALVATION Romans 10:1-13 By David Woodbury In the deepest recesses of his heart, Paul yearns for his fellow Jews to come to the place of understanding that salvation and being put right with God is a matter purely of faith. He acknowledges that they have a zeal for God which is misdirected by trying to gain righteousness before God by their own merit and achievement. They felt that they could get right with God by their own efforts; that they could earn a right standing and accumulate enough credits with God, and because of that God owed them salvation. 1Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. 2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomp
Read more
-
Image
THE DESTINY OF GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE By David Woodbury In Romans ch. 9 Paul turns from the crucial subject he has been covering in chapters 1 to 8; that of salvation by grace alone, to an explanation of God’s present dealing with Israel. For the next three chapters, this will be his main focus. In them, we see the heart of a Jewish patriot as he grieves for his own nation’s disobedience and rejection of Jesus Christ . Indeed, as we read this particular section of Romans (chs. 9-11) it becomes increasingly clear that Paul sees in God's judgment a means by which his mercy will finally triumph . (Interpreter's Bible, The – Exposition – Romans 9) He is at pains to emphasise the utter truthfulness of his message to the Jews in Rome. He is willing to suffer the tortures of hell and separation from God is it would save his Jewish people. God’s Selection of Israel With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. 
Read more