"Beyond the Pale"

"From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised." (Psalms 113:3)

 Forget what you think and the meaning of pale, because for this illustration it is all about throwing normal out the window. We are not normal; in this world, every follower of Jesus Christ is called to be separate from the dwellers of this world. A friend sent me a cartoon yesterday in a text, it showed Dennis the Menace standing beside a friend, looking up into heaven, and saying; "If heaven is that pretty on the bottom, think how it must look on top!" We only see a small portion of what is real and the immense power of what God is capable of doing. Just the heavens alone should make us realize how much power He has; that He has spoken all of that into existence should be enough to make us realize how small and how dependent we are on His protection and security. I think that the main reason God placed the heavens there for us, is so that we could come to realize that this world is not all that there is, and that there is more in store for us beyond this life here on this earth. Consider the vastness of the universe and the comparison there is to this little blue dot we call earth; there is hardly any way to compare the vast difference that exist between the size of this earth and one of those biggest stars we see shinning in the night; compared to one of them, we would not even be visible on their surface. As small as a grain of sand, this is what we would represent on the surface of Canis Majoris; even our sun would appear as a freckle on the face of that massive star. We serve and worship the God that spoke that into existence! There is absolutely nothing normal in that kind of relationship! A small little part of God's work in our lives, is big enough to make a difference in the whole earth; as crazy as that statement might sound. We just don't realize what it is that God is capable of doing in and through us, because we only get to witness a very small part of what takes place. Like that little speck of sand on that vast star, that is the amount we can see of the work He is capable of doing with us. Pastor Mike was sharing about the reason judgment is held off until the very end, that it was because every wicked thing done will continue to do something way beyond our individual life. He used the example of those that start cults or of Darwin who put forth the theory of evolution; how the action of what they did has caused vast numbers of people to be damned to hell. As he was explaining that, I could not help but think of the effect a good life has upon generations of people. How it is that one person could share Jesus with just one other person, and how that one encounter could result it thousands coming to Christ, and so on, and on and on it goes...

""Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, who pleases me. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to all who have been wronged. He will not falter or lose heart until justice prevails throughout the earth. Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction."" God, the LORD, created the heavens and stretched them out. He created the earth and everything in it. He gives breath to everyone, life to everyone who walks the earth. And it is he who says, "I, the LORD, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will take you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you to my people, Israel, as a symbol of my covenant with them. And you will be a light to guide the nations. You will open the eyes of the blind. You will free the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons. "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols. Everything I prophesied has come true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens."" (Isaiah 42:1-9) NLT