"High and Lifted Up"

"Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven." (Psalms 148:13)

  Just so we are clear, "them," is everything! Nothing is left out, because in God is life, the life of every single thing, whether it be substance or creature; nothing that exist ever was before God created it, and nothing that was created, was created without Christ! When I first heard this, it changed my whole view of who Jesus was, and what a powerful thing it was for Him to be crucified upon that cross. I was once asked, with much sarcasm, Why would God need to come down here and die on a cross? I was not reluctant in my response, because the answer is really quite simple: Because only He was worthy enough to pay the penalty for our sins! The sacrifice needed to be spotless and Holy; nothing else would do! Sarcasm or not, the question is still the same and the answer is simple; how or why a person might ask it, it really doesn't matter: the answer that is declared will, and always will, be truth! Nothing can change the truth, and the truth remains. Back to that second day of creation: it is not just that there was a separation created, it is that the separation existed from the beginning! Even before God created the separation, His holiness and glory was always higher than anything which was created; plain and simple, nothing created could ever be an equal to the Creator that created it. I can't get that song out of my head, "What a Friend we have in Jesus!" Son of God, and Son of Man; both God and Man in One! Reading Isaiah 9:6, it says very plainly: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Pastor Bryan spoke yesterday of a Bridge Builder and how a Carpenter looks at a dead piece of wood and sees life. Yes, God surely does want us to know Him: He wants us to have fellowship with Him...

"There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God, and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all. However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why the Scriptures say, "When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people." Notice that it says "he ascended." This clearly means Christ also descended to our lowly world. The same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself." (Ephesians 4:5-10) NLT