Dragons

"I will take refuge in the shadow of Your wings," Psalm 57:1.

Yes, dear God, Most High! Your mercy reaches out to us as we come for your protection. We call out to you and you do everything we need. From the skies you send defense from evil workers. You send constant love. You send faithfulness. When we must live among lions or dragons, your brilliance radiates the earth, and their own schemes do them in. Our hearts settle firmly in you. We harmonize your praises. Your dawn awakens in our songs! Your eternally devoted love reaches clear to the skies! Your glory fills the earth!

With a brother or sister today we sing praises to our God for his faithful deliverances. And, together, we return in thankfulness under the safety of his love.

Barren

"You are children of promise," Galatians 4:28.

You, who? You, brothers and sisters, You! You, children of the woman who didn't have kids. That woman who couldn't have kids, she's our mother. She's our mother in keeping with the promises God gave to old Abraham (& to her!). Sarah, the old, barren woman, now has kids all over the place. Kids of promise. And, listen to this, kids born by the Spirit, not by the flesh. Isaac was her first kid born by God's promises, by God's Spirit. And her farthest kid, Jesus, born by God's promise, conceived by God's Spirit, made you believers her kids, by his faith. And, just like Isaac, Jesus set you free for freedom's sake, children free from the Law's curse!

We visit today with a brother or sister amazed together by what God has done in his faithfulness to those old people, good as dead. And, together, we praise God in Christ for the joy of life.

Picture

"This is an allegory," Galatians 4:24.

(Hear what the Law says here!) Allegory? A picture. Ok. What's the picture? Picture this: Abraham had a kid with the slave woman, Hagar. Too, he had a kid with the free woman, Sarah. These two women picture two covenants. The Hagar covenant, the second one, pictures Mt. Sinai in Arabia (where God gave the Law to Moses). She, in her slavery, represents the Jerusalem here on earth with all her kids enslaved to the Law's curses. The Sarah covenant, the first one, pictures God's promises of forever life. She, in her freedom, represents the Jerusalem in the sky above. She produces free kids of promise. Children of God's promises. We (having put on Christ) are those promised kids.

We get together with a brother or sister today, free, happy children of Sarah. And, together in thankfulness, we praise God that we show up in his eternal family picture.