Behold Him There - A Post from Melissa

Siestas! Greetings from Atlanta!
First and foremost, I want to say a big thank-you to the many of you who took the time to submit your tried and true recipes to this greedy siesta! They were all wonderful, and I can honestly say that I have tried more than a few already. I believe it was “Warm in Alaska” who submitted the recipe for the roasted sweet potatoes, please correct me if I am wrong. Wow! Who would ever believe that fresh rosemary and crushed red pepper could transform a sweet potato into something heavenly??!!! They were unreal…and to be true to myself, I also had to add a few garlic cloves in the mix. Wonderful, I really could go on and on, but I will stop, for all of your sakes.

I am not sure if I informed you siestas that since I moved to Atlanta, I now work from home. This has brought about quite a few challenges, not the least of which is that I really miss the camaraderie that I have in my co-workers at Living Proof. Well, I have embraced this season of change from the hand of the living God and so have my mind set on staying positive about the minor difficulties. This has been quite difficult since about a month ago, not one but two of my computers were stolen, and then after losing an entire month of work, my brand new printer completely broke down. Now you can see why I am attracted to the kitchen as of late, since apparently my home office has some kind of demon.  I am seriously not exaggerating and this morning I woke up with such intense ambition to tackle my work day with both hands. Well, my BRAND NEW AND PRICEY computer apparently was not ready to wake up, because it honestly took an hour and a half to start the stupid thing. Well, as you can see, I did finally get the computer working, but as for my good attitude, it was completely shot out the window. I realized, after calling my Mom and vomiting my discouragement all over her at 8:30 in the morning, that something was going to have to happen or I was going to be a foul person to be around today.

The good news is that I know what almost always obliterates my bad attitude. This may sound silly, but when I know that I am inconsolable, I listen to the song “Before the Throne of God Above” about three or four times, or however many times it takes to change my bad attitude. I happen to listen to Selah’s version from the album “Hiding Place” but I am sure that there are many good versions of it since it was written in the mid-late 1800’s (written by Charitie Less Bancroft).
To use South Beach Diet jargon, these lyrics are not just white bread; these lyrics contain whole, unprocessed oats. I am humiliated by the metaphor I carved, but I mean seriously these lyrics are heavily saturated with great theological truths. Take a minute to read through them if you will:

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea
A great High Priest whose name is love
Who ever lives and pleads for me
My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

Behold Him there! The risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless, Righteousness
The Great unchangeable I AM
The King of Glory and of Grace
One with Himself I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God
With Christ my Savior and my God

By the time I get to the third verse in this blessed song (“Behold Him there! The risen Lamb”), I can barely fight the tears back. My mind is always drawn immediately back to the vision that John sees in the book of Revelation of the risen Christ! If I could, I would take all day to break down the many wonderful theological truths that are offered in this song, but since we don’t have all day, I just want to record three of my favorite ones. To begin, the first verse presents Jesus very similarly to the way the book of Hebrews does, as our great high priest who is ever interceding for us. What could be better than that, I ask you? Next, the second verse reminds us of the great doctrine of imputed righteousness- namely, that when sinful man truly acknowledges Christ’s lordship and places faith in Him, that immediately the righteousness of Christ is transferred to his or her account. Truly, one of the major scandals of the gospel message is that just as Adam’s sin is imputed to every human being, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to every believer and subsequently they are being changed into his likeness (Rom. 5:12; 2 Cor. 3:18). What great news! Especially when I have been cursing the computer all morning long!

Lastly, the third verse lifts our eyes to focus once again on the unchangeable I AM, who is equated with the person of Jesus Christ, I might add. Okay, now that we’ve gotten to end of this, there is just one more theological truth I have to mention- our union with Christ Himself! This is one of my favorite doctrines ever! Romans chapter 6 is one of the main biblical sources that we derive this doctrine. I encourage you to read it today, it is just awesome. Our lives are hidden with Christ on high, and we have the privilege of identifying with Him in His life, death, and His resurrection. In a very real way, ladies, we not only died with Christ but the text says we were raised with Him in His glorious resurrection. Our lives are hidden with Him until the future age when we will reign with Him forever in the new creation.

Oh Siestas, take a moment with me to forget about flawed computers and broken printers and behold Him there! The risen Lamb! Our perfect spotless Righteousness! The Great Unchangeable I AM! THE KING OF GLORY AND OF GRACE!