Looking to Jesus with the Cowboys

Bible study down in Hachita this evening. They came in tired, dusty, spurs jingling, with horses still saddled in trailers outside, but they still came. And we looked at Jesus together: “‘Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.’ Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth” (Revelation 5:5,6, N.L.T.).

• He is King of kings, final Inheritor and Fulfillment to all of God’s promises to David in the Scriptures.
• He is Victor, mighty Conqueror of all the enemies of God.
• He is alone is worthy. Not me. Not you. He alone. Not self-esteem, but the infinitely more satisfying Christ-esteem.
• He is the final and only-adequate sacrificial “Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He still bears the physical reminders, the scars of this sacrifice as a forever-memorial (as in John 20:24-29, for He “looked as if” He “had been slaughtered,” even though He was alive and “standing”).
• He is the center of heaven’s attention, adoration, and eternal reverence.
• He has complete and utter power (“seven horns”). There is none more powerful.
• He is the giver of the complete (“sevenfold,” an allusion to Isaiah 11:2) Spirit of God, given to “everyone believing” in Jesus (John 7:39), regardless of “tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

He is Jesus. See Him in the Word. Repent, believing in Him alone for your salvation, joy, love, peace, and eternal life.

NM-9

Escaping the Hunting Lion

“O Lord my God, in Thee I put my trust: save me from all that persecute me, and deliver me, lest he devour my soul like a lion, and tear it in pieces, while there is none to help” (Psalm 7:1,2, Geneva Bible).

Put all your trust in God the Son, Who intercedes for us that our faith will not fail, and not just for our own good: “And the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired you, to winnow you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: therefore when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren’” (Luke 22:31,32).

Simon Peter learned deeply of the intercession of the Lord in the face of the enemy who is like a roaring, tearing lion: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Cast all your care on Him: for He careth for you. Be sober, and watch: for your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour...resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren which are in the world. And the God of all grace, which hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a little, make you perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen” (1 Peter 5:6-11).

Put your trust this day in the interceding God the Son, Who alone saves and delivers by representing us before God the Father, Who sends forth God the Holy Spirit to help those who belong to His Son by faith.

• “What shall we then say to these things? If God be on our side, who can be against us? Who spared not His own Son, but gave Him for us all to death, how shall He not with Him give us all things also? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s chosen? It is God that justifieth. Who shall condemn? It is Christ which is dead: yea, or rather, which is risen again, Who is also at the right hand of God, and maketh request also for us” (Romans 8:31-34).
• “Wherefore, He is able also perfectly to save them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth, to make intercession for them. For such an high Priest it became us to have, which is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 7:25,26)
• “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not: and if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Just” (1 John 2:1).

Apart from the Son Who intercedes, we have no hope to escape the lion who is hunting us this day, child of God. Trust Him as your Intercessor, not trusting in your own strength or wisdom. Draw near to the Son on the day of the prowling lion.