Rebecca Writes

This post examines the second of the seven statements about the Son made by the writer in Hebrews 1:2b-3: through whom also he created the world. I’m starting at the beginning of the statement this time, so it’s forward ho!

• Through Whom He Created
  This statement tells us that Christ is the agent of creation, an idea that is found in other places in the New Testament as well. One of these texts, Colossians 1:16, was used in the previous post in this series, where Paul tells us that “by [Christ] all things were created.” Another is John 1:3:

  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

  Want more? There’s also 1 Corinthians 8:6:

  … one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

  It is through Christ that God made the world and everything in it. All that exists is in one of two wholly separate classes, either creator or created. Christ is in the creator class, which means he cannot be a created being. And he must be eternal, because in order to have been the one through whom the universe is created, he must have existed before the beginning, or in the eternal realm. He himself, then, could have no beginning. Both of these things—that he has creative power and that he is eternal—are affirmations of Christ’s diety. That he created means he is one with the Father, eternal God himself.
  

• The World
  The word used here is literally “the ages.” Some take this to mean that Christ is the one through whom all times are created, and of course, that Christ created all times is true. But the word can also be used to simply mean “world” (or in this case, since it’s plural, “worlds”) and that’s the way I’m more inclined to think the writer of Hebrews meant it to be taken. I’d think it refers to the whole universe in the same way that the all things that Christ inherits refers to the whole universe. Either way, however, it means that Christ is the agent by which everything that exists came into existence. 

So what does the statement that God created the world through Christ mean to us?

• It is a strong affirmation of Christ’s diety and of his equality with the Father, which should cause us to worship him.
  
• Knowing that Christ possesses the creative power that called the universe into existence should give those who belong to him, who are “new creation” in him, the impetus to act as the new creation they are in Christ.
  

Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us? As you can see, I’ve come up a little short on this one! And how do you understand the word “worlds” in this statement? Anything else you’d like to add or discuss is welcome, too.

Effectual calling is the work of God’s almighty power and grace,[1] whereby (out of his free and special love to his elect, and from nothing in them moving him thereunto [2]) he doth, in his accepted time, invite and draw them to Jesus Christ, by his word and Spirit;[3] savingly enlightening their minds,[4] renewing and powerfully determining their wills,[5] so as they (although in themselves dead in sin) are hereby made willing and able freelyto answer his call, and to accept and embrace the grace offered and conveyed therein.[6]

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Yesterday I listed seven statements about the Son made by the writer in Hebrews 1:2b-3. Let’s look at the first one: whom he appointed the heir of all things.

And let’s live dangerously by starting at the end, moving forward from finish to start. Since each bit of the whole statement means all of what it means because of what follows it, why not just start with what follows in the first place? Beginning at the end, then!

So what does the statement that God has appointed Christ heir of all things mean to us?

 
in Hebrews 1:2b-3.  (Keep in minds, too, that these come right after the author to Hebrews tells us that the Son is the culmination of God’s revelation and right before he tells us that the Son is better than the angels.)

 
Last week I invited readers to give me a favorite hymn to feature here in the upcoming Sunday’s hymn posts, and today I’m posting the first of the reader’s choice hymns. (If you’d like to see your favorite hymn featured, go here and leave a comment, giving your favorite hymn and a little bit about why you like it.)

This first hymn is a favorite of Kim of The Upward Call and AnnieCOA.

Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

This is an ancient Irish hymn, variously attributed, usually to Dal­lan For­gaill or St. Patrick himself. We really don’t know who wrote it, but we do know that it was translated and versified by two Irish women, Mary Byrne and Eleanor Hull, in the early 1900s. You can see the original Irish lyrics here.

The tune is an Irish folk melody called Slane. You can listen in your choice of instrumental or voice.

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of God’s grace,[1] whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband;[2] which is done in their effectual calling.[3] 

1. Eph. 1:22

   And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church… .

   Eph. 2:6-8

   … and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God … .

2. I Cor. 6:17

   But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

   John 10:28

   I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

   Eph. 5:23, 30

   For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
   
   … because we are members of his body.

3. I Peter 5:10

   And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

   I Cor. 1:9

   God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I had a pretty good handle on everything—lawn, garden, preparing for the upcoming major family events—until the fish tank leaked. Someone in this family awoke yesterday morning to find several inches of water in the top drawer of their dresser.  You know what top drawers hold, right? Yep, there was a laundry emergency as well as a flood emergency.

Our aquarium is the 30 gallon one, so there was lots more water waiting to leak still in the tank. Thankfully, I had another tank, smaller, along with all the proper aquarium do-dads, unused in the basement.  (Pack rats, you know, live for days like yesterday, when their habit of keeping every single thing that might come in handy someday actually comes in handy for a day.) But you can’t just plop tropical fish into a just-now-set-up aquarium. They need the water to be just the right  temperature and something has to be done about the nasty chlorine in freshly run tap water. 

Since the fish had to stay in the leaky tank until the new one was safe for them, I put 9x13 baking pans in the drawer to catch the leaking water, and then emptied them every hour until the temperature was right in the new tank. All the fish made the move to the new tank quite nicely, and none have died yet, although they do keep banging into each other and panicking. They’re country fish, I guess, and not used to overcrowding.

Then came the bailing. You can’t just lift up a 30 gallon tank and carry it outside to dump the rest of the water out, you know. Nope, you’ve got to bail, which is not a very pleasant job, no matter how clean you think you keep your fish tank. The fish tank still isn’t cleaned out; that’s on my agenda for this afternoon.

Monday, oldest son will look at the tank to see if he can fix it. He is a glazier by trade, so he’s done it before, only for pay.

While we’re on the subject of oldest son and pay: He’s been doing contract work–communications, they call it—for the Yukon Literacy Coalition. He’s set up a new website for them, which you can look at right here; and updated and edited the Yukon Literacy Guide. This weekend is the annual literacy summit, so he’s been putting in 16 hour days getting ready for that. Things should slow down for him after that, and then he will have time to catch up on things he’s been neglecting, like his dormant blog and my fish tank.

As long as I’m already a little off-topic, I’m going to just continue with the flow. Speaking of Yukon web sites, Urban Yukon, an aggregator and guide for “the best Yukon-related blogs written on a variety of topics” has been redesigned with a snappy new design and some new features, including random photos from a few Yukon photo feeds. Right now, it seems a little heavy on embarrassing old photos from this family, but I’m sure it’ll move on to subjects of more wide-ranging interest shortly.

Oh, as long as we’re covering fish and Yukon blogs, here’s a Yukon fishing blog called Fish on Yukon. 

Do you like everything you read to be in tight little organized packages? My advice to you: Skip this post.

John Schroeder of Blogotional asks for prayer for his parents, who were in a serious car accident this afternoon.

Summers are short here, and once the snow goes, we have about 2 weeks to clean up the yard , fertilize it, till the garden, and plant the vegetables and flowers. I have a big yard and a big garden, so I’ve been a busy person. That means the blog has been neglected a bit and it may continue to be neglected for at little while.

But here’s a little meme I do have time for. I copied this from my friend Scott at Magic Statistics. Here are the instructions: