I love this song by Michael W. Smith but that lyric - bugs me. Jesus is King of all Kings. It's not that he is worthy of our adoration and praise. He is so far above us, so much mightier than we could ever dream to be. Jesus requires our adoration - he sacrificed himself for us - so that we can be saved from ourselves.
We are not worthy of that sacrifice. But with prayer, adoration, and repentance we can be. Jesus is our Savior. If we believe in him, we will not perish but have everlasting life.
This post is a little difficult for me. Yet it's been brewing within me for weeks now and it's time it saw the light of day.
I grew up in a fundamental Christian faith. If you knew the name and looked it up you would find it in a top 10 list of cults. And that's not far from the truth. One of those branches of Christianity who claim all the promises of Jesus' resurrection - for themselves. They had then, and still do have, an unhealthy obsession with the Catholic Church. They see anyone in that group as lost, fallen, beyond salvation unless there is a conversion to, you guessed, it - their branch of Christianity. To them, everything that has ever gone wrong in the world is the fault of the Catholic Church. If you aren't a believer with them, then you are dead. Just - dead.
Sadly, I have family still in this faith and I am, in every real way, dead to them.
For many reasons, chief among them their exclusionary practices, I left that faith over 25 years ago. Eleven years ago God began calling to me (or rather - he'd been calling the entire time and I only started listening at that moment...) to return to his love, to receive his grace, and to be saved from the spiritual desert in which I had wandered for far too long.
And so the search began - and ended, in all places, in a loving, accepting faith community in - Catholicism.
No one could have been more surprised than I. With my faith background it wasn't an easy conversion. And yet I have no regrets; I've never looked back.
But some things from that childhood church-going remain. Like my favorite hymn. You won't find this particular arrangement in many places. In fact the Episcopalians have the most common arrangement known as "Kingfold".
This - is what I sang growing up. And it still moves my heart & soul as much as it did 40+ years ago.
The 3rd, and final verse, says all that needs to be said:
...God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. -first john 3:20
Or put in a more contemporary way - God is greater than any giants we face.
Indeed he is. God's love, comfort, mercy, and grace surpasses anything our mere human minds can comprehend. He loves us so much that he became human to share in our suffering, offering himself as the ultimate living sacrifice ... for us.
