From the Principal
In my morning rhythms and rituals, before I settle down to breakfast of 3 Weet Bix (Yes, I’m a Weet Bix kid from way back who used to do 8!) and a big glass of orange juice, I read and reflect on a devotional from Paul Tripp called “New Morning Mercies”.
The 9th of December entry comes with the heading:
God harnessed the forces of nature and controlled the events of history to redeem you. Will he abandon you now in your moment of need?
What followed was a providential summary of the LCS theme for 2022 God’s Word – One Unified Story. I’d like to conclude our Herald series with this encouragement about what God has done.
The Bible isn’t a series of stories. It isn’t a catalog of interesting characters. It isn’t a manual of theology. It isn’t a book of interesting wisdom principles. One story, with one hero, forms the cord that holds the whole Bible together. The Bible is essentially the story of redemption. This grand redemptive story, with God’s essential explanatory notes, is the main content of the Word of God.
The Bible displays for us the extent to which God has gone in order to provide salvation for us. He really controlled every event in human history, and he really harnessed the forces of nature so that at a certain time his Son would come and live, suffer, die and rise again to provide salvation for us. It is a stunning story that should provide the interpretive grid for everything you face in your life in this broken world.
If God went to such lengths as to control the events of the world and to sacrifice his one and only Son, would it make any sense at all for him to abandon you between the “already” of your justification and the “not yet” of your final glorification? Would it make any sense for him to turn his back on you now? Would it make any sense for him to ignore you in your hour of need? Would you expend a great amount of personal effort and sacrifice to secure something of value and then not work to keep, maintain, and protect it?
The fact that you are precious in God’s sight is clear because he purchased you at a great price. No higher price could be paid than the death of the Messiah. But that’s exactly the price that God paid to redeem you and me. Since he paid such a price, we can rest assured he will expend his divine power and grace to protect, mature, provide for, and keep us until we are with him in a place where the dangers of sin and death are no more. Paul says it this way: “If he freely gave us Jesus, doesn’t it make sense that he will also give us everything that we need? (See Rom. 8:31-33).
So, don’t let any evil enemy whisper lies into your ear. Don’t let him tell you that you are alone, that you’re left to your own resources, or that God doesn’t hear or care. Don’t let yourself doubt God’s presence and his goodness. Don’t let yourself wonder if you’ll make it through. God unleashed his power to make you his own, and he will continue to unleash his power to keep and protect you until you are with him forever in the place where you will need his protection no more because the final enemy will be under his feet.
What I know for sure is that God is faithful and always keeps His promises. I don’t know anyone else who can claim that. I sure can’t. But because God is perfect in every way and has shown us how to live in a saving, redeeming relationship with himself, I hold no fear for the future. Just a firm and secure hope and trust that God has got me, my family, our school community, our state, our country, our world and our universe in His safe hands. What an amazing thing it is to be able to rest in that confident assurance. To God be the Glory!
And one final word from The Message translation of Philippians 1:3-6.
Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.
As I pen these final greetings to our dear school community, I want to thank each of you for the encouragement, the support through good and challenging times, the joys and laughter, as well as the sorrows and tears. I would like to wish you all a blessed Christmas and that each will know the love, joy and peace that comes from our dear Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ.