Outstreched arms of Christ

Can we find Jesus in the Old Testament? Yes and yes! He appears everywhere though concealed for the glory of God! Jesus is on the mind of Father God since the beginning of creation, only hidden until His time on earth to walk that lonely path. Yet how traces of heaven on earth never fade from the lineage of His birth, and lives on in the lore of the Israelite even unbeknownst to them. And such a long shadow the cross cast upon the chosen people of both before and after Calvary to announce that salvation begins and ends in Christ -- for all who see the bronze serpent see not death.

And by His dying grace is born, the life substantiated in death by death -- shadow of law, purposed by God for eternal redemption. Such glorious resurrection is symbolized in the intersection of God and man by way of a simple two-beamed cross. How assured are we that in the story of man (the holy Bible) Jesus stands at the center of time and middle of earth, with His arms outstretched to reach into both past and future as He did on that beginning tree of life, gathering all under His wings of refuge -- Jews and Gentiles, believers and unbelievers, sinners and saints -- until the end of days.

Every last sheep shall turn for home in his own time, by his own choice; as the irresistible grace shines in his heart the light from even a single facet of diamond in truth -- the altogether lovely and ever beautiful Jesus Christ, He is the holy fire burning through all facades of pride and ignorance, but also a soothing voice like the sound of many waters saying, "Come home with me." For the chosen of God is not a few but one -- Christ -- first fruit of many that, if God find Him acceptable, all shall experience His grace. God's choice is never a compromise but resolute certainty, never some but all or nothing! Amen

Stay tuned for the cross of Israel that inspired this writing.

James