Our Father, Ever Dear!

Michael E. Wood

November 15, 2013

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
2 Corinthians 2:14-17

Quite often, my precious wife Dianna will ask me if I am ready to preach just prior to the time I am scheduled to preach. More often than not my answer is, “I never feel ready.” Now while that statement may not be altogether true, I do find that with my current schedule in teaching and preaching several times a week I feel so very inadequate and ill-prepared when I think of the incomprehensible responsibility of proclaiming the Excellencies of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And yet I am encouraged by the promises God has given through the written word that it is indeed He who makes those whom He has called to this task sufficient as ministers of the good news of the grace He gives from day to day and enables us by His Spirit to be the conduits through which He speaks.

While in the process of preparation for a Bible study at the Terraces in Roseville, California, a flood of passages came to mind to bring emphasis and weight to the particular text we would be looking at for the day. In this process I was given the confidence that these passages came to mind as a free gift of the grace of God and that He would use them to magnify Himself during our time for the day, and then the following words came to mind.

I often marvel at the grace

You give to seek You in the face

Of Christ whose glory we behold

By faith in scripture You unfold

Because He came and bled and died

As You in Him are glorified

While by the Spirit we are changed

Fulfilling all You have arranged

Till all shall see Him then on high

And bow the knee to glorify

Your matchless Name by which You own

All praise and glory on the throne

From which You rule o’er every thing

And shall forever as we sing

New songs of praise with all who fear

You, as our Father, ever dear!