Atonement

God may not accept a person to forgive him his sins, without an atonement,
else he must give free license to sin both in angels and men,
and then sin were no sin, and our God were no God.
John Wycliffe

(Agnus Dei by Francisco de Zurbaran 1635 / Sand Deigo Museum of Art)

“To be a Christian is…to be a man”;
But what makes a Christian a Christian and a man a man is
“participation in the sufferings of God in the secular life.”

In Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Cosmos, all created things have their origin, goal, and essence;
through the command of the cosmic Christ all creation is set free to fulfill its own laws:
that is, to be genuinely worldly.

However, it is the cross of atonement that sets men free for life before God
in the midst of the godless world:
[The cross] sets men free for life in genuine worldliness.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Reality and Resistance
Larry L. Rasmussen

And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,
for you were slain,
and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
Revelation 5:9

The infinite endlessness of love

Love is an act of endless forgiveness,
a tender look which becomes a habit.
Peter Ustinov

You want me to tell you why God is to be loved and how much.
I answer, the reason for loving God is God Himself;
and the measure of love due to Him is immeasurable love…
St Bernard of Clairvaux

(an empty snail’s shell / Julie Cook / 2016)

Infinity is a common feature of the patterns found in math, physics, and nature; and thus infinitely repeating patterns must also be a characteristic of the entire cosmos which could then be said to have infinite symmetry.
Journal of Cosmology / Astronomy-Astrobiolgy / Quantum Physics / Earth Sciences /Life

The infinite…
The endless…

Where infinite repetition is found within…
An endless expanding cosmos.

Where perfection is found in the symmetrical
As the immeasurable is born in the intangible

Where mystically perfect ratios create
Otherworldly equations of oddly coincidental facts

Where the rational collides into the irrational
as Love and Forgiveness flow mingled down a cross as one…

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?
Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?
(As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day;
we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)
No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.
Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39

I will awaken the dawn

“She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
“Winter is dead.”
― A.A. Milne

Every Spring, God rewrites the Book of Genesis.
Author Unknown

(a skimmer visits the cosmos / Julie Coon / 2016)

If we have what the first Christians had, why do we not do what they did?
We must conclude that either God gave them more than He has given us, or we have failed to avail ourselves of what He has given us.
(Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones as paraphrased by the Rev. Simon Ponsonby)

Was God more real way back then,
When we were small and He was grand?

Were we more expectant…
More believing?
When we were less and He was more…?

What was it about way back then
When we knew that man was man
And God was God

When morality mattered and civility was real
When family was important and life was cherished

When we marveled in creation and pondered our place
When faithfulness was an action
And Grace was freely given…

My heart, O God, is steadfast;
I will sing and make music with all my soul.
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, higher than the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth.
Psalm 108:1-5