The Bethany Bullet - November 5, 2013

Many of you may know that I have a running feud with punctuation. (No one more so than the editors of the Bethany Bullet, Chimes and Worship pages.)  Punctuation can be so precise and exacting, and all the rules so demanding.  While I am no expert on punctuation the following sentence definitely needs one: Saints preserve us.

Are those words something the living pled?  Saints preserve us!  OR are those words ones that are through life, the cry of the Saints? Saints, preserve us.  Indeed, over the history of the Church there have been, and still are, those that ask or plead for the Saints to spring into action on their behalf and bring them protection, assistance, or guidance.  

However, when John saw the saints gathered round the throne of God in his Revelation he noted not their accomplishment but of their supplement. That is, John saw not what the Saints had done for God but what the Lord had done, and still does, for them.  Hence, the Saints do not go to the living on behalf of God, nor go to God on behalf of the living. The Saints serve HIM day and night, raising His honor, praising His name.  Thus we do not cry to them, Saints preserve us!  Rather we join the cry of all the Saints, preserve us.  Preserve us good Lord.

What separates us from those gathered round the throne is not our identification. We too are identified as the Saints of God.  The Saints of God are those who the Lamb has bled for, those who the feast has fed, and those (who as a Shepherd) He has led.

Our God has bled for the Saints. The most important dynamic and singularly profound moment in human history was NOT when the veil that separates heaven and earth was pulled back and the disciple whom Jesus loved saw the other side, but rather when the One who loved that disciple, yeah who love the world, Himself walked through the veil and the God of eternity took on humanity. He became subject to the laws of God and kept them perfectly.  He knew the demands of the wrath to be appeased and He paid the price voluntarily.  For the sake of His holy life and the purity of His sacrifice, vicariously God declares to be Saints. 

Our God has fed the Saints.  Daily bread He still supplies but we do not live by it alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.  At the table of the Lord we are fed more than bread, the very body of our Lord.  This is a foretaste of the feast to come, but no appetizer!  Yes, a stipulate, for with sin forgiven and faith strengthened we are moved to desire to walk closer with Him in life until we live with Him in heaven.

Our God has led His Saints.  We’ve been led…

V  To streams of living water in baptism 

V  Through valleys of shadow and death

V  By quiet waters when boundary lines fall in pleasant places 

V  Into the company of fellow travelers also called the Saints of God

V  We’ve been led by the Spirit to the Shepherd and guardian of our souls

So with all the Saints we say, preserve us.

 -Pastor Kevin Kritzer