John 5 – Dwelling Among Us

John 1:14-18 (NIV)

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, ‘This is the one I spoke about when I said, “He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.”’) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” Amen.

 

The Incarnation: The Beginning of a Mystery Beyond Understanding

The passage we have read today is perhaps the most attacked and persecuted content in Christian history. Yet, at the same time, it is a verse that has brought infinite gratitude, trembling, and joy to all believers. John 1:14, which we read today, begins with the declaration: "The Word became flesh." If you remember John 1:1, it says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." If we simply and honestly follow the writing of the author of John, we are faced with an inevitable conclusion. Since the Word is God, the statement that the Word became flesh is synonymous with saying that God became flesh.

 

God became flesh. What does 'flesh' mean here? Does it simply mean our bodies made of blood and bone? The Bible does not use the term 'flesh' to refer only to the physical body. Rather, 'flesh' here refers not just to the physical anatomy but includes the human spirit as well. To the Hebrews, the word 'flesh' thus signified the whole human being. The reason I emphasize this is to clarify that when we say the Word, who is God, became flesh, He was not some kind of monster who was God on the inside but merely wore a human shell on the outside. He is truly God and truly human.

 

Of course, we immediately encounter a difficult question: "How is that even possible? Does that make any sense?" We sometimes face such questions during Bible studies. People ask, "God became flesh? Truly God and truly man? That is exactly why I cannot believe in Jesus—how am I supposed to believe that? It has to make sense for me to listen, but this is nonsense." As I mentioned last time, you are right. It does not make sense. It defies logic. It is you and I, who believe this, who are the "unusual" ones; those who do not believe are not the strange ones.

 

Grace of Reality Surpassing Finite Perception

These divine actions of God are truly difficult for us to comprehend. However, do not give up too easily. For example, consider this: we do not fully understand how our brains function, how they move, how they act, judge, and make decisions. According to experts, we know only about 10% of what there is to know about the human brain. In particular, we have yet to clearly identify the mechanisms of the subconscious world. However, even though we do not understand it all, no one ceases to think. We all think, even though we do not fully understand the brain. This means we do not have to understand everything for it to move and function.

 

Consider the air we breathe. We know we live by breathing oxygen, but no one analyzes the exact percentage of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide with every breath. Furthermore, we do not fully know or understand the 100% mechanism of how atoms, molecules, or even quantum particles within that air interact to sustain our bodies. Yet, you and I live perfectly well by breathing, even without knowing all of that.

 

My point is this: just because we understand or know something does not mean that is what makes it happen. Even if we do not understand or know everything, a matter can be a reality—and most of our lives are exactly like that. Even with a little bit of digging, we find that we do not even fully know ourselves.

 

Therefore, brothers and sisters, I know and you know that we cannot fully understand the statement that God became flesh. However, it is a very hasty judgment to say it is not true simply because of that. It is much like saying the brain cannot think just because I don't know much about the brain. Then, what is the way for us to know the truth that God became flesh? It is to see whether it is practically functioning in our lives, just as we breathe and think. By examining whether its meaning and action are real, we realize that the fact that God became flesh is not just some incomprehensible "knowledge floating in the sky," but something we can sufficiently know and something deeply meaningful.

 

God’s Salvation: Proactively Seeking Us Out

First of all, the fact that God became flesh means nothing other than that when it comes to receiving or discussing salvation, God is the one who gives that salvation to us; we do not initiate it. How does the Bible express that salvation did not originate from man? It expresses it by saying, "God came." It was not man who went; it was God who came. Man is a being who cannot begin anything unless God comes—and "God's coming" is the way to express that reality.

 

When we deal with the story of Abraham, we often focus too much on Abraham himself. Because we try so hard to have a faith like Abraham's, we frequently miss who appeared to him. It was not Abraham who found God. God found Abraham. It was not you who came to church. God found you. You might say, "I started going to church since I was young because my father was a deacon or an elder." That is true. But was it really by your decision that you came to church? No. The Bible expresses it as God seeking you out in the midst of your life. It is because no one can come to God otherwise. Didn't I tell you at the beginning? Humans, by nature, cannot believe. How could we believe such a thing?

 

In this sense, this passage speaks to how wrong and dangerous our way of speaking about ourselves can be. For instance, the statement "I am saved because I believe, and that person is going to hell because they don't believe" is a very dangerous expression. It is because it implies, "I can go to heaven and know God because I, at least, believed in God."

 

Brothers and sisters, believers do not confess that way. When one truly comes to know God, they confess like this: "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me." The thought that "because I believed, salvation comes from God" turns faith into a condition that one possesses, which is different from what the Bible teaches. Do not think that faith originated from you.

 

Let us look at Ephesians. This is Ephesians 2:8–9:

 

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."

 

What does it say faith is? It says it is a gift from God. It clearly states, "it is not from yourselves." Verse 9 says, "not by works, so that no one can boast."

 

God came. We never ran toward God, nor did we request, "Please save us," yet the Bible clearly witnesses that God came to you. How, then, can we say we obtained salvation because "I" believed, or conclude that someone else is going to hell because they "don't" believe? It is because we think of our faith as a condition.

 

Consequently, we end up arguing, "God, I believed in You like this, so why do You ignore what I have sacrificed, served, and given to You? Is it not only right that You bless me?" What went wrong? It is because the very foundation of the understanding of salvation is incorrect.

 

Every Step of Faith is Solely by the Lord’s Grace

Brothers and sisters, please remember that when we say "I believe," it already means we are those who have received God's grace. If you are confessing, "I believe in Jesus. Ah, so that is what the Cross is truly about," you are already a recipient of the Lord's grace. This is not limited to the matter of faith alone. Please do not forget that every aspect of your life of faith is the Lord's grace. The confession "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" is not just a nice figure of speech or a rhetorical device for emotional inspiration; it is a reality. It is a stark fact.

 

We are people who have nothing to boast about. If you truly and firmly grasp this truth, honestly, the world will be turned upside down. The world will not be able to contain you. If you live truly holding onto the fact that you are a person living by grace and not by your own strength, the world simply cannot handle you.

 

If we only hear this with our heads and think, "I guess so," and leave it at that, we will return home thinking that we are the ones living, not the Lord's grace. Then, the actions of others will seem laughable, we will compare ourselves with others, and we will want to live proving that we are superior to others. However, if we truly live by grace, where is there any room for boasting? How can I say I am better than someone else? Others are always "better" (낫다) than me. It is 'ㅅ' (better), not 'ㅈ' (lower). That is why the Bible says God came personally to protect us from these dangers we so easily fall into.

 

Obedience to the Law Substituting for Human Helplessness

Yet, we continue to have the same question: "It’s good that God came, but why did it have to be as flesh?" Why did God have to personally clothe Himself in flesh, rather than just coming in His glory and saying, "You are mine, you are my child!" and taking us away? The fact that He had to do it this way means there is something that cannot be done without becoming flesh, and it tells us that although we are in the flesh, there is something we absolutely cannot do with our flesh. To achieve that, He must come in the flesh.

 

To explain this, let us look at Luke 18:26: "Those who heard this asked, 'Who then can be saved?' Jesus replied, 'What is impossible with man is possible with God.'" It is saying that salvation is impossible for man. But look at how the Bible proves that man cannot do it.

 

It is the story of a rich young ruler in the Gospels. This rich young man came to Jesus and asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" He is a young man full of a sincerity that is so often lacking in us. We often come to church habitually on Sundays. But please, think carefully. Pity your own soul and truly love yourself. If you have the worry, "What will become of me?", how could you not ask this question? If you do not know what will happen to you after you die, is it not natural to be anxious?

 

This young man asks, "Can I be saved? How can I be saved?" Then the Lord asks, "Have you kept the commandments?" He answers, "I have kept them all." The Lord immediately says, "Then sell everything you have and give to the poor, and follow me." At this, the rich young man hangs his head and leaves in distress because he had great wealth. Then, those watching this scene ask, "Who then can be saved?"

 

Don't you find this passage strange? It implies that the rich young man cannot enter because he is rich. It was said that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Were the disciples who heard this rich? No. Almost all of them were poor fishermen and people of little significance. If so, they should have thought, "Ah, so it's impossible for the rich. We are poor, so we can enter," but the disciples did not think that way. Instead, they asked back, "What? Even that rich man cannot enter? Then who on earth can enter?"

 

Isn't it strange? It is because the thoughts of the disciples and our thoughts are exactly the same. In fact, they were thinking this: "That person is wealthy. That person is healthy. Everything he does goes well. Is that not evidence that God is with him? Is it not evidence that God loves him and that he is receiving God's blessing? But if even a person like that, who enjoys God's blessings, cannot be saved, how can I be saved?" This is exactly the question. This is the essence of the question the disciples threw. To put it another way, it means that even for a person with the best possible human conditions, trying to be saved is harder than a camel going through the eye of a needle. In other words, it is impossible for humans.

 

Ultimately, even by mobilizing the best conditions a human can have, a human cannot save themselves, and the Bible says, "What you cannot do, God can do." Then what is it that humans cannot do? Of course, we cannot save ourselves. Why? What this whole passage teaches is this: Jesus clearly asked, "Have you kept the law?" The young man replied, "Yes, I have kept it all." We don't know how it looked to us, but he boasted that he had kept it.

 

Then the Lord immediately said, "Then give away your wealth and follow me." What immediately becomes an obstacle here? The wealth. He loved his wealth more than God. Ultimately, he was breaking the first commandment of the Law: "You shall have no other gods before me." He put money before God. What does that ultimately mean? It means one cannot keep the Law perfectly. Humans cannot keep the Law. What is the thing that humans absolutely cannot do? It is to perfectly obey the Law of God. No one can perfectly perform the Law of God. That is the reality of what man cannot do, which the text is speaking of.

 

The True Law of God Surpassing Religious Imagination

There is a problem that you and I have, which is that from a young age, we have confused God with a "Mountain Spirit" (San-sin-ryeong). We have regarded God as someone with a long beard, like a mountain spirit. Even when drawing pictures in Sunday school, God was always depicted as someone in white clothes with a white beard. As a result, God was engraved in the minds of children as just a kind-hearted "Mountain Spirit Grandpa." They know Him only as someone who gives whatever is asked, forgives everything, and loves unconditionally. Of course, teaching children about the God of love is very important. But the fact that even as adults, we do not accurately know who God is because of that influence is a very serious problem. Brothers and sisters, if God were simply someone who unconditionally forgave and loved everything, there would have been no need to send Jesus. He could have just accepted everyone with love; why bother sending Jesus? Even if He did send Him, there would have been no need to kill Him. He could have just persuaded and exhorted them with words to return. If sending a prophet was enough, why did He have to send Jesus?

 

Please, remember this. To stand before God, there is a condition that must be met: complete obedience to God's word. Without obedience, you cannot stand before God. Why is that? It is not because God is a tyrant shouting, "If you don't listen to me, you can never come!" As you can realize if you think rationally, it is because God's Law is the "highest good," just as the Bible says. God demands that highest good. Only those who are truly righteous and clean are qualified to live with God. Therefore, that must be realized when standing before God. You can become a person of God and a person who loves God only when you listen to and obey God's word. Can one be called a lover if they do not listen and follow? But the problem is that when the Lord says, "Follow me!", there is no one among us who can perfectly follow that path.

 

If there are those who do not understand well, think for a moment about the history of Israel. Did Israel perfectly follow God when they were in Egypt? No, they did not. Fine, Egypt was a place of slavery, so let’s move past that. Then what about when they were in the wilderness? Did they follow the Lord well then? No. You might argue how hard the wilderness life was and how one could follow the Lord in that desert. But God gave them everything. He gave them food and water. When it was too hot, He turned on the "air conditioner" with a pillar of cloud, and on cold nights, He turned on the "heater" with a pillar of fire. What is it that God did not do for them? Fine, there may still be those who think it was unfair, saying, "How could they perfectly follow God when they were always struggling because there was no food in that barren wilderness?" Fine, let’s move past that too. Then why couldn't they follow Him when they entered the land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey? Would you say, "How could we follow the Lord when we were busy fighting the Canaanites? We couldn't follow Him in a situation of daily fighting and killing"? That also makes some sense. Then what about the era of David?

 

When David established a reign of peace and expanded national power so that the Kingdom of David stood firm, did the people of Israel follow God well then? In our terms, did they follow God well when their lives were peaceful in every way, creating the optimal conditions for believing in God? Look at this paradoxical truth. In that era of peace under King David, who committed a sin? When Israel was most prosperous, strong, and everything was going well, who commits a crime? It is David. And it is a very miserable and terrible sin. He caused his loyal subject, Uriah, to fall into a trap in the middle of the enemy lines and die. That was the reality of Israel, and it is the naked image of us humans who cannot perfectly keep God's Law.

 

The Suffering Messiah Who Rejected Mythological Heroism

Brothers and sisters, trying to live a clean life and actually living a clean life are as different as heaven and earth; they are completely different matters. Do not think of them as similar. Saying, "Though I am weak, am I not living with all my might?" is different from being truly clean. Between ourselves, we can praise each other, give awards, and rejoice together for doing well. But who would dare to hold up that "award certificate" before the holy God? How can what we give and receive among ourselves be claimed as recognized before God?

 

That is why God could not come only as 'God.' If God appeared in His divine glory, not only would we die before that holiness, but there is a more fundamental reason. If God, as God, kept the Law, that would be God keeping it, and it could not be said that we kept it. Therefore, God had to clothe Himself in weak flesh and come with the same nature as ours to perfectly keep God's Law. Otherwise, there is no other way to fulfill this Law and God's Law. That is why the Lord clothed Himself in weak flesh and perfectly kept God's Law.

 

This is one of the decisive differences that distinguished it from the numerous ancient myths that existed at the time. Nowhere in the world is there a myth with the concept of "I came to this earth for you" or "I have come under the Law to perfectly fulfill and achieve that Law." Numerous ancient myths have been excavated and known, but perhaps the Christians of that time knew those myths better than we do. Mythological elements that seem similar to the contents of the Gospel of John existed even then—such as the story of the god Dionysus (Bacchus) born of a virgin, or even the records of 153 fish appearing in the records of Pythagoras. People living in the 1st century would have encountered such myths much more closely than we do. We have only belatedly discovered some of the precious artifacts. However, the Christians of that time never confused the Jesus testified by the Bible with those myths.

 

Look at why that was the case. If you look at ancient myths, the god usually appears in the form of a human. Look at the emperors or kings of that time. Didn't they all claim, "I am a god" or "I am the son of a god"? Myths usually contain such concepts. They try to show how great and heroic the human protagonist of the myth is by borrowing the form or mask of a god. Looking at the Dangun myth of our own country, it emphasizes how great a person Dangun is through the divine lineage from a god named Hwan-ung. The story of Park Hyeok-geose of Silla being born from an egg is also an attempt to prove that he is a superior being who came through a special path, not an ordinary human body. The kings of Egypt also regarded themselves as the son of the sun god or the sun god itself, and the Roman emperors of Jesus' time clearly engraved the fact that they were gods on coins and circulated them. In other words, they used all those mythological devices to boast of how great they were.

 

Behind all these myths lies the purpose of deifying emperors, kings, or religious leaders to make people worship them. This is the commonality of all myths. They want to prove that this ruler or leader is different from ordinary people by granting divinity somehow. But why did the numerous saints of the 1st century hold onto the records of the Bible without falling into confusion, even while encountering such diverse and abundant myths? It is because they clearly knew that the event of Jesus Christ, where God became flesh, was completely different from the myths of the world in its purpose and content. It was not deification for the sake of ruling, but an unprecedented event of love where He lowered Himself (humiliation) and came to die for us.

 

The God Who Came to Die, the Gospel of Paradox

As I mentioned earlier, all myths are based on heroism. Or they are worship and deification. However, the reason Jesus Christ clothed Himself in flesh was not only to keep the Law. Another decisive reason was to die. Since God is a Being who cannot die, He came to this earth in the flesh in order to experience death. Brothers and sisters, it is not that Jesus, after coming to this earth and observing, thought, "Words don't work and various means and methods don't work, so fine, I will at least die for you to try and stop this wheel of history," and then decided to die. Christianity is not that kind of myth. From the very beginning of the Old Testament, the Bible consistently and clearly shows who the Messiah is without a single tremor.

 

You know Genesis 3:15 well, don't you? Who bites the heel of the offspring of the woman? It is the serpent. In the eyes of those who do not believe in Jesus, it will look like a mere mythological expression. But that story about the "seed" does not disappear and reappears with Abraham. How does it appear? God passes alone between the pieces of the sacrifice. Brothers and sisters, such a thing never happens. There might be cases where a human and God pass between the sacrifice together, but a situation where God passes between them alone does not exist. It is a scene containing the meaning that if the covenant is broken, the party of the covenant—that is, the one passing between the cut meat—will be killed like that meat. It is truly an impossible thing for a god to express that He will save you even if His own body is torn apart.

 

Yet God expressed it that way. Does this only appear to Abraham? No. Even those who do not know the Bible well know the fact that the Bible was recorded over a very long period of time. The Psalms alone are a collection of writings written over nearly a thousand years, bound into a single book. But brothers and sisters, there is one consistent message flowing through that vast record. It is the prophecy that "the Messiah will come, and he will have his heel bitten, he will be torn apart, and eventually, he will die."

 

People thought that when the Messiah came, he would receive the worship and welcome of all nations, and after dying, he would rise again and reach a glorious position where everyone would marvel and worship him. But the Bible does not say that. Look at Isaiah 53:1 and following. It is such a frustrating and heartbreaking story.

 

"Who has believed our message?"

 

It means no one believes. It means there is no one to believe. It seems like people would believe if amazing miracles were performed, but in reality, there is no one to believe.

 

"To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

 

Beyond the Myth of Prosperity Toward True Christianity

Beloved, do you know why Christianity loses its power and why it has become harder for us to believe in God? It is because we have mythologized Jesus Christ. We have created such a myth ourselves. In other words, while the Bible clearly says He came to die, we are saying He came to make us live well. While the Bible clearly says you must die while passing through suffering, we created the myth that believing in Jesus brings blessings, and thus Christianity has lost its vitality. The Gospel is disappearing. The reason the people of the world attack us is also that Christianity has degenerated to be even worse than general myths. Even general myths do not express a god that way, but we, clumped together with greed and sin, seek only the blessings, luxury, and joy of the world from Him, even while crucifying Jesus Christ again. Ultimately, we have come to possess only a Christianity that has become a myth. Now, the Christianity we have is not true faith but entirely myth. God has become a God who trembles for humans, for the blessings of humans—a god who is always on standby only to give us blessings, appearing as if he exists solely for that purpose.

 

Brothers and sisters, Christianity is not that kind of myth. This Messiah here is a Messiah who will be rejected by the world and came to die. This amazing story that God became flesh, this beautiful story, makes its content even more abundant with the fact that God, who clothed Himself in that flesh, dwells among us. Brothers and sisters, Jesus is worthy to receive worship. It is natural for Jesus to receive praise. However, Jesus did not come only to receive worship. He did not come to found a religion called Christianity like other myths or religions. Jesus never showed such an intention. He did not create a doctrine like "I will now create the Jesus religion" and pass it on to people. The Lord's Gospel was so clear. That is why the later disciples and the Apostle Paul, who learned directly from Jesus Christ, never tried to forcibly deify Jesus Christ when they recorded the Bible. It is because He is a Being who does not need our recognition or for us to deify Him.

 

Even in Buddhism, which denies God and believes that man himself will become a god—although this is widely known as a story created by disciples in later generations—it is said that when Buddha was born, he pointed to the heaven and the earth, walked seven steps, and shouted, "In the heavens and on earth, I alone am honored." But we know well that it is a created story. Because that, too, is a kind of deification. Brothers and sisters, the Bible witnesses that Jesus died and rose again. However, He is not a Being who demands worship from us because of the fact that He died and rose again. Jesus is not a Being who needs our confirmation or recognition. He is not a Being who exists because you recognize Him, and His dignity does not become higher because you confirm Him. He is the eternal reality who exists transcending us.

 

The Heart of Immanuel Pitching a Tent Among Us

Brothers and sisters, why do you not know? Why can you not open your eyes? Jesus Christ's interest is not in receiving worship for Himself. All His gaze, His labored breathing, that gasping breath as He carried the Cross, those eyes filled with tears of regret and bloodshot, those hands roughened by touching and healing the sick, and those feet that wandered the dusty desert to find lost souls were not for Jesus Christ Himself but for you. He was among us in that way. The word "dwell" (거한다) here means "to pitch a tent" (장막을 친다). What is a tent? When the Israelites were marching through the wilderness, Moses pleaded with God, "God, please go with us. If not, it is better for us to die here." At that time, God said, "If I go with you, I might destroy you in my anger at your sins." Then Moses clung to Him again: "Lord, even if we die, please go with us." Thus, God said, "Then I will be with you through the tent."

 

Inside the tent, a veil was hung, and inside that was the Ark of the Covenant. Because of that Tabernacle separated by the veil so as not to face God directly, Israel could be safe. If you were an Israelite in the 1st century, you could not possibly just pass by this heart-pounding story. It is because it declares that the solemn Temple they had thought of until now—that Temple so majestic it was hard to even go near—and that Tabernacle that had separated us, is now pitching a tent by our side and dwelling with us. This is Immanuel. To the people of Israel, who barely faced God once a year when the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place and poured out blood—those who could not even go near the Lord for the other 364 days—this story must have been a shock like being hit in the head with a hammer.

 

He promised that such a Tabernacle would dwell among us. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who lowered Himself and came among us, is not one who came to prove Himself. Rather, He placed Himself right in the middle of us to feel the frustration we feel, to personally suffer the difficulties we face, and to shed our tears together. The Lord knows very well what our pain and burdens are. It is because He suffered that pain together with us. He Himself became a failure, became a weak one, and became a despised one. Therefore, Jesus Christ knows your tears. It is because He is a God who has cried. He knew how to shed tears and knew our sorrow. Furthermore, He knows your conflicts very well. He knows both the aspiration to "believe in Jesus beautifully" and the agony of "I want to believe, but why does it not work well?" It is because He also experienced those conflicts together with us. The Bible records that the Lord regarded being with us as a greater glory than the glory He enjoyed with God. It is because the Lord knew that would be the greatest glory to God.

 

Jesus Christ is the one who came to this earth and showed God's word not just with words, but with His life, living, and personality itself. "I am Yahweh, I am Yahweh. A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." The Lord proved this fact with His life. He endured Judas Iscariot until the end, was slow to anger, and silently walked the path of the Cross amidst all contempt and criticism. He knew that dying for our sins was the mission given to Him and confessed before God that it was the Father's will. This is the Lord's heart. This is the Lord's mind. Brothers and sisters, do you see this burning heart of love? Do you know that He gave you this hot heart beating with love for you? Remember the confession of the Apostle Paul: "I speak to you with the heart of Christ." Beloved, together with the Apostle Paul and our glorious Lord, I also speak to you. I appeal to you with the heart of Christ. Escape the wrath of God and return to Jesus Christ. Turn away from your current life. Find where life is and where the true life is. Remember where you should place the value of your life. Remember the heart of Christ beating for you.

 

Let us pray.

 

Father God, we praise Your great love in that You knew our unworthiness and personally clothed Yourself in lowly flesh to seek us out.

 

We thank You for personally accomplishing the obedience to the Law that we could not do, and for pitching Your tent among us to personally sympathize with all our tears and conflicts. Now, help us to possess the hot heart of Christ beating toward us, and to move forward confessing that the Lord alone is our life.

 

In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.