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<\/a><\/div>\nThe LORD Be With You
\nAnd if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 14:3 NIV
\n\u2026to be with me\u2026
\nThose four words in that verse recently jumped right out at me. It was an \u201cahah\u201d moment.
\nEven though I\u2019ve heard and read that verse many times, this Sunday in church I suddenly got \u201cit.\u201d
\nMore than once and in many different ways, I have not gotten \u201cit\u201d — not even if it was wrapped up with pretty paper in a big box with a big red bow and an enormous sign that said, \u201cIT.\u201d
\nAnd, when I occasionally do get one of those moments, my head can rush ahead and forward and behind what the pastor is saying, often ending somewhere off to the side or chasing a wild goose into the setting sun.
\nIn this case, my head went from the beginning of time to the end of time and on into eternity.
\nLiterally.
\nBecause it made me think, \u201cYes! God created us to be with Him in the first place!\u201d
\nThat was the purpose, the plan, the grand design of all time! God creates us in His own image to be with Him and to love and to be loved\u2014that love would be multiplied forever.
\nSo it makes perfect, absolute, and beautiful sense that there would be a plan to be with Him for all eternity even after we fell.
\nYes, it wouldn\u2019t be easy and it would look absolutely awful during the process, but once it was over and it had worked, it would be beautiful beyond comprehension.
\nKings and kingdoms would submit themselves to the One who had submitted to death on a cross, all so we could be with Him forever.
\nAnd that made me think about how we say, \u201cThe Lord be with you.\u201d
\nAnd also with you. (Or, \u201cAnd also with your spirit.\u201d)
\nThere\u2019s even a name for it: \u201cDominus vobiscum,\u201d which is Latin for (of course) \u201cThe Lord be with you.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s been used in Christian Liturgical services for so long I couldn\u2019t find a historical record of its first inclusion. Perhaps its most famous usage in the Bible is in the book of Ruth when Boaz uses it to greet the workers in his field, which makes the phrase at least 3,000 years old.
\nIt also occurs in the book of Samuel, when Saul says it to David as he sends him out to battle Goliath. (The book of Samuel was written at about the same time as the book of Ruth. In fact, it is thought that Samuel probably wrote the book of Ruth.)
\nSo, its use dates way, way back. In some churches, the phrase may not be uttered in a church service by anyone who is anyone less than a deacon.
\nI think it\u2019s an incredibly beautiful thing to say to another human being and I would even go so far as to try and start a trend of saying it to each other on a day-to-day basis.
\nI know there are many people out there who could sure use it as they go out to do battle with the Goliaths in their lives each day.
\nI even think we should start saying it to politicians and lawyers and judges and celebrities and police and activists and people in the media as a genuine and heartfelt prayer.
\nAs I was pondering all this and trying to decide what to write, Kinship Christian Radio Executive Director Matt Dorfner was at the controls at the radio station and \u201cjust happened\u201d to play a song I had not heard for some time.
\nIt\u2019s called \u201cCity of Gold\u201d and it\u2019s by the group City of Gold. The song is about the time when we will be with the Lord forever, and its lyrics are Today\u2019s Praise:
\nSoon your trials will be over
\nOffered up by mercy’s hand
\nA better view from where you stand
\nGoing to another land<\/p>\n
The sweetest welcome from the Father
\nGathered up and carried home
\nWe are past this time of waiting
\nCome let us bow before Your throne<\/p>\n
We will meet in the Golden City in the New Jerusalem
\nAll our pain and all our tears will be no more
\nWe will stand with the hosts of heaven
\nAnd cry holy is the Lamb
\nWe will worship and adore You evermore<\/p>\n
Never can the powers of darkness
\nNeither death nor even life
\nLet nothing ever separate us
\nFrom the holy love of God<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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