2003-12-05
Good Morning Dear Ones,
What the Holy Spirit gave me to write about on the topic of the Kingdom of Heaven was a lesson in just how much He has to say about that subject. We have an awesome God Who loves us so much that He really wants us to want to spend eternity with Him. To that end, He has given us a remarkably detailed description of His Kingdom, He has inspired all the writers of the Scriptures to give us repeated warnings of how awful the alternative to living a godly life is, and He has given us exacting directions on how to live that life which takes us down the hard path to eternal bliss with Him. Referring to the Bible as “God’s Love Letter” to us is very accurate. Another way of putting it is that the Scriptures are “God’s Roadmap to Eternity.”
Today, the Holy Spirit has instructed me to begin writing about the coming glory. Once again, I am awestruck at how much the Lord allows us to know about this wonderful subject through His word. Long ago, the prophet Amos wrote about God’s propensity for revealing His plan to believers in AM 3: 7, “The Sovereign Lord never does anything without revealing His plan to His servants, the prophets.” This is not the only place where this concept is clearly mentioned. Later on, Christ speaks of it in JN 15: 15, “I do not call you servants any longer, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from My Father.” These verses are the very reason that I pray daily that I should be not only the Lord’s servant, but also His friend in everything I think and everything I do. There is a sad truth that goes along with this knowledge. That is most of the world has no idea of what God’s plan is or of His pressing desire to bring His creation back to Him for eternity through Jesus Christ [COL 1: 19-20]. Moreover, most of the world remains ignorant of God’s universal dominion over heaven and earth. That means that most of mankind will go about the business of being sinful, for they inherited sin, and without belief in Christ have no choice but to sin. The only way to relief from sin’s power over a person is through faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Son Who died on the cross for the express purpose of bringing salvation to those who will believe in Him [JN 3: 16].
When God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldes (modern day southeastern Iraq) [GN 12: 1], He began to implement the beginning of His plan to save mankind from their sin. Abram had no idea of the full implications of what God was doing at any time in his own lifetime, but God knew that this man had the right kind of heart-attitude to obey Him anyway. When we look at Abram’s example of obedience, we can’t help but ask: would I be that willing to go to an unknown, unfamiliar place without knowing all the reasons why, just because God asked me to do this? Abram (later to be called Abraham) was to begin the genealogical line that would give rise to the Jewish people and, of course, to Christ Himself [GN 5: 1-32; GN 10: 21-32; MT 1: 1-17]. As a full-blooded Messianic Jew, I certainly should be asking that question of myself. That’s because I know from EX 19: 5-6 and IS 49: 6 that my purpose and the original purpose of my Jewish brothers and sisters is to be “God’s chosen people, a nation of priests…and a light to the nations.” Of course, all of my believing Gentile brothers and sisters have now be “in-grafted” to my own Jewish people and given the same privileges balanced with the same responsibilities. The privileges we have as believers are to receive God’s many blessings through the real and personal relationship with have with Him. His blessings include protection and eventual eternal life with our endurance in faith. Our responsibility is to keep our end of the covenant relationship we have with Him, through living godly lives and witnessing to our faith to help bring others to where the Holy Spirit can bring them to faith as well.
Sadly, throughout the course of mankind’s history, some of the people given this wonderful privilege didn’t uphold their end of their covenant with God. Such is the case with those disobedient Jews who made it necessary for God to punish them with two dyasporas [scattering and temporary loss of nationhood]. During the first dyaspora (722 BC-445 BC-Assyrian Captivity of northern Israel and 586 BC-445 BC of southern Israel-then called Judah), a young and very faithful man, Daniel, was taken from his home in Judah to the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia to serve there. The book of Daniel in the OT contains remarkable revelations about God’s plan and the coming glory which were given to him to reward his faithfulness. Daniel was told in DN 9: 23, “When you began to plead with God, He answered you. He holds you in great esteem, and so I [Gabriel] have come to tell you the answer. Now pay attention while I explain the vision.” What followed was God’s chief messenger angel, Gabriel, telling Daniel the vision of the Seventy Weeks. The latter is a full layout of God’s plan for His people and what will happen to all who reject Him. In next week’s message, we will begin looking at some of the lessons from Daniel which apply to the coming glory.
PRAYER: O Lord, how very undeserving we are of the great blessings and trust You place in us. And yet, You choose not to give up on Your people, but instead, to take us through the process of sanctification. We often rail at the pain we must suffer and even foolishly blame You for it. But, we relent from that, Dearest Abba, when it eases and turn back to Your word where we can get the truth about it. The devil and his followers cause our pain. You allow us to suffer just enough to learn a lesson from it. This is Your way of giving us “mid-course corrections” that will once again put us through that “narrow gate that leads to the hard path” [MT 7: 12-14] to eternal life with You. Today, we acknowledge, just as Daniel did, the reality of our sinful nature and utter need for You in our lives. IS 55: 8-9 makes our situation crystal clear. “’My thoughts,’ says the Lord, ‘are not like yours, and My ways are different from yours. As high as the heaven are above the earth, so high are My ways and thoughts above yours.’” When we accept that You are so much wiser and more powerful than we are, we can appeal to You for Your presence in our lives and know You will answer our prayers. Two Scriptures come to mind. PS 116:1, “I love the Lord, because He hears our prayers and answers them.” JN 15: 7, “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it.” What You did for Daniel to reward His faithfulness even when his physical life was threatened was to reveal Your magnificent plan to Him. Those of us who are faithful in studying the Scriptures, praying, and putting Your teaching into our lives are similarly rewarded. Yes, Dearest Abba, we can know Your plan for mankind and Your plan for us as individuals and members of congregations. The greatest gift of all, one that comes from knowing Your perspective, is the hope of resurrection to eternal life and the coming glory. That gift is made possible through Your most personal and painful sacrifice of Your only begotten Son on the cross for us. For all of this and so much more, You deserve nothing less than our thanks and praise forever. PS 79:13, “So we Thy people and the sheep of Thy pasture will give thanks to Thee forever, to all generations we tell of Thy praise.” In Christ, we pray. Amen.
As mentioned above, next week’s message will deal with some lessons from Daniel that we all need to learn. The coming glory is worth all the trouble we go through now. RO 8: 18, “I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” What comfort that Scripture has been to me personally over the years, particularly in the last year. By taking the time to study the Scriptures the way I do, God has given me personally the ability to live with almost constant physical pain and to put it in his perspective. (I have an auto-immune disease which is managed now but which has destroyed the sensory nerves in both of my feet). My physical life is relatively safe for now, but without the Lord’s presence in my life I could have easily become embittered by this situation. Paul gives us his personal example of dealing with a painful affliction in 2 COR 12: 7-9. He complained three times to the Lord to remove his pain. I love the Lord’s answer in 2 COR 12: 9, “My grace is sufficient. When you are weak, I am strong.” We can each stand by that answer, knowing full well that our “present trouble cannot be compared to the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” If each of us will love the Lord with all of his heart, mind, and might, He will bless us here on earth and bring us back to His side forever through Christ our Lord. What greater bliss can there be?
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn