“I, Jesus,
have sent my angel to testify to you
these things for the churches.
I am the root
and the descendant of David,
the bright morning star.”
The Spirit and the bride say,
“Come.”
And let the one who hears say,
“Come.”
And let the one who is
thirsty
come;
let the one who wishes
take the water of life
without cost.
What words. Amen and Amen. Come Lord Jesus Indeed, these words are faithful and true.
How good it is to know God. And one day – to see the face of the Lamb. One day. Some day.
I simply love when I rediscover passages in Scripture full of beauty and truth and my heart is stirred to hope eternal. I walked in to work this morning thinking these thoughts. And the wind tousled my hair in cool alignment with the starlight softly tripping down to earth. And so my soul sang.
Someday I’d like to write my thoughts on this whole chapter, but for now, I shall simply chronicle what is in the Word. From Isaiah 25…
The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet
For all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of aged wine,
Choice pieces with marrow,
And refined, aged wine.
And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
So this morning as I was driving to work, I pondered the verses below:
How blessed is the man
Who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
And as my thoughts whirled in my head, I especially was convicted by that middle section of verses. Do I truly meditate on the law of the Lord day and night? Oh that I did! My desire – as I hope is yours as well – is to abide in the Lord each and every moment. And if truly what I wish is to be close to the Lord as I walk through this life, am I daily dying to self and meditating on the truths of God? Not ever so much as I should be. Not near enough. So that is my prayer this day, that I continue to grow closer to my God as I ponder and meditate on the truths of His Word, the truths that reveal God Himself. May my love ever increase – this is my prayer! A shabby, shattered piece of pottery am I – yet the Potter King makes me new. May I dwell on the words of God ever more. May my spirit be renewed day by day as I seek the face of Christ. Amen and Amen.
Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ;
and He will reign forever and ever.”
And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces
and worshiped God, saying,
“We give you thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because
You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.
And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches
and wisdom and might and honour
and glory and blessing.
To Him who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb,
be blessing
and honour
and glory
and dominion
forever and ever.
Amen.
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to
you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If
we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the
darkness, we lie and do not not practice the truth; but if we walk in
the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with
one another,and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all
sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves
and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make
Him a liar and His word is not in us.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you
may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the
propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for
those of the whole world. -1 John 1:5-2:2
Such beautiful words, are they not? I could verily quote the whole book of 1 John, such encouraging and comforting words it does contain, but I shall not this morning. Read it for yourselves and be delighted! Have a most beautiful day, dear friends, and be thankful to God for all His most wondrous works. This is the day our Lord God has made – let us rejoice and be glad in it!
I love this passage so much…have faith, my friends, and believe.
So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the
doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and
stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” And when He had
had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then
rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with
you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this,
He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you
forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the
sins of any, they have been retained.”
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when
Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the
Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails,
and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I
will not believe.”
After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them.
Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said,
“Peace be with you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger,
and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do
not be unbelieving, but believing.”
Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to Him, “Because you have seen Me, have you
believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
Evening all!! I’m just finishing up my post-workout yogurt, have done countless online errands(yay for getting my Needtobreathe tickets for tomorrow night! yay for replying to friends’ emails! yay for paying bills??)
Anyways, I’m super tired tonight. On a Monday. This does not bode well for the rest of the week. So I’ve decided I’m going to enjoy my leftover spaghetti and salad and then go to bed early. If I don’t get too distracted reading, that is…
So this entry seems a bit boring, so just gonna close and mention that I was listening to the new Nightwish album – Endless Forms Most Beautiful in my car this morning as I drove to work. I was heartily enjoying the gorgeous melodies and riffs contained therein but as I pondered the words in the songs(mostly involving the beauty and magnificence of this world and extolling the wonders of their god Evolution!!), I heard the plaintive plea of all those in this world who do not know God and I thought of the words I read this morning in Acts 17:
“The God who made the world and all things in it,
since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell
in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands,
as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to
all people life and breath and all things; and He made
from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the
face of the earth, having determined their appointed times
and the boundaries of their habitation,
that they would seek God,
if perhaps they might grope for Him
and Find Him,
though He is not far from each one of us;
for in Him we live and move and exist…”
So so true are these words. And so as I listened to the thundering guitar and chilling choir and soaring voices of Nightwish, I thought of how much God desires each one of us to know Him. The people in Nightwish(whom I will see in less than 2 weeks!) may think they know how the world works – of course there is no such thing as “a god”! They may think that this world and this universe – in all its grandeur – is all there is. And this grasping for beauty, this sighing for truth…it is but an echo of a cry of the heart that all men and women share as they feel the aching wound of the universe within their souls. Oh that they would seek God! If perhaps they might grope for Him. If perhaps they might find Him. He is not far from each one of us. Think on that this evening, I think I will. Pardon my slightly disjointed thoughts – but had to write them down now ere they flee! Peace, my friends. Peace and love.
Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For He grew up before Him
like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
that we should look upon Him,
nor appearance that we should be
attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief;
and like one from whom men
hide their face
He was despised, and we
did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He himself bore,
and our sorrows He carried;
yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the chastening for our well-being
fell upon Him,
and by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
each of us have turned to his own way;
but the LORD has caused
the iniquity
of us all
to fall
on Him.
-Isaiah 53:1-6
My heart is saddened as I think of the suffering of Christ Jesus, yet I rejoice. Because truly – through the sacrifice of Jesus, God’s own Son and God Himself – I am counted as righteous in the sight of the Lord God. And the fact that I am righteous and pure before God…how can I not sing to the God who made it so? Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Slain for me. Filthy ungodly unworthy me. And so, some two thousand years ago, God the Father poured out the full and righteous cup of His wrath upon God the Son. And I am now a child of God – countless songs and boundless bliss – how can I not sing for this?? God loved me first, now I love Him – oh those glorious words – He loves me!!!
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I
preached to you, which also you received, in which also you
stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the
word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas,
then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than
five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain
until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared
to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all,
as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am
the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God
I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain;
but I labored more than all of them, yet not I, but
the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they,
so we preach and so you believed…
…Now I say this brethren, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does
the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep,
but we will all be changed, in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet;
for the trumpet will sound, and the dead
will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For this perishable must put on the imperishable,
and this mortal must put on immortality.
But when this perishable will have put on
the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on
immortality, then will come about the saying
that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.
O Death, where is your victory, O Death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast,
immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
-1 Corinthians 15:1-11,50-58
Very tempted to write all of 1 Corinthians 15. I refrained. What glorious words. What beauty. What truth. Glory be to God, forever and ever. Amen.
Something Weird 