"Unapproachable Light"

"The Lord reigns...." (Psalm 97 & Psalm 99, verses 1)

"The Lord Jesus Christ reigns."  Psalm 97 follows with, "Let the earth rejoice," and 99 with, "Let the peoples tremble!"  All, "the peoples," including the Church, need to do both.  There is much of the former, little of the latter.

Another 170 hostages were taken today, war rages in the Middles East, Arab-Islamists renewed their fight in Israel, even in Tel Aviv, but Jesus Christ, "The Lord reigns."  Some say, "Well, it does not look as though, "The Lord reigns."  Of course, to those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, to those who are not full of His Words, the world looks like chaos, no order, no one shaping anything.  But "history is headed toward a dramatic climax."  Global events, just as your life and mine, are in "the River of God."  We are like the ride of a local amusement park; the cars are on a track, but have room on either side to bounce back and forth.  You have to steer with precision to keep the car from banging into the sides.  Mankind has been banging into the "sides" of history, the banks of the river, from the beginning, but as the Lord Jesus Christ says to the sea, "this far you may come, but no further,..here your proud waves must stop," He so says to humanity and global events.  "The Lord reigns."  

No matter what is going on in the earth, the Lord God tells you and me, "....Keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time-- He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see.  To Him be honor and eternal dominion!  Amen."  The, "unapproachable light...no man has seen or can see," is the, "light," of the Godhead.  Only the person born of the Spirit can "see" anything of the Living Triune God, His Church, His Kingdom, His Purposes, "His ways past finding out."  Life cannot make sense to anyone who rejects Jesus Christ and His Words.  Such people will continually engaged in the same endless, argumentative, aimless, confused chatter as the cable news' endless speculation on the "whys" of global events.  You and I, however, need not. 

"The Lord Jesus Christ reigns!"

Father, in Jesus' Name, I do, "rejoice," and, "tremble," at Your reign.  Amen.

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2

"Long Ago...From Eternity" (I THOUGHT I HAD SENT THIS EARLIER)

"Your throne was established long ago; You are from eternity." (Psalm 93:2, NIV)

If a person cannot take great comfort and peace in the declaration of our text, I doubt they will find it anywhere.  The reign of Jesus Christ, "was established long ago...."  And if one wonders how long ago, the answer is short and powerful, "....from eternity." 

The world is on a collision course with judgment.  What we are witnessing in all parts of the globe is what Isaiah prophesied over 2700 years ago, "The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered....The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant....So will it be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest."  And to the cynic who says, "Well, that was 2700 years ago?  You could say that about any generation."  Perhaps, but history seems to move as a gigantic front loader, picking up mankind's debris along the way, keeping record, heading toward the judgment, "against (for) that Day."  Notice in the Isaiah passage that it is all people of, "The earth", not just Israel or America or China or.....

Yet, those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ moment by moment, living a heart of repentance, "Looking unto Jesus," are a forgiven and overcoming People.  The forgiveness of the Cross is as all our Lord Jesus is and does for us, "long ago...from eternity."  The moment we received Jesus into our hearts, we "stepped into" all Jesus is, His Person, His Righteousness, Eternal Reign, His Eternal Work.  "Thy Kingdom is a Kingdom of all ages," and we "entered" His, "Kingdom of all ages," we stepped into eternity when we opened the "door" and Jesus entered into fellowship with us and we with Him, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."  This is a two-way, "door," my friend.  It is as though Jesus steps into this time/space world to come into us, and we step out of it into eternity, into the Eternal One.  We opened the door to Jesus and Jesus opened His Door to us, the Door into His,  "established long ago...from eternity.  Do not be fearful or stressed about what is going on around us and even beside us.  It is only a, "twinkling of an eye," to those, "established long ago...from eternity.

Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You for coming to me in my narrow time/space world, and taking me to  Your, "Long ago...from eternity."  Amen.
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* Be sure to keep up with prophetic events at:   jhs58.blogspot.com
* Thanks for any prayers for our Mission to Harrisburg.  Great time!

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2

"Who Can See Any Hope For Me?" (Job)

"Where then is my hope?  As for my hope, who can see it?" (Job 17:15)

The people who have helped me the most in my life were not people who threw cliche answers at me.  Let me be clear.  By "cliche," I do not mean the words so much as the non thinking process which speak the words.  "You must be born again," is eternal truth, the depth of which I may not fully understand, but my heart/spirit receives and "understands."  How many, though, have allowed those words to go to the depths of their being, and don't allow them to be spoken as Bonhoeffer said of "cheap grace,..sold on the market like some cheapjack's wares"?  Then there is the line from a song, "God is good all the time," to which some add, "All the time God is good."  Okay, good words, good Theology.  But to what depth have those words gone.  Perhaps this is where, as Isaac, we need to go out into the field and meditate.

To Job's question, many would say, "Well, brother, come on now, you know the answer.  Your hope is God Himself."  Alright, but have you ever really been close to where Job was when he uttered the words of our text?  It's as though you are drowning or sinking in mud from which you cannot free yourself.  Only people who have known deep suffering can serve the suffering.  That doesn't mean that those for whom everything has gone "right" in their lives have nothing to offer.  They just don't have the depth of God's ways working in them.  I have shared before the quote of Derek Prince, "No one should be appointed an elder who has not suffered."  I leave it there.

If you, or anyone you know, are in a place as was Job, "Where then is my hope-- who can see any hope for me?" (NIV), then I can tell you, as one who has known a nearly devastating suffering, Hope is only to be found in, "The Word of God," Who is Jesus Christ and His Breathed Words.  "He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing."  Jesus' Words can hush the barrage of lies coming at you and me from the Realm of Darkness.  You know this, don't you; Jesus' Words are, "alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it/they/He is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing lie of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature]...."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I never tire of writing, speaking, thanking, praising, walking in the reality of these Your Words, in Him Who Alone is, "The Word of God," Jesus.  Amen.
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* Soon off to Harrisburg, Pa
* Some insight concerning recent events in Europe, go to:  jhs58.blogspot.com

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2