"After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands." (Revelation 7:9, NIV)
The hymn, "Love Divine," closes with, "....Till we cast our crowns before Thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise." I don't have to wait until then. I am in an ever-increasing, "....lost in wonder, love, and praise", mode even as I write this.
Reading our text, indeed, reading all of the Bible in the last several quarters particularly, it is as though I am literally reading, "the Words of God," for the first time. Maybe I am just actually listening to our Blessed Living Triune God.
I have wondered why this is, but do not need an answer. I had the same experience some days ago reading Revelation 1:12-16. Jesus Christ is Himself as Hebrews 4 declares, "....living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword (Revelation 1:12b), piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Glorious, absolutely, GLORIOUS.
Father, in Jesus' Name,
"Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in Heav'n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise." 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
