By Mary, CBF field personnel, Southeast Asia
Lamentations 3:22-23: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
What is saving my life right now? Well, in a word, God. I truly don’t mean to be flippant or dismissive, but it really is the first response that comes to mind every time I try to reflect on this question. Then my mind wanders in more directions than I can track. How do I encapsulate what it means to have an ongoing awareness of the presence of God in my life moment-to-moment or the myriad ways God keeps me attuned to that presence? Therein lies my challenge. Perhaps it’s because I have a short attention span; but God’s revelatory processes, like God’s mercies, are new every morning. More accurately, God creates new combinations each day.
In recent months, I have found myself less distracted by the frustrations of the limits of the people we read about in Scripture and more engaged with the God who honors the struggles of those determined to be in relationship with God. God’s interactions with each of us are unique because our stories are unique; I marvel at God’s love, tenacity and understanding. While I see God in a different light in Scripture, the seeming paradoxes of life and faith rest more comfortably within me. What we sometimes identify as contradictory experiences or emotions are complementary, with God shaping them into something beautifully compelling. Human relationships, spiritual disciplines, nature, art, music, movement, tragedy, laughter, science, literature, conflict— the list is inexhaustible. God uses combinations of all of these in wondrous variety to transform me, to transform us. God is always available and at work to draw us closer. As we offer ourselves to God’s nurture, we are made new.
PRAY, PRACTICE, PONDER
Merciful God, thank you for honoring the struggles of your children throughout the ages, and for honoring the struggles in which we find ourselves today. Be with us when we grow weary of our own humanity. Remind us that your mercies are new every morning. Help us to trust that the combinations you create in our lives each day arrive to transform, strengthen and nurture us to become more like you. Amen.
IF YOU LIKE REAL SURPRISES !)
* ALL PEOPLE WILL RECIEVE THEIR LAND AND THEIR FAMILIES BACK ! YOU WILL BE THERE !
Isa 65:22 ” they shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands….
“But truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Numbers 14:21
God shall wipe away all tears from off all faces.
Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 7:17
All wars shall cease.
Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3
All evil shall be suppressed.
Psalm 37:10; Revelation 20:2,3
God’s judgments shall teach righteousness to all.
Isaiah 26:9; 28:17
Nothing shall ever hurt nor destroy.
Isaiah 11:9
Truth shall triumph in the earth.
Psalm 85:11
God shall write His Law in the hearts of men.
Jeremiah 31:33
All shall know Him from the least to the greatest.
Jeremiah 31:34
Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God.
Habakuk 2:14
God shall pour out His spirit upon all flesh.
Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17
All iniquity shall be remembered no more.
Isaiah 55:7
All shall rejoice as sorrow and sighing flee away.
Isaiah 35:10
There shall be no more death, sorrow or pain.
Revelation 21:4,5
There shall be no more sickness.
Isaiah 33:24
The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Isaiah 35:5
The earth shall yield her increase.
Psalm 67:6
The desert shall blossom as the rose.
Isaiah 35:1
The ransomed of the Lord shall return from death.
Isaiah 35:10
One shall not build and another inhabit, nor plant and another take, nor shall any labor in vain.
Isaiah 65:22,23
Every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree.
Micah 4:4
God shall multiply the fruitage of the earth.
Psalm 67:6; 85:12
There shall be showers of blessing.
Ezekiel 34:26
The earth shall become like a Garden of Eden.
Isaiah 51:3… To Be Restored !
* Isa 26:19 ” Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead. “..To a ever growing sustainable environment !
The “Judgment Day” = is the “Kingdom.” Jesus stated in John 5:28-29 “All that are in the graves shall hear his voice” .…ACTS 24:15..“they that have done good, unto a resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto a resurrection of judgment.” i.e.(original meaning in early Greek MSS) >>>NOTE: the location of the dead is clearly stated to be the same before their disposition upon resurrection” !…
Isa 26:19 ” Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead. “..To a ever growing sustainable environment !
“ LIFE WHY?>>> Through the first human couple, in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, the sentence of death passed upon the entire human race. Genesis 2:7 “and man became a living soul/being.” Ezekiel 18:4 the word of God states: “the soul that sinneth it shall die.” >>>Adam and Eve were told by God where they would go; Genesis 3:19 “till thou return unto the ground;for out of it thou wast taken”…unto dust thou shalt return ” …
[Job 3:13-18 ” 13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, 14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves; 15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: 16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. 17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. 18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.”…]
HOW? John 3:16 “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.”>>> 1 Cor. 15:22-23 “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”>>> Furthermore in 1 Tim. 2:4-6 it is explained; ”Who will have all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, in due time.”[ A perfect human life for another perfect human life (a corresponding price])>>> The first life defective and it’s posterity; the “last Adam, a quickening spirit.” The risen Lord Jesus who was “holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners.” “The Word” or “Logos” who was made flesh, and in love and obedience to God his Father “poured out his soul unto death.”>>> Isaiah 53:12 Jesus stated in John 6:51 “and the bread I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” The ransom-price, the right to life, to be applied in due time. 1 John 2:2 “And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the whole world.” The offer of justification to life as in Romans 5:18 “so by the righteousness of one, upon all men unto justification of life.” on the terms of Romans 10:10 “…believeth unto righteousness.” “…confession unto salvation.”
>>>If there is a first resurrection, then there is more than one implied also. 1 Cor. 15:38 “…a body as it hath pleased Him.” 1 Cor. 15:40 “the glory of the celestial is one, the glory of the terrestrial is another.” Romans 5:19 “For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by the many be made righteous.”
WHEN? Acts 24:15.. Resurrection of the(“Just and Unjust”)! In Hebrews 11:3 the statement is made that “the worlds (ages) were framed by the word of God.” All human history is shaped by the justice, love, wisdom and power of God; in permitting evil for mans education, and the gift of his son for our redemption! Acts 17:31 “he hath appointed a day, he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained”.. Daniel 12:2 “Many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake ” .. of death)..>>> 2 Peter 3:8 “one day with the Lord as a thousand years.”
JESUS also include in this resurrection: >>>Matt. 12:41-42 “the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment.” >>>Matt. 10:15 “more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah.” (Literally)! Matt. 19:28 “the 12 tribes of Israel.” >>>Jeremiah 31:16 “from the land of the enemy.”These all having died in total or relative ignorance, and inherited weakness, prior to the millennial day of judgment! Jesus stated again in John 12: 47-48 “if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not-the word I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” A resurrection by judgments during the “times of restitution” >>>Acts 3:21. When the true “way of holiness” Isaiah 35:8 will be prepared for mankind! Isaiah 11:9 “shall not hurt or destroy.” >>>Isaiah 26:9 “when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants will learn righteousness.” With Satan bound a 1,000 years! >>>1 Cor. 15:23 “every man in his own order.”
THE CALL OF OUR PRESENT AGE! John 6:44,65 Acts 15:14-18 “God did at the first visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.” A spiritual church for his Son; the Christ. (the Spirit and the Bride) Rev. 22:17. Jesus said: “Deny self and follow me”>>> Matt. 16:24 “ sanctify them through thy truth” John 17:17 “ be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” Rev 2:10. The completion of this “first resurrection” ends this age!
>>>THEN-Rev. 21:2 “new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven” Acts 7:48 “God dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” >>>Then the “millennial” reign of Christ actually begins! Psalm 102:18 “the people which SHALL BE CREATED”! ..You will be there !
(…IF YOU LIKE REAL SURPRISES !)
* ALL PEOPLE WILL RECIEVE THEIR LAND AND THEIR FAMILIES BACK ! YOU WILL BE THERE !