The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
Our God comes. He does not keep silence. Before Him is a devouring fire, around Him a mighty tempest. He summons the heavens above and the earth, that He may judge His people:
"Gather to Me My faithful ones, who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice!"
The heavens declare His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge!
(Vs. 1-6)
Qara. To summon by name. I just saw a video of quite an amazing thunderstorm in the desert. God's very own fireworks display. Nature is powerful. Volcanoes. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Floods. Tsunamis. Wind storms. All of these are loud, too! Hard to miss. Man has little recourse against the deluge. With all of our technologies, the best we can do is "Get to a safe place!"
If God summons the earth by name, calling to her to obey Him in every respect, we best be on His side. The word for God as judge means governor, ruling authority. Not just that He is sitting on His pious throne in heaven waiting to wield a club against sinners, but that He is ensconced in power above all things to reign. The Sovereign over nature and man. It is He Who speaks to the universe and to the hearts of man. He knows the stars by name. Our Mighty God calls out to them in their orbits. From morning to morning, He is delivering orders to each thing in the universe....and calling them by name.
Never fear. Our God comes! To our rescue. To our provision. To our summoning Him by Name. Our God comes! Riding in a chariot of fire, fast and furious as an F- 5 tornado, turning heaven and earth upside down to accomplish His will on earth and in our lives. How do we know this? Any of us who have trusted Him for long know this by experience. Why did we trust in the first place? Because His Word promises us our Mighty Abba is Father and Source to those of us who have made a new covenant with Him by the sacrifice of His very own blood.
"This is the new covenant I will make with them," declares the Lord. "I will put My law within them, on their heart I will write it. I will be their God and they will be My people. And they shall not teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, and I will remember no more." Jeremiah 31
One day He will call me by my name. "Look," He said. "I have engraved you on the palms of My hands." (Isaiah 49) He will summon me before His throne as one who made covenant with Him. As His child, adopted into His family, bearing His name. I will not drop to my knees in shame. I will not cower before Him as one without hope. Face down, perhaps, but not out of fear. With deepest reverence I will be there, covered in covenant blood, holding the hand scarred with my name. Summoned by the Mighty One to give an account of the Magnificent Lamb slaughtered for me. Nothing I can say about myself. Any good thing I could conjure to speak of came from His abundant grace. Every bad thing I could recount forgotten by His unfathomable mercy.
"The one who conquers will be clothed in white garments, and I will never blot her/his name out of the book of life. I will confess her/his name before My Father and before His angels."
Jesus, Revelation 3
Our God comes. He does not keep silence. Before Him is a devouring fire, around Him a mighty tempest. He summons the heavens above and the earth, that He may judge His people:
"Gather to Me My faithful ones, who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice!"
The heavens declare His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge!
(Vs. 1-6)
Qara. To summon by name. I just saw a video of quite an amazing thunderstorm in the desert. God's very own fireworks display. Nature is powerful. Volcanoes. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Floods. Tsunamis. Wind storms. All of these are loud, too! Hard to miss. Man has little recourse against the deluge. With all of our technologies, the best we can do is "Get to a safe place!"
If God summons the earth by name, calling to her to obey Him in every respect, we best be on His side. The word for God as judge means governor, ruling authority. Not just that He is sitting on His pious throne in heaven waiting to wield a club against sinners, but that He is ensconced in power above all things to reign. The Sovereign over nature and man. It is He Who speaks to the universe and to the hearts of man. He knows the stars by name. Our Mighty God calls out to them in their orbits. From morning to morning, He is delivering orders to each thing in the universe....and calling them by name.
Never fear. Our God comes! To our rescue. To our provision. To our summoning Him by Name. Our God comes! Riding in a chariot of fire, fast and furious as an F- 5 tornado, turning heaven and earth upside down to accomplish His will on earth and in our lives. How do we know this? Any of us who have trusted Him for long know this by experience. Why did we trust in the first place? Because His Word promises us our Mighty Abba is Father and Source to those of us who have made a new covenant with Him by the sacrifice of His very own blood.
"This is the new covenant I will make with them," declares the Lord. "I will put My law within them, on their heart I will write it. I will be their God and they will be My people. And they shall not teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, and I will remember no more." Jeremiah 31
One day He will call me by my name. "Look," He said. "I have engraved you on the palms of My hands." (Isaiah 49) He will summon me before His throne as one who made covenant with Him. As His child, adopted into His family, bearing His name. I will not drop to my knees in shame. I will not cower before Him as one without hope. Face down, perhaps, but not out of fear. With deepest reverence I will be there, covered in covenant blood, holding the hand scarred with my name. Summoned by the Mighty One to give an account of the Magnificent Lamb slaughtered for me. Nothing I can say about myself. Any good thing I could conjure to speak of came from His abundant grace. Every bad thing I could recount forgotten by His unfathomable mercy.
"The one who conquers will be clothed in white garments, and I will never blot her/his name out of the book of life. I will confess her/his name before My Father and before His angels."
Jesus, Revelation 3
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