Let the nations rejoice and shout for joy, for You judge the peoples with fairness and lead the nations on earth. (verse 4)
Then I saw anther angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice: "Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him Who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water." Revelation 14
Bad news. Every day. All day. I just read about a bombing in Iraq. Thirty people going about their day were blown up in an instant. Aids is on the rise in young males between the ages of thirteen and twenty-four. War is everywhere. The holocaust that kills the children in our wombs continues. Chaos reigns in weather beaten islands and on our own east coast. Tribal warfare is forcing millions from their homes on the other side of our globe. We eat and drink too much, fattening our bodies and numbing our wills. Darkness ever endeavoring to squeeze out the light. And God is watching it all, waiting for the time of His judgment. Giving us time to get it right before the Lamb's foot touches earth and He deals.
Even those who don't believe He made heaven and earth will, on that day, have to bow down. It turns out He did, and they will be without answer. Crying out over even those people right now is the voice of the Lamb yearning for those of every tribe and nation to know Him. To see the One Who created streams and oceans, heaven and earth, and acknowledge the God of it all. Good news! Here is the gospel: The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love...He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities....for He knows our frame. He remembers we are dust. Psalm 103
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. (John 1) Let the nations rejoice! Christ came to save us all. Everyone. God stepped to earth in the flesh and walked among the flesh He framed. Mingled glory with dust on the soil of the nations. Let God-blood drop onto the dirt of His creation so a kingdom not of this world could arise, phoenix-like, from the sacrifice. One nation drawn from people of every language and tribe. Our raison d'etre? Him. The Light of heaven. The joy of the whole earth. The King of kings. Lord of lords. The Alpha and Omega. The revelation of our Father's plan through the ages, from the beginning, to bring us into His family by the sacrifice of His Son so all would be one in Him. No Turks, Arabs, or Europeans - just family. One nation over which our God is the benevolent sovereign.
Though the nations don't acknowledge Yahweh yet, that doesn't mean He isn't in control. From before the before, I AM was and is the Sovereign Lord. Morsi and Mubarak, Obama and Chavez, Castro and Cameron, all are subject to His will. The nations, a drop in the bucket (Isaiah 40) to the One Who is over all. Lest we rejoice in thinking we run the world or fear because we don't, make no mistake, the Sovereign Judge is watching His plan play out. Within those nations is a different one, drawn together with a common bloodline, created for God's pleasure and protected by His hand. The salt of the earth. The light of the world. And, when on the day we are taken by our Savior into the sky, the reason for God's benevolent hesitation will be swept away. Judgement will be swift and severe for those Who refuse Him now. Look at the world and honestly aver He doesn't have the right to punish our impunity. I will escape only because I know Him, not because I am good enough. That is the universal offer to every person walking the earth today. Open-handed, Jesus offers a way out of the hell that will burn here and eternally. What a magnificent offer. His life for mine. My guilt removed. My eternity secured. Refusing the death of Jesus is accepting the wrath of God. Already atoned for is my guilt. Choosing to reject God's gift to the nations makes men and women responsible for their own guilt - guilt that will be judged. Oh, fear God and give Him glory, for His judgement is coming, but His grace is here.
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. I Peter 2
Then I saw anther angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice: "Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him Who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water." Revelation 14
Bad news. Every day. All day. I just read about a bombing in Iraq. Thirty people going about their day were blown up in an instant. Aids is on the rise in young males between the ages of thirteen and twenty-four. War is everywhere. The holocaust that kills the children in our wombs continues. Chaos reigns in weather beaten islands and on our own east coast. Tribal warfare is forcing millions from their homes on the other side of our globe. We eat and drink too much, fattening our bodies and numbing our wills. Darkness ever endeavoring to squeeze out the light. And God is watching it all, waiting for the time of His judgment. Giving us time to get it right before the Lamb's foot touches earth and He deals.
Even those who don't believe He made heaven and earth will, on that day, have to bow down. It turns out He did, and they will be without answer. Crying out over even those people right now is the voice of the Lamb yearning for those of every tribe and nation to know Him. To see the One Who created streams and oceans, heaven and earth, and acknowledge the God of it all. Good news! Here is the gospel: The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love...He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities....for He knows our frame. He remembers we are dust. Psalm 103
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. (John 1) Let the nations rejoice! Christ came to save us all. Everyone. God stepped to earth in the flesh and walked among the flesh He framed. Mingled glory with dust on the soil of the nations. Let God-blood drop onto the dirt of His creation so a kingdom not of this world could arise, phoenix-like, from the sacrifice. One nation drawn from people of every language and tribe. Our raison d'etre? Him. The Light of heaven. The joy of the whole earth. The King of kings. Lord of lords. The Alpha and Omega. The revelation of our Father's plan through the ages, from the beginning, to bring us into His family by the sacrifice of His Son so all would be one in Him. No Turks, Arabs, or Europeans - just family. One nation over which our God is the benevolent sovereign.
Though the nations don't acknowledge Yahweh yet, that doesn't mean He isn't in control. From before the before, I AM was and is the Sovereign Lord. Morsi and Mubarak, Obama and Chavez, Castro and Cameron, all are subject to His will. The nations, a drop in the bucket (Isaiah 40) to the One Who is over all. Lest we rejoice in thinking we run the world or fear because we don't, make no mistake, the Sovereign Judge is watching His plan play out. Within those nations is a different one, drawn together with a common bloodline, created for God's pleasure and protected by His hand. The salt of the earth. The light of the world. And, when on the day we are taken by our Savior into the sky, the reason for God's benevolent hesitation will be swept away. Judgement will be swift and severe for those Who refuse Him now. Look at the world and honestly aver He doesn't have the right to punish our impunity. I will escape only because I know Him, not because I am good enough. That is the universal offer to every person walking the earth today. Open-handed, Jesus offers a way out of the hell that will burn here and eternally. What a magnificent offer. His life for mine. My guilt removed. My eternity secured. Refusing the death of Jesus is accepting the wrath of God. Already atoned for is my guilt. Choosing to reject God's gift to the nations makes men and women responsible for their own guilt - guilt that will be judged. Oh, fear God and give Him glory, for His judgement is coming, but His grace is here.
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. I Peter 2
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