Thought for the Week

Here and now we are getting little foretastes of what is to come. As I write this, the temperature is pretty bitter cold but we have already had some warm days and little glimpses of springtime. I am really wanting to focus on spiritual things. As Christians we experience some really blessed times. They come in worship services, hymn sings, weddings, baby dedications and the like. But there is more and better to come. Imagine with me, we are an observation deck and overlooking the assembling of a choir with 100,000,000 members. (Ten thousand times ten thousand saying, “Worthy is the Lamb…”) Handel’s Messiah sings this and I have heard the Grantham Oratorio Society with some almost 200 members sing this and I have heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with another 200 members sing the same. Yet how can these compare with the heavenly choir which is 5,000,000 times larger and these choir members have vocal chords contained in immortal, imperishable bodies. The range of notes will be beyond compare. I do not remember of anything in Scripture that speaks of the heavenly orchestra but there will most certainly be one. Or, imagine Christ as the Bride-Groom standing before the Father’s throne awaiting His bride, the church about to enter the heavenly throne room. Perhaps you will get a whiff of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb wafting up from the reception hall. Hum the words “Oh, that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me, when by His grace I shall look on His face that will be glory, be glory for me.” I would really enjoy sitting with those of you who are anticipating eternity in Heaven and chatting about our expectations. Yet I remind you, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things God has prepared for those who love Him and are looking for His appearing.” So, it will be better than our greatest hopes and fondest dreams. We cannot even imagine. That is the positive side. I really do not want to imagine the negative side. Hebrews tells us “It is a fearful (a horrible) thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.” I think of two illustrations: King Belshazzar of Babylon saw the fingers of a man’s hand writing in the soot of the candlestick on the wall. His face turned ghastly white, his thoughts terrified him, his hip joints came loose and his knees hammered together. King Herod, dressed in his finest royal robes gave a speech and men proclaimed he spoke with the voice of god and not the voice of a man. He took unto himself this flattery and did not glorify God. Immediately his body was infested with worms and he was eaten alive. Both these men had had godly examples demonstrated before them and had rejected God’s appeal to submit to Him and allow Him to be their Savior and Lord. We can only imagine the horror for those who have blatantly rejected God’s offer of forgiveness and His undeserved love. It is certainly true that we do not deserve God’s grace and mercy but Jesus died to purchase your pardon and mine. For those who trample under feet God’s loving offer, they make a choice that will determine their eternal destiny. God’s offer is rejected because men love darkness, rather than light because their deeds are evil. Those deeds include crucifying Jesus over and over in with the attitude of hatred and indifference to His offer of love.

Scriptures to Read

Revelation 5:6-10

Revelation 5:11-14

Revelation 20:11-15

Revelation 21:1-7

Psalm 16:11

Daniel 5

Acts 12:21-24