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Sunday Morning Message for September 2, 2012
Sunday Morning Message for August 26, 2012
Sunday Morning Message for August 12, 2012
Can you imagine this?
Take a break for a few minutes. Relax. Let your mind’s eyes see something wonderful, and real. Just because we can’t see it with our natural eyes right now doesn’t mean it isn’t real. You can imagine all sorts of things, the well-spring of hopes and dreams.
For now, let your imaginer loose into the pages of the Bible. John is telling us about incredible things to come, almost too amazing to comprehend, but things which are true none-the-less. Our task is to read about them and ponder them and allow the Holy Spirit to Bless us as we do. This is good stuff.
We read that one day we will have new bodies. I don’t know what they will look like, but I know Who made them, and that’s enough for me to be excited about it. We’ll have a new name; a new identity, if you will. Again, we can’t say much about how all this works, but we know Who is working it out, and that is enough to prompt us to dreaming about it. Imagine!
This coming realm is so fantastic that we risk all sorts of errors just trying to think about it, as we try to understand the future in terms of the now, or the past, both of which have failed so badly we should welcome dumping them both for the glory of what is coming. We know this in our spirits.
So put yourself there, right now, in this new realm of what God has promised those who believe in Him. Imagine that you are happily engaged in doing something. What that might be I can’t say, but I’m sure we will be on assignment, not just sitting around bored. You’ll probably be doing something, custom designed by Jesus just for you to do, which will use whatever gifts and powers He has given you for that task. Whatever you need He will give you. If you need others to help they will be there. Whatever power or gift or talent- whatever- He will provide it all, to accomplish His will through you. Cool, huh?
There we are, in Heaven, or the Heavenlies, where ever in Creation He wants us to be, doing whatever He wants us to do, completely fulfilled and full of awe and wonder each moment. No worries. No tears. No anxieties, fears, or doubts. There may be troubles, but that’s probably why we are there, to deal with them according to His Will. Very cool, indeed.
Now imagine this: A voice of some kind is heard. It’s probably not the voice of God, but of one of His agents; maybe one of us, or an angel. Or some other created being. Wow. We all hear the voice at once, in the same way, understanding what is said perfectly, without any confusion of any kind. We know exactly what is being said, and we know exactly what to do, and we respond with joy and willingness, because we so desire to serve the Lord and obey His Word to us. In fact, the emotion of anticipation builds to a crescendo as the voice calls to us.
Then, whether all at once, or in some kind of divinely ordered distribution of time, we hear it. The Word is instantly familiar to us, because we’ve heard it so often, both here, in Heaven, and before, in our former lives, the ones you’re living now. We no longer wrestle with the Word, as we did before. We don’t reject it for some other pleasure. We don’t neglect for some other perceived duty. We don’t ignore it because we’re doing something we value more importantly. Immediately we respond, properly and completely, because we really WANT to, because this is more important than ANYTHING else we might do.
Because we can now see our past so clearly, we see all those times we heard this Word before. It adds to our joy. All through the ages the Church of Jesus has begun its service with…..and now in this present future we still hear this Word….a call to worship. The very first thing God wants is for us to worship Him. We stop everything to worship Jesus Christ, because we WANT to. We are filled with wonder and awe, again and again, as He reveals more and more of Himself to us, throughout eternity. Imagine, if you can, the worship of God Almighty.