In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2.
The fruit of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden possessed supernatural virtue. To eat of it was to live forever. Its fruit was the antidote of death….
After the entrance of sin the heavenly Husbandman transplanted the tree of life to the Paradise above.
The redeemed saints, who have loved God and kept His commandments here, will enter in through the gates of the city, and have right to the tree of life. They will eat freely of it as our first parents did before their fall. The leaves of that immortal widespread tree will be for the healing of the nations. All their woes will then be gone. Sickness, sorrow, and death they will never again feel, for the leaves of the tree of life have healed them. Jesus will then see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, when the redeemed, who have been subject to sorrow, toil, and afflictions, who have groaned beneath the curse, are gathered up around that tree of life to eat of its immortal fruit, that our first parents forfeited all right to, by breaking God’s commands. There will be no danger of their ever losing right to the tree of life again, for he that tempted our first parents to sin will be destroyed by the second death.
Obedience to all the commandments of God was the condition of eating of the tree of life. Adam fell by disobedience….
Obedience through Jesus Christ gives to man perfection of character and a right to that tree of life. The conditions of again partaking of the fruit of the tree are plainly stated in the testimony of Jesus Christ to John: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will “grow up” to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and Christ’s faithful ones will appear in “the beauty of the Lord our God,” in mind and soul and body reflecting the perfect image of their Lord. Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for, contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood.
Maranatha p. 325
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Prayer Requests
—– I had a heart catherdization last week and the news if I need more surgery. I will have open heart surgery on Oct 6. The cardiac surgeon plans to give me a new aortic valve and do a double bypass. I will be in cardiac in recovery all of October. I will appreciate your prayers and support. Larry
—– Please keep my dad in your prayers, he has a very serious blood infection and an infection in a lumbar disc and was admitted to the hospital Friday. BJ
—– Pray for me. I’m had hernia surgery Friday afternoon. Please pray for a quick recovery. Doug
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Dear Friends,
“Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. Show thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them that put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about. They are enclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly. They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth; Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places. Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” Psalm 17
David’s prayer is full of the trust and assurance of one, who has made all things right with his Maker. He has confessed his sins. He knows that he is forgiven. He has taken God at His Word and does not doubt His goodness. He could say, “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.” Ps 4:8 He said as did Paul, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” 2 Tim 1:12
Even though David’s life was full of physical danger, he trusted in God’s protecting power. Even when Saul was close enough for David to have killed him, he would not. (1 Sam 24) He left his enemy’s future in the hand of the Righteous Judge. The same Righteous Judge to Whom he prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Ps 139:23,24
He saw things in their true perspective. He saw that even though the wicked appear to have a good life, full of blessings and few problems; their satisfying life is as but a moment. As James says, “For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” James 4:14 And truly, the life of the wicked is not as smooth as it appears. As the wise man observes, “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.” Ecc 5:10
David looked toward the future, when he would be raised to newness of life “at the last trump.” “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” 1 Cor 15:52-55 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thess 4:16,17 May we all be ready is my prayer.
Rose