O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee. 2 Chronicles 20:12.
“I beheld,” says the prophet Daniel, “till thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did sit…. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Daniel 7:9, 10, R.V.
Thus was presented to the prophet’s vision the great and solemn day when the characters and the lives of men should pass in review before the Judge of all the earth, and to every man should be rendered “according to his works.” The Ancient of days is God the Father…. It is He, the source of all being, and the fountain of all law, that is to preside in the judgment. And holy angels, as ministers and witnesses, in number “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” (Revelation 5:11), attend this great tribunal.
“And, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.” Daniel 7:13…. The coming of Christ here described is not His second coming to the earth. He comes to the Ancient of days in heaven to receive dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, which will be given Him at the close of His work as a mediator. It is this coming, and not His second advent to the earth, that was foretold in prophecy to take place at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844. Attended by heavenly angels, our great High Priest enters the holy of holies, and there appears in the presence of God … to perform the work of investigative judgment, and to make an atonement for all who are shown to be entitled to its benefits.
God’s people are now to have their eyes fixed on the heavenly sanctuary, where … our great High Priest … is interceding for His people.
Soon we shall be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and over against our names will be recorded the judgment rendered.
The Faith I Live By p. 209
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for Larry, Mike, and Eileen as they are filling out paperwork and making decisions during this stressful time. Rose
—-Please pray for my brother who is having a melanoma removed from his arm
today. The doctor said she is going to have to cut deep and wide to get it all. Please pray that she does get it all and that he has a smooth recovery. Martha
—-Our beloved Pastor Silva of our Bi-lingual SDA church, his cancer has taken a turn for the worse. He will be leaving to Mexico maybe this coming Sabbath for extra treatment. This is his last hope. . . . Please pray for a complete healing! Connie
—-Prayer request, I have an orphan was born with HIV and there parents died long time ago and he is on HIV medication. Pray for him for not loosing hope in life. Jose
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Dear Friends,
Some years ago when MSN 7.5 was new, Ronnie Jay suggested that I upgrade. I took his advice. Later, I noticed that I still had the old Windows Messenger on my task bar as well as the new program. Not wanting too many items using up my memory, I decided to delete it. That is where my trouble started.
It told me to go to “add and remove programs.” I did but couldn’t find windows messenger. I started hunting for it. Somehow, I got on a screen where I saw it and some other programs with check boxes beside them. Without really reading carefully, I unchecked all the boxes except Windows Messenger believing that would remove it. Then I clicked “OK.”
At first I didn’t think that there was anything wrong, but I soon realized that I was in big trouble. Windows Messenger was still there. The Outlook Express icon was gone not only from the task bar but also from the list of programs. So was the icon to get onto Internet Explorer. I looked in the Recycle bin, but they were not there. With a sinking heart, I realized that I had made a big mistake.
Ron came to help and showed me that I could access the Internet through Favorites, but try as he might, he could not find Outlook Express. Finally, he called Tech Support. They were no help at all. I called a young man who is a computer whiz, but he didn’t answer. I was greatly distressed but thankful that Ron thought the whole thing was hilarious instead of getting mad at me for goofing up the computer so badly.
Then Ron remembered that we had a neighbor who worked in Computer Services. Immediately, I called her. She rushed right over. Within minutes, she had my computer fixed! I was very grateful!
How many times, we get our life all messed up by the choices we make. We have become as Isaiah describes, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Isa 64:6; 1:6
How often we attempt to fix it ourself only to find that we are just as helpless as we were to get back what I had deleted. When we do this, we become like the Pharisees of whom our Dear Saviour declared, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” Matt 23:25-28 Jesus reminds us of the futility of trying to patch up our own life by ourself, “No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.” Matt 9:16, 17
How our Loving Redeemer’s Great Heart of Love must ache as He sees us attempting to make ourselves righteous. Only He can cleanse us from sin. Only He can sanctify us and give us the victory over the mess we have made of our life. The message to the Laodiceans is applicable to us living today. “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Rev 3:14-21
May we ask our Dear Saviour to take complete control of our life for He is standing there yearning to help us. May we allow Him to fix those things in our life that need fixing no matter how painful it might be at the time knowing that “afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” Heb 12:11 May we remember to “praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Ps 107:8
Rose
Our Eyes Fixed on Christ