Think on Heavenly Things

These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 7:14.
John, while in vision, saw a company clothed in white robes…. They were seen in the temple of God. This will be the result for all who will lay hold of the merits of Christ and wash their robes in His blood. Every provision has been made so that we can sit with Christ upon His throne, but the condition is that we be in harmony with the law of God….
We cannot afford to lose heaven. We ought to have our conversation on heavenly things. There there is no death nor pain. Why are we so reluctant to talk of these things? Why do we dwell upon earthly things? The apostle exhorts us to have our conversation in heaven. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20)…. Christ will soon return to gather those who are prepared, and take them to this glorious place. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Hebrews 9:28).
Do we love to think of this event or do we want to put it off? … The more we talk of Jesus, the more we shall reflect His divine image. By beholding we become transformed. We need to bring Christ into our religious experience. When you assemble together, let the conversation be on Christ and His salvation…. The more we talk of Jesus the more of His matchless charms we shall behold.
Those who take no pleasure in thinking and talking of God in this life, will not enjoy the life that is to come, where God is ever present, dwelling among His people. But those who love to think of God will be in their element, breathing in the atmosphere of heaven. Those who on earth love the thought of heaven will be happy in its holy associations and pleasures…. “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads” (Revelation 22:3, 4).
Maranatha p. 331
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer Requests
——Please pray for my mother-in-law who has a broken leg and is in a care home. Please pray that she recovers both physically and mentally. J
—–Pray for our members who are being persecuted that they will be given courage to remain faithful to God. T
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Friends,
Shortly after the 1999 tornado, Ronnie Jay was driving to work, when suddenly, the rear side window shattered into hundreds of pieces. Since drive-by shootings are fairly common, his first thought was that someone had shot toward him. He was shocked and unnerved and called me as soon as he arrived at work. I took an early lunch hour and met him at his workplace. We spent quite a bit of time searching to find the cause of the shattered window. Even though we searched and searched for either a rock or a bullet, we could find nothing.
We were puzzled. Why would a car window suddenly shatter like that? As we asked people if they had ever had that happen to them, we found several people who told us that it was from the tornado that had, a few days earlier, gone directly over our trailer park as it was descending to touch down about a mile away. At the time, we and most of our neighbors were huddling in the storm shelter. We had heard that tornado above us and had felt a great difference in the air pressure. It was the difference in air pressure between the inside of Ronnie Jay’s car and the surrounding air that had so weakened the glass, that it finally could not endure the normal airflow from highway driving.
So it is in our life. Sin weakens us. Each time we sin, it becomes more difficult to resist the temptation the next time it comes. Our lives shatter just as unexpectedly, just as completely as did the window in Ronnie Jay’s car. How well Isaiah describes our condition, “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.” We are “a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: 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 putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Isa 64:6;1:4-6
We cannot save ourselves from shattering. We need a Saviour to strengthen us. Praise God! He has provided a way! He will deliver us if we ask Him to! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” John 3:16, 17 “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” Eph 2:4,5 “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his ! righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” Rom 3:24,25 “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” I John 4:9-10
We can get the forgiveness and cleansing we need! “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” I John 1:9; 2:1 Just like Joshua the High Priest in Zechariah’s vision, we need to have our filthy garments removed. We need Christ’s spotless robe of righteousness. “Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” Zech 3:3,4 Jesus, the True Witness, pleads, “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 t! he shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Rev 3:18
May we allow our Dear Saviour to remove our unrighteous rags and clothe us with the pure garment of His righteousness. May we live so close to Him that even when the “tornadoes” of life go over our head, we will not shatter is my prayer.
Rose