Stand erect, hold your heads high,
because your liberation is near at hand. LK 21:28
REVELATION 18:1-2, 21-23, 19:1-3, 9
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
Numerous empires, kingdoms, governments, rulers, despots, dictators have come and gone since God laid the foundations of the world and many more will come and go but You, O Lord, remain forever.
John speaks of Babylon where God's people were exiled and tyrannized, he speaks of their abominations, their cruelty, their evil, and their dominion over nations that seemed unending. But it did end, God's people were liberated and those taken into exile returned home.
Let us never lose sight of this truth, that You are God and all who rule do so at Your good pleasure. You appoint the rulers of this world and they will be called to an exact accounting of their stewardship, judgment will be pronounced and commensurate reward or punishment will be meted out to them. We on our part must never forget that we are under obedience to all legitimate authority for this is Your will.
As long as we live we are called to strive to be worthy of our calling as Christians and as members of Your Church. We are called to work tirelessly to build up one another and to be a light to the nations. The Church is the New Jerusalem, she is the city on the hill built on Mt. Zion, and to her will all the peoples of the world stream to give true praise, worship, honor, and glory to the triune God who made the heavens and the earth. And when the Bridegroom comes for His Bride, when time shall cease, we will feast at the wedding feast eternally. Happy are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.
PSALM 100:2-5
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
We were created for service with joy for we are not greater than the Servant King who came to serve and to give His life as a ransom for all.
We were created to know You, to love You, to worship and adore You with every breath we breathe. We were created by You for You and when we become aware of this truth we understand the reason for our being alive. We are Yours - purchased by You, redeemed by You, saved by You, and sealed in an eternal Covenant of Love with You.
If this is not reason enough to have a song in our hearts and praise on our lips every moment we are awake and even as we sleep I cannot imagine what is? We are God's children created for love and for joy. We are marked indelibly by the Holy Spirit for all eternity claiming us irretrievably for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
LUKE 21:20-28
My Beloved, Soul of my soul,
You continue in today's Gospel to recount with stark reality all that Jerusalem will face for having rejected the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior for You did not fit their conception, their mold of the Messiah and so missed the opportunity of fulfilling their glorious destiny. 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.'
Nailed to the Cross You were as helpless as at Your birth when You were wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger. In perfect humility and obedience to Your Father, You gave Yourself into the hands of the world to redeem it and in willful repudiation the world crucified You.
All that took place then, when God's chosen people rejected You, will take place again for the world continues to reject You. We have been warned and we ignore the warning to our own destruction. Nations have destroyed nations before, people have slaughtered innocents before. Streets have had rivers of blood flowing through them and the dead have been piled high one over the other and so it will be again. This is Your warning to us if we continue heedlessly and recklessly on the path that we are on right now.
Great evil will be unleashed on the world and like the people in the time of Noah who deliberately shut their ears to his warning and laughed at him, the deluge will come upon us even as we are eating, drinking, and reveling in sin and when it does, it will destroy everything.
‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamor of the ocean and its waves; men dying of fear as they await what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.’
Those who are faithful must stay awake and pray so You will have mercy on us and on the whole world.
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