Church of God, In Truth
Our Awesome Calling
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Our Awesome Calling
GOD'S AWESOME POWER
The sixth and seventh step in God's plan for mankind, pictures a time of utopia, a time of plenty, and a time when there will be true love and respect for one another. During this era of time, this world will be taught God's laws, statute, and judgements by those who are heirs with Christ at His coming.
"For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature wait for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who has subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it" (Rom 8:14-25).
Solomon who had a hobby of collecting proverbs wrote: " Where there is no vision, [prophetic vision, or revelation] the people perish: [this first clause should read, where there is no vision the people are let loose] but he that keeps the law, [God's law] happy is he" (Pro. 29:18). This vision King Solomon is talking about is in the Minds eye, looking ahead mentally to some point in time.
We can see examples of this in Abraham, Moses, David, Joshua and many others in the book of Hebrews. This vision gave these men humility, and faithfulness. God was real to these men! Seeking God's Kingdom and His righteousness first, was their goal. "Now faith [trust and confidence] is the substance [assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence [proof or conviction] of things not seen." In other words the minds eye of faith becomes visible. V6 declares, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: For he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." V8 "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he went." V10 For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Abraham had faith with a vision in his minds eye. V27 By faith Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the King: for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." He knew God was with him his minds eye embraced that vision. V :13 "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, [in their minds eye] and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." All these people in the faith chapter had a sense of sight of something that was not yet possessed. They never stopped in faith looking with their minds eye for God's soon coming Kingdom.
Our minds eye should be on that same track, staying focused on God kingdom and His righteousness. These last two steps of God's plan of salvation for mankind plants the seed in our minds eye of God's promised millennium, a time that pictures a 1000 years of peace, prosperity and safety. This also pictures a time God is going to share His glorious created abundance with us.
In our minds eye, I would like to demonstrate what that is besides food, drink, and every one living under there own fig tree, as we have heard in many sermons and sermonettes at God's Feast of Tabernacles. Have you ever given much thought to the wealth of real estate God owns and is willing to share with us? On the back of the "Prove all Things magazine" and on the "Church of God, in Truth's" web page is a Psalm of King David. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handy work" ( Psalms 19:1). Back a few pages King David said "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth! Who has set Your glory above the heavens. When I consider the heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man, that You art mindful of him? And the son of man, that You visit him?" (Psalms 8:1,3-4) King David understood the vastness of God's creation, he did not just take it for granted. Apostle Paul also commented on the nature of the glory we are destine to inherit. "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory" (1 Cor. 15:41). This world and the heavens are not the work of chance, but the creation of God, the God that we are to worship daily. God tells us plainly "I have made the Earth, and created man upon it: even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded" ( Isa 45:12).
Many worldly writers were inspired to write:
(1) "Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created these orbs?"
(2) "Who brings earth their host by number, and calls them all by names"
(3) "The everlasting God, the Lord, by the greatness of His might, for He is strong in power."
(4) " He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by His wisdom,"
(5) "He has stretched out the heavens by His understanding"
These writers are not confusing peoples minds by a multitude of technical terms. It is by God's power that this vast created world and universe systems was called from nothing into existence. There is striking illustrations of power recorded in the early ages of this world for us to see as evidence. One is, when God overwhelmed the earth with a deluge, covering the highest mountain tops and sweeping the ancient world into a watery grave. Another, with His power He demolished Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them with fire from heaven. More evidence is when God slew all the first born of Egypt and turned their rivers into blood. And God also made the earth to open its jaws and swallow up Korah and all his company when He caused mount Sinai to smoke and tremble at His presence . These events were only transitory efforts of God's divine power in comparison with His material Universes.
The earth is a globe with its diameter nearly 8000 miles. It's circumference is about 25,000 miles and its surface contains nearly two hundred millions of square miles. All this awesomeness is but a speck of dust floating in space. Its a magnitude too great for the mind to take in at one conception. In order to form in our minds eye a tolerable conception, lets imagine standing on top of a mountain on a clear day, perceiving a view stretching 40 miles in every direction forming a circle of 80 miles diameter and 250 in circumference which give us about 5,000 square miles of surround viewing! In such a situation the terrestrial scene around and beneath us would consist of hills, plains, towns, villages, rivers and lakes. It would form one of the largest objects, which the eye and even the imagination can grasp at one time. That 5,000 square miles we would be looking at forms no more than a forty thousandth part of this globe we live on, To view the whole world we must conceive 40,000 landscapes of similar size. If we stood still and had 5,000 square miles of landscape pass before us 12 hours a day it would require 9 years and 48 days to view the whole surface of this earth! It must be recognized that objects at the distance of 40 miles cannot all be distinctly in clear focus. Only those things that are within a 3 to 4 miles in range would be comprehended.
Looking at the globe's vastness another way, if a person set out to pass along every square mile of its surface and continued without intermission walking 30 miles a day, it would take 18,264 years, before completing his journey. If this traveler would have been Adam he would just be finishing one third part of his trip.
The mind labors to comprehend God's great power, might and ideas that commanded all this vastness to spring from nothing into existence. Isaiah the Prophet asked, "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?" (Isa. 40:12). For God, no task is too great and no, responsibility too small. Do we begin to see in our minds eye the greatness of God's omnipotence? His mastery, authority, control, dominion and power unlimited? God says in Verse 25-26, "To whom then will you liken Me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bring out their host by number: He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He Is strong in power; not one fails."
If we were to travel outside of the world we live on and measure distances as we leave this planetary system here is what we can expect. Traveling at the speed of light, 186,000 miles a second or roughly 6 trillion miles a year, it would take us 10 billion years to reach the farthest point we can see with a average telescope. We would see an average of about 5000 stars and about two million celestial bodies. With the Mount Palomar telescope in San Diego County, California, we could see billions of galaxies.
Now for a moment think about the distance between those heavenly bodies and earth? Someone has pictured those distances as follows: If it cost one penny to ride 1000 miles, a trip to the moon would cost $ 2.38, a trip to the Sun would cost $ 9.30, a trip to the nearest star would cost $260 Million. Looking at God's awesome universe another way, it takes light from the most remote stars which can be seen with a large telescope 10 billion years to reach the earth. So when we look out into space we are really looking backward in time. Example: we do not see the Andromede galaxy in the Northern constellation where it is now, but where it was two Million years ago. Is that awesome or what? King David had this same feeling when he said: "Let all the Earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him." (Psalm. 33:8) No matter how much we talk about spiritual ideas it is quite evident from the nature of things and the very constitution of man that we have no idea at all without the intervention of objects we live with every day to measure or evaluate things in our minds eye or imagination. An object like a ball flying through the air at 5 hundred miles every hour would not reach the nearest stars until 10 hundred thousand years had passed.
These thoughts should help us see in our minds eye why God calls a whole nation, nothing more than a "drop in a bucket." "Behold, the Nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance. And they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will you liken God? or what likeness will you compare unto Him?" (Isa 40:15,17-18). When man has God in his minds eye he needs to never have fear of the so-called great of this world.
Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel's three companions left us with a excellent example of having God in their minds eye by refused to bow down and worship King Nebuchadnezzar's 90 foot high image of gold. "Now if you be ready that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sack, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, you fall down and worship the image which I have made; Well: but if you worship not, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" [Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the King,] O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto you, O King, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up." (Dan 3: 15-18) Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego saw God not the fiery furnace. They knew that God worked in their lives and they trusted Him. They did not let the physical evidence intimidate them. After they were thrown into the hot fire Nebuchadnezzar could not believe his eyes. "Then Nebuchadnezzar the King was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the King, true, O King. He answered and said, lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the most High God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the King's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, Upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent His angel, and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and have changed the King's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God"(Dan 3:24-28). We find in the book of Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar minds eye was opened. He came to understand the awesomeness of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's God after he had repented of his ways. "And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He does according to His will in the army of heaven, And among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, what doest You?" (Dan 4:35)
The opening words of Isaiah chapter 66 were written to the unrepentant people of Israel. "Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that you build unto Me? and where is the place of My rest? For all those things has Mine hand made" (Isa. 66:1- 2). God sustains the earth and the entire universe by his mighty power. You and I today, in our minds eye should not be looking for a man made city. We are to be visioning what the Apostle John visioned! "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first Heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband" (Rev 21:1-2). This event is yet future. You and I kept the sixth and seventh step of God's plan this year because we have a vision! The vision of God's soon coming kingdom, a vision of being the bride and a part of the first fruits.
If our minds eye is not focused on God's soon coming kingdom and His righteousness, we are told through Peter's inspired words, "For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins" (2 Pet 1: 8-9). Something we must never forget is Christ died for us while we were still sinners. In His minds eye He could see us in His Fathers Kingdom. He is in His Fathers Kingdom preparing a place for us now and He is working everything out for us. "The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him" (Dan 7:27). This promised inheritance is made possible through Jesus Christ's sacrifice. We read "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15: 41-44).
WHAT AN AWESOME INVITATION
WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN
James Russell
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