Good morning, special ones.
I’m pretty sure this will take you by surprise—as there has been such a lengthy time lapse between now and when you last received a devotional word from me. I don’t wish to be pushy with this kind of thing, but I have received several requests to crank up this routine again. Not having any current or updated recipient list, I’m choosing to simply draw from my last list of recipients—primarily compiled back in 2018. I’ll just launch this—and see what happens.
Lots on my list for the day. I can impart more news later.
Blessings on your day—Ray.
If I am seeing and understanding things even close to the balanced standard of BIBLICAL TRUTH, then I have to conclude that this loud challenge to the contemporaries of John the Baptist so many centuries ago is just as valid and urgent for us today as it was then—maybe more so.
Allow me to reiterate a theme that I glean from my overview of Biblical revelation and have reason to cite often: THERE ARE ONLY TWO KINGDOMS. We don’t have the freedom to choose between three, or four, or a thousand. Only TWO. One is RIGHT, and one is WRONG. And even though there may be the illusion of MANY, they all boil down to just TWO. Our universal inherited NATURAL SIN NATURE predetermines our default setting to be more closely linked to the wrong one—the kingdom of sin, self, and Satan. I see no Biblical evidence that we are naturally linked to the Kingdom of God and His eternal heavenly Kingdom. That status, according to Biblical authority, is very exclusive—and is presented as A LIMITED TIME OFFER. Furthermore, “the realm of heaven’s kingdom” is entered BY RESERVATION ONLY. So, while sin is universal to man, eternal life (“The realm of heaven’s kingdom”) is not.
Before rising this morning, my meditations led me to recognize anew that we are all REBELS—we are all living in rebellion against one kingdom or the other—which also makes us all to be members-in-good-standing with one kingdom or the other. If I fail to choose to “keep turning away from evil and turn back to God,” (i.e., fail to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness”—Matt. 6:33), I am thereby choosing (even unwittingly) to rebel against God and His Kingdom purposes. But if I choose to love, seek and serve God, I am choosing to rebel against sin, self, and Satan—against my default setting.
Another related pre-rising thought occurred to me as I reflected on Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters (TWO KINGDOMS—my parenthesis). Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (NIV).
I’m inclined to paraphrase the first line of the FOCUS VERSE as: “One way or another, eternity is about to begin for everyone.” On one hand, modern man with all his technological power is poised and ready to blow up the entire planet. On the other hand we’re all strapped by our own mortality as caused by one of many other other factors—like terminal illness, accident, or old age. If it is true that, “…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27, KJV), then the ancient cry of John the Baptist is worthy of our best attention.