June 17, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flowing stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and bounced upon her knees. As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you, and you will be consoled over Jerusalem.”

[Isaiah declares] When you see, you will rejoice, and you will flourish like grass; then the hand of the LORD will be revealed to His servants, but His wrath will be shown to His enemies.” (Isaiah 66.12-14)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

We cannot imagine what “that Day” will look like. What I mean by that is, despite the motion picture industry trying to capture the vision of the last Days, we simply are out of our league. In order to have some focus on the impact of those “that Day,” let me offer the following. There are three “that Days”:

The first will be that terrible day of the Lord when His justice shall come over the earth in such power and fervor that both the just and the unjust will experience it.

The second will be that day of His Appearing when in His separating “the wheat from the chaff” and the chaff was thrown into the fire to be consumed and the wheat was gathered into the Master’s barns for safekeeping, then there will be peace as the world and the earth had only known once. That peace was at the beginning when the Word of God commanded the chaos to come into alignment and all that we have known was brought into being. There was no human governance. There was righteousness which was the right relationship which existed between God, humanity and all creation. It was when God walked in the Garden and there was no fear of death nor dying for they were not “known” by creation as “an enemy.” The difference in this age of peace which comes on that Day is that the enemy has been convicted and thrown into prison to wait out his days. It will be a season when everything that was evil will be silenced and the influence of the True Lamb of God will reign supreme. It will be a sabbath of sabbaths on earth in preparation for when the final conflict will arise and the truth will be revealed and known by all who experience it without question. In that season, no matter how wonderful it will be, there is an end. The earth and the fullness thereof can never match what is yet to come. It is a season preparing for the Bridegroom to come and take His Bride into the promised “new heaven and new earth” to dwell in that “new Jerusalem.” There the presence of God in all His glory will abide as the blessing of the peace that was, is and will always be. And those who have prepared themselves for it shall receive it. There will be rejoicing as creation has never known. It is the joy of humanity being expressed in awe and wonder as the promise is fulfilled and faith having been restored is complete.

But, there is another “that Day” that is coming.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works leading others to call Jesus Lord in faith, hope and love. AMEN.