ISAIAH 33:17 – Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar.

THEME OF THE DAY. THINK ON THIS GLORIOUS DAY. Nothing changes our understanding of the Christian life and shapes our lives more in line with the Biblical definition of being a Christian than to ponder the day when today’s scripture becomes a literal reality. Stop right now and allow our minds to go there. As we do, let the Apostle John’s description of his vision of Christ in the opening chapter of the Revelation become our compass to direct our thinking . . .

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades (Revelation 1:9-18).

The descriptions of Christ are simply breath-taking, fear-producing, and awe-inspiring to the one who will take time to meditate and seek the Spirit of God to show us this beauty found in the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And it is this illumination of the true Christ that needs to be recovered in our lives as Christians and in our churches. Our Lord told us in the last days, “Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray” (Mark 13:6). The Apostle John also warns us many anti-Christs will come on the scene – Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour (1 John 2:18). Don’t believe everything claiming to be Christian. Don’t blindly believe anyone claiming to represent Christ and teaching His Word. In all things, scripture must rule and no area more important than a Biblical description of the Lord Jesus. This includes our own understanding of Christ. The Bible points us to Christ and in the description John writes of Him, we see Christ’s beauty, authority, purity, power, brilliance, eternality, and compassion. There is far more to gain from spending quality time in prayer beholding Him in this portion of scripture. And here is the truth of all truths – what we see in part now by faith, we will see face-to-face soon. Let that move us to get as close to Him through His Word and prayer as a human being may this side of heaven!

PRAYER: “Father, grant me the privilege to grasp by faith the glory of seeing Your Son in a not too far away future.”

QUOTE: “Think often of your face-to-face meeting with the Lord Jesus. Such thinking radically changes the Christian life.”