"It all started in a garden, but it ends in a city. We have an urban future." Harvey Conn Westminster Seminary.
It will be a urban future unlike anything we have every experienced here. New York city is the city that "never sleeps". Our Heavenly city will be a place where no artifical light will ever be needed because of the light of the Lamb of God will shine eternally and timeless.
What's Our Excuse?
It's possible, even in the most wicked environment. Wickedness was great, every thought was evil continually, the earth was full of corruption and violence. If anyone had an excuse to say, "you have no idea how hard it is to live for God in my neighborhood", it was Noah. But Noah found favor with God and he walked with God in spite of all the cussin, fussin and carrying on. Genesis 6.
Walk with God
So intimate, so close, so sweet, so inhibited, so uncumbered....your walking and talking one day and God says "let's just walk up to my place, and stay there from now on through eternity".
Enoch walked with God in habitual fellowship. How's your walk with God? If your like me I have to break out the annoying kazoo of my wretched self and blow it a while, hindering my walk and fellowship with God. Oh to walk with God consistently like Enoch.
Ornament of Grace
Christmas is just around the corner and the concept of ornaments is fresh in our minds. Ornaments off all shapes and colors adorn trees in homes, malls and public squares. Ornaments that are new, some antique, some from our childhood or passed on to us from grandma. Ornaments bought from the store, the yard sale or hand made at home or school. Some ornaments are sentimental, some tell a story about a specific event and others are just dazzling and sparkling with beauty. There is an ornament that shouldn't be on the tree but rather on us...the ornament of grace.
Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, And give attention that you may gain understanding, For I give you sound teaching; Do not abandon my instruction. When I was a son to my father, Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother, Then he taught me and said to me, "Let your heart hold fast my words; Keep my commandments and live; Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding! Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. "Do not forsake her, and she will guard you; Love her, and she will watch over you. "The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding. "Prize her, and she will exalt you; She will honor you if you embrace her. "She will place on your head a(Ornament) garland of grace; She will present you with a crown of beauty."
Proverbs 4:1-9
How many ornaments of grace are hanging on your tree. The most dazzling ornament of grace that should be adorning your tree is the ornament of grace found in salvation, which will then produce the ornament of grace found in sanctification which will ultimately produce the ornament of grace in our glorification.
May your "tree" be trimmed with dazzling ornaments of grace.
Sin Loves You! Is It Your Master?
When Cain got angry over his inappropriate sacrifice, God revealed an incredible principle. Sin loves you or "it's desire is for you", in reality because we love it so much. It's a mutual "love affair". But the key is we must master sin or it will master us!
But Abel brought [an offering of] the [finest] firstborn of his flock and the fat portions. And the Lord had respect (regard) for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and his offering He had no respect. So Cain became extremely angry (indignant), and he looked annoyed and hostile. And the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you so angry? And why do you look annoyed? If you do well [believing Me and doing what is acceptable and pleasing to Me], will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well [but ignore My instruction], sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you [to overpower you], but you must master it.” GENESIS 4:4-7
Delightful, Desirous and Delicious!
In that case, how could it be bad for you?
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful, she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
GENESIS 3:6
BEWARE....MIGHT BE DEADLY!
Don't Dabble with Subtlety!
Why would we Dabble with the most subtle thing and most volatile dangerous thing that exists? But that is exactly what we do when we dabble with sin and The Deceiver.
Now the serpent was more crafty (subtle, skilled in deceit) than any living creature of the field which the Lord God had made. And the serpent (Satan) said to the woman, “Can it really be that God has said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
GENESIS 3:1
One of the most embattled statements of history. If it is not true we are merely part of some cosmic experience without any certainty of our beginning or end. If it is true, and I believe it is, our hope does not lie in humanities abilities but are rather in the God of the universe who was and is and will always be.
