Habakkuk 2

Then the Lord replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay."

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Your Great Salvation

Thursday, May 19, 2011, 6:42 a.m. – I woke this morning several times with the song, “How Sweet the Sound,” playing in my mind.

How Sweet the Sound / An Original Work / April 24, 2011

How sweet the sound of Your saints in chorus;
Oh, how we adore You, our King.
We love You so, we want You to know.
That’s why we lift our voice to sing.
Praise and adoration we bring
Just to honor God and our King.

We love You, Lord, for Your great salvation;
Freely given grace from above.
Jesus, our friend, His promise won’t end.
He gave His life out of His love.
By His blood He purchased our fee,
When He died on Calvary’s tree.

He set us free so that we can worship
Him as a living sacrifice.
We come to Him with all of our sin.
Before our God we humbly bow.
We have been forgiven our sin,
So that we might be cleansed within.

Sheet Music (with lyrics)

Audio/Sound (without lyrics)

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Isaiah 9:1-7 for my quiet time with the Lord.

To Us a Child Is Born
1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan—
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as men rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

My Understanding: This passage of scripture in Isaiah 9 is a prophecy about Jesus Christ, penned by God Almighty via his servant, Isaiah. Jesus Christ is the deliverer of gloom for those in distress. He is our Savior, our King, our hope of eternal salvation, our Messiah, our deliverer. Through him and what he did for us when he died on the cross for our sins and then rose from the grave, triumphing over hell, death, Satan and sin, and through our faith in him and in his great and precious promises to us, we have hope and salvation from sin.

When we are outside of faith in Jesus Christ, we are a “people walking in darkness,” because we have not seen the great light. We are under the curse of sin and death. Yet, when God draws us to himself and a light dawns in our hearts via the working of the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and to show us the way of salvation, then we are able to see the great light, Jesus Christ, our hope of eternal salvation; our promised One.

When we come to know Jesus Christ through faith in what he did for us and in who he is, evidenced by repentance and obedience to his commands, where there was once despair, hopeless, and lives given over to sin, we are now able to rejoice in our salvation that God has provided for us through Jesus’ death and resurrection, as we are now free from the penalty of sin, the control of sin over our daily lives, and we are free to love God and others, to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, and to live lives pleasing to God.

When Jesus died on the cross, he took upon himself all our sins, thus putting our sins to death, burying them with him, and the rising over them victoriously, leaving our sins in the grave behind him, so that we could be free from the chains and the yoke of sin over our lives. So, through his death on the cross, he thus shattered the “yoke that burdens” us so that we could go free! Amen!! We don’t have to be under the yoke of slavery to sin any longer, but we can be free to be slaves to Christ Jesus, to obey Him, instead.

Sometime after Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he ascended to the Father where he now sits on his throne and lives to intercede for us to the Father. He is our great high priest and mediator between us and the Father. His death tore the veil between us and the Holy of Holies in two so that we now have direct access to the Father in prayer and are no longer in need of human priests to intercede for us. Before Jesus left the earth, he told his disciples that he would send them the Holy Spirit to indwell them and to be their counselor. So, when we believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God comes within us to live so that we are now God’s temple and he lives in our hearts. Jesus Christ is thus living within us in the person of the Spirit of God and we now have the Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God living within us to give us counsel, guidance, direction, encouragement, and to teach us the things of God.

One day Jesus is coming back to judge the earth and the people of the earth and to receive us, his bride, for himself. At that time he will set up his kingdom on the earth and the saints of God will reign with him over the earth for a period of 1,000 years, according to scripture. While we wait for our Lord’s soon return, we should be growing in our understanding of him and his word, we should sit daily at his feet to learn from him, and we should obey what he teaches us and to walk in the great light we saw when we first came to know him. Our desire should be for him, not for the things of this world and this earthly life. And, as we walk continually in faith and obedience to him and to his word, he fills us with his peace and joy in knowing the salvation that is ours and in the hope that one day we will be with him.

For the One I Love / An Original Work / May 16, 2011

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard… (Is. 5:1a)
I’ll sing for the One I love
A song about His great love.
He died for our sins,
He rose from the grave,
And He reigns triumphantly.
He entered the throne of heav’n,
Where He lives to intercede.

I’ll sing for the One I love,
A song of His forgiveness.
His blood paid the price,
So we could be free
To live in victory.
He conquered our sin in death,
So we’d live for Him instead.

I’ll sing for the One I love,
A song of His soon return.
He’s soon coming back
To receive His own,
Who wait for Him patiently.
He makes us His holy bride,
Prepared for her husband, King!

Sheet Music (with lyrics)

Audio/Sound (without lyrics)

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