By Nels Angelin / Photo by Nancy Reid on Unsplash

King David surely had a tender heart towards God as evidence to His message in the Psalms. He was close to God as a shepherd caring for sheep. He knew the strength of God in the field of battle that preserved him from certain defeat and death. The headline for my writing is mirrored from the Psalms: “The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of His hands,” (Psalm 19:1 NIV). He continues the sentiments of my heart; “Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” The message of David here speaks to me as the voice of God goes out to all the world that His reputation speaks volumes, as known and read in a far country.

I am inspired when I read in astronomy journals describing the excitement observed in the glories of the majesty of Orion with the blaze expressed in a palette that splashes colors of splendor in the Great Orion Nebula, M42. I groan as the same scientists speak to interpret hidden nodules of gas within a maze, as it were, a nursery of new stars being born or they have discovered arching plumes from geysers seen on the icy moons Enceladus and Europa (moons of Jupiter and Saturn) with fountains streaming a couple of hundred miles high. Exciting to see it, but they quickly make the assumption they are harboring the seeds of the possibility of discovering new life hidden in the salty brine of a subsurface ocean– of course to be born of itself. Oh, and the science goes on to state the oceans within the little moons may contain more water than all the basins of Earth.

Here is a problem. The best intentions fail to reach the foundation of the truth of God. The range of error is to be a total enemy of God as atheistic naturalism, to personal traditions that reject the word of God. The adversary is a deceiver twisting the minds of even otherwise believers to believe a lie. The greatest glory of all we seek is when Jesus will come in power to receive all that are waiting with faith. The great promise is, “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air…” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). That is glory!

The trouble is, the popular tradition is that Jesus is coming to set up a new world order on earth, this old sin-cursed earth as it is now. God does not say that plan. This world must be laid bare and empty for the thousand years God has settled, it must be that way before eternity can be established. We have a work to do before Jesus comes.

“Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself,” (Philippians 3:18-21).

Yes, it is sad and disheartening to witness the bitter confusion of values that rip apart spiritual vitality and even the moral life of our country that threatens the truth of, “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Nevertheless, we must stand faithful to the promise for the time of the reward is near and the victory is not in what we can earn to be righteous, it is the faith to trust the Lord, submit to Him for the regeneration for a perfection, not strived for, the Lord Himself will bring under His control. It is the promise of One who cannot fail.

When the Lord fills the sky with every angel and His voice trumpets the dead in Christ to rise, His command also reaches the living faithful to awaken the full miracle of transformation, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52) We shall be changed! Oh my, the wonder of it! First to see His face, and then the angel will come with the commission to come up to meet the Lord in the air!