INTRODUCTION: In GENESIS 22, we saw how Abraham represented the Father Who was willing to sacrifice His own beloved Son; Isaac represented the willing Son Who laid down his life in obedience to His Father’s plan. As discussed in Part 4, this was a kind of “spiritual skit” that played out the scene that would transpire on Golgotha centuries later when Christ out of obedience to the Father (and Himself, the willing Lamb of GOD slain from before the foundation of the Earth; REV 13:8b) would offer up His own life as the propitiatory atonement (the only acceptable sacrifice for our sins; JOHN 10:15,17-18).
Then the Holy Spirit very precisely inspired Moses as he penned this verse:
GENESIS 22:19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
Take note that Abraham and the young men are mentioned here, but not Isaac. Obviously it’s a foregone conclusion that Isaac went home and didn’t wander about the mountain top – but it’s interesting that the Holy Spirit didn’t expressly mention Isaac leaving with his father. Why is that?
We’ll get into that and how the entire triune GOD is portrayed in GENESIS 24 as well as the church!
It was a balmy, sunny and pleasant day in the ancient Italian city on August 23rd in A.D. 79. People milled about, on their various business, eating, drinking, visiting family and friends; children playing in the streets. Life was good.
The very next day, an unexpected disaster struck, an enormous volcanic eruption, killing the entire unsuspecting population of the city of Pompeii.
Jump to:
Colonial America in the 18th century, people were prospering with hopes of a new life, on a new continent. Farms were flourishing on land both fertile and plentiful. Here was a land one could raise a family in and look forward to generations of blessing!
Orthopoxvirus Variola Virus, also known as Smallpox, suddenly struck.
More than four hundred thousand people suffered and died before the plague ended.
PSALM 102:18-22 18 This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD. 19 For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven the LORD viewed the earth, 20 to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to release those appointed to death, 21 to declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem, 22 when the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
This article and my prayers are for “the generation to come” and has in part, arrived already. To the people that have been “created”, or actually recreated in Christ in these recent days, and in the days to come – prisoners to sin being released, appointed for the salvation that’s sweeping through the land, and across globe. One blessed day, the people who are called by the Name of the LORD will be “gathered together” in heaven and serve the LORD in His manifest kingdom, just as we serve now, in this place.
We live in a dark world of woe, wickedness and woundings. Just as night is ushered in with the setting of the sun, the Son of GOD has ascended into the heavens and received by our Father, and while He is gone, the night of nefarious evil has settled in (ROM 13:12). But we as the church are called to reflect the LORD’s Light just as the Moon reflects the Sun, upon a world that would otherwise be enveloped in sheer blackness.
While we shall endure tribulations and hardships, pain and suffering because of a world under the curse of sin as well as the malice and destructive hatred by children of the dark, we understand that "weeping may endure for a night” (note: it says “may” which is an indefinite word; at any time we may or may not weep as we endure the night of adversities), but here’s something definitive: “joy [will!] come in the morning” when the Son appears at the horizon of Planet Rebyl, cast down the princes of darkness, most notably the Beast and False Prophet, and consign Satan to his millennial prison!
Let’s acknowledge that once we are with the LORD, we shall never, ever again set our feet upon a rebellious world, ruled by the god of this world (2 COR 4:4).
This article is Part TWO of Part ONE: WEEPING ENDURES FOR A NIGHT – Commentary on Charlie Kirk and our National Situation
Going Through Paul’s epistles to Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae
INTRODUCTION: In Part Two of this study in Chapter 2, we examined at some length this passage:
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-7 5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
“…made Himself of no reputation…” – in other words, He disrobed Himself of all His glory and power just so that He’d look like any one of us (The only time He let us peek at Him as He really is, was on the Mount of Transfiguration; MATT 28:3; MARK 9:3) and perhaps in the Garden of Gethsemane when He declared “I AM” (JOHN 18:5-8). Rather, He took upon Himself the form of a bondservant – this is GOD made flesh! He exemplified precisely what it means to be humble, and how He willingly humiliated Himself in order to serve us!
This is astonishing to me – that the Almighty would wash feet, reason with unreasonable religious hypocrites, minister to an inexhaustible degree for the needs of people in healings and provisions.
In continuing in this train of thought. We continue on now in Part Three of Chapter 2…
QUESTIONS are important – asking them is how we learn. Asking the right questions help us to find the right answers. Of all the questions of a lifetime, which question above all others is the most important, bar none – the one question that a human soul owes to ask itself before they die, with the intent of finding the answer?
It was the question that the LORD Himself asked:
MATTHEW 16:15, 16-17 15 … "But who do you say that I am?”
Your answer to that question will not only determine the course of your life, but your eternal destiny as well. 16 Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
We who know the LORD have found the answer to that question, just as Peter did. Everyone needs to find it before they leave this world!
The Christian community across America and the globe is mourning the loss of a great American who was (and still is!) a godly influence in the nation and the church and most especially among our youth.
I’m speaking of Charles James Kirk, dutiful son, beloved husband and father, committed Christian, co-founder (along with Bill Montgomery) and president of TURNING POINT USA. The website has the position of leader currently listed as “vacant”. I am intently praying that GOD answers our plea and fills that position not with one, but several leaders – and spreads to leadership raised up in chapters all across America (would you agree with me in prayer in this regard?).
