May 19,
2003
THE
KINGDOM, POWER AND GLORY
"For
Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever"
(Matthew 6:13, NKJV).
"The
last like the first sentence of the Lord's Prayer, points
to our Father as above all power and authority --. The Saviour
beheld the years that stretched out before His disciples,
not, as they had dreamed, lying in the sunshine of worldly
prosperity and honor, but dark with the tempests of human
hatred and satanic wrath. Amid national strife and ruin, the
steps of the disciples would be beset with perils, and often
their hearts would be oppressed by fear. They were to see
Jerusalem a desolation, the temple swept away, its worship
forever ended, and Israel scattered to all lands, like wrecks
on a desert shore. Jesus said, 'You
will hear of wars and rumors of wars... Nation will rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines,
pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these
are the beginning of sorrows' (Matthew 24:6-8). Yet
Christ's followers were not to fear that their hope was lost
or that God had forsaken the earth. The power and the glory
belong to Him whose great purposes would still move on unthwarted
toward their consummation. In the prayer that breathes their
daily wants, the disciples of Christ were directed to look
above all the power and dominion of evil, to the Lord their
God, whose kingdom rules over all and who is their Father
and everlasting Friend.
"The
ruin of Jerusalem was a symbol of the final ruin that shall
overwhelm the world. The prophecies that received a partial
fulfillment in the overthrow of Jerusalem have a more direct
application to the last days. We are now standing on the threshold
of great and solemn events. A crisis is before us, such as
the world has never witnessed. And sweetly to us, as to the
first disciples, comes the assurance that God's kingdom rules
over all. The program of coming events is in the hands of
our Maker. The Majesty of heaven has the destiny of nations,
as well as the concerns of His church, in His own charge.
The divine Instructor is saying to every agent in the accomplishment
of His plans, as He said to Cyrus, 'I
will gird you, though you have not known Me' (Isaiah
45:5)...
"Yours,
O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory
and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is
Yours... In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it
is to make great and to give strength to all" (1 Chronicles
29:11, 12).--Thoughts From The Mount Of Blessing, pp.,
120, 121.
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