December 27, 2010
Revelation 19
Mike Schwiebert
One of my favorite Christmas carol lines is from “O Little Town of Bethlehem”: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.” All of our deepest longings and desires, as individuals and generations, find their true home in Jesus.
C.S. Lewis borrowed the German word “sehnsucht” to describe the intense and inconsolable longing that we cannot describe. It is there, just out of reach, calling to us.
Can you glimpse this in Revelation 19? First, there is the much-anticipated fellowship in heaven with the saints across the ages, as we declare the goodness and glory of God. We will be there, before the throne, joining our voices in a mighty multitude. We were made for this, and it will be amazing.
Then the King of kings marches to final victory. It is a glorious day…a day about which poets, authors, film directors and others have hinted, but failed to capture adequately – no matter how many songs and poems have been written.
The mists are parting…
The fog is lifting…
Dare to hope, He will surpass your expectations.
Do not fear, He is not too good to be true.
Mike, who serves as Grace Covenant’s Media Director, expresses his greatest passion in ministry with “a strong desire to see us live up to our calling as The Church. It is a true axiom that right belief leads to right action (orthodoxy begets orthopraxy). You cannot sustain the pursuit of something you do not really believe in. So if we truly believe that Jesus is the hope of the world, the Savior of mankind, the Logos made flesh; our lives should show it as we pursue Him and His agenda with an absolutely crazy faith. If God is for us, who can be against us? Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world! If we're not living like we believe it, than we don't. We are The Church: wounded but victorious in Him; weak but magnificent in Him; dead but alive in Him. Believe it and live it!”
