Someone may ask, what really is "Day-of-Atonement-living?" What's so special about living "in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound" (Rev. 10:7)? Well, "another mighty angel comes down from heaven, ... a rainbow upon His head, and His face ... as it were the sun, and His feet as pillars of fire; and He [has] in His hand a little book open [Daniel]; and He ... [cries] with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth, ... and swears by Him that liveth for ever and ever, ... that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God [shall] be finished," (1-7). It's that last statement! No, it's not fear-motivated living; it's solemn, holy awe. Something's going on that makes your spine tingle.
"But isn't that the same 'at-one-with-God' living that Jesus, His apostles, and all the holy prophets have called for in past millennia?" Yes, precisely! BUT this is the first "time" in world history that God HAS a people, a corporate "body" on earth, not just a scattered insignificant, uncoordinated "few," who truly "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth" (Rev. 14:4). Now at last that Lamb of God "sees of the travail of His soul, and [is] satisfied" (see Isa. 53:11). Now at last Paul's heart-melting prayer is answered: Christ HAS a people on earth, a church, a "body," who are "rooted and grounded in AGAPE ... able to comprehend" something that no such "body" of saints has ever fully grasped--"the breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of that "love of Christ which passeth knowledge." At last, they are "filled with all the fulness of God" (Eph. 3:14-21). At last, ready for Christ's coming!
"But won't that make Satan angry in his 'great controversy with Christ'? Why disturb him so?" Yes, precisely! But it will prove to the world and the great universe that Satan's strangle-hold on this planet is broken; he has been defeated; sin has been "condemned" in fallen, sinful flesh; Christ's enemy has lost his last great battle; the war is over. All heaven rings with the triumphant anthem: "Let us be glad and rejoice, ... for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife [His Bride] hath made herself ready" (Rev .19:7). At last she's grown up--no longer the flower girl at the wedding. She's at last found something more important than "her" own little toys. She's found a Husband to love, not her dolls.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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