Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
We humans build houses and then wait for people to buy them and move in. God does the opposite: He "builds" human characters of "righteousness" first and then creates "a new heaven and new earth" for them to move in to, and inhabit (2 Peter 3:13).
This "building" for them a new heaven and new earth is for Him a trifling accomplishment. He once "created ... the earth and the things that are in it" in a mere six days (Rev. 10:6; Ex. 20:11). His problem now is not creating a home for His people to live in forever; it's getting them ready to move in, for only "righteousness dwells" there. And He cannot create righteousness in any human heart without that person's full consent; and again, in turn, that full consent is not forthcoming so long as (in any respect) "self" is still holding sway in that heart.
This involves a deeper heart-cleansing than we like to realize. Ever since the beginning of the great Day of Atonement there has been a constant effort on God's part to lead His people to a heart-preparation for the return of Jesus. He is in earnest about that, not content for "world without end" to go on and on, generation after generation of saints going in the grave to join multitudes from Abel on. All of these wonderful saints are "guests" at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9). Wonderful!
But there must also be a "Bride" or there can't be a marriage. One "making herself ready" is the Heroine of this Day of Atonement. But for any bride to be happy in her marriage she must be totally at-one-with her Bridegroom. But that's impossible for any "woman" (even the figurative one, the church) unless she is totally convinced of the devoted love of her Bridegroom.
That brings us to our point: for the church to become so totally won will require the grandest revelations of "Christ and Him crucified" the church (and the world) have heard since Pentecost.
And that will be the message Elijah brings that "turns hearts" (Mal. 4:5, 6).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 12, 2006.
Copyright © 2019 by "Dial Daily Bread."
