LUKE 21:19. “In your patience possess ye your souls.” (“By standing firm you will gain life.” NIV)
APPEARANCE. At first glance at the box, you would miss with your eyes, What the woman had given, that God so highly prized. Others who came by wanted those around to see, And think what they gave, made them very holy. Man looks - and values, by terms of the world, God has a different way of measuring; that to mankind is hard.
We look at the outside - God looks at the heart. We look at the finish – God looks at the start. What my hand does starts from deep inside me. What goes in the box is not its true value to see. A conscious awareness of living before God; Will give to my actions a sense of true worth.
Looking around at all the things going on, Make some folks afraid, because hither and yon Events that are happening in significant places, That make them think now, is when the time of “the end” is. But I must make clear when to others I speak, These shadows are warnings; God is making them think.
Because these things happen both at home and afar; This is only the beginning, of events that will jar All men from the lethargic state they are in; The last of the “last days” has only begun. So by faith I stand firm and lay claim on my life, So that all that is seen does not turn me aside.
To my eyes, it seems like the fig tree sends shoots; So, the coming seems nearer the closer I look. The effect that it has, is to make me aware,
That the coming of the Lord really is drawing near. I must live such, each day, before those all around; So that they too are ready when God’s trumpet will sound.
“It is true, O gracious Father, that thoughts of the coming of the Lord, does purify me. I do not want to be ashamed before the Lord when He comes – neither because of what I am doing or not doing. I really would love it if this was the day the Lord calls the Church home. If His coming is at a later time – give me the insight to never let any barrier arise that would bring dishonor to His name. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”