Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Revelation 9 details the demonic warfare of the Tribulation period. The attacks of Satan and the demons are also real today, and we need “the whole armour of God” (Ephesians 6:13) to “stand therefore” (verse 14) in this spiritual conflict. We especially require “the helmet of salvation” (verse 17) to fend off Satan’s attempts to discourage us. I know that American Christians are considerably concerned about the direction of our nation, and it is easy to descend into discouragement about our beloved country’s future. I just finished reading an economic analysis of the present regime’s baffling policies. The statistics (real facts, not blathering ideology) are uniformly distressing. Even if you were trying to destroy our economy, you couldn’t do much worse (economics, by the way, was one of my college majors). Are we discouraged? Do we think that we make no difference in our nation’s life? Let us put on “the helmet of salvation” and remember Jeremiah 5:1: “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it.” Sadly, that one person could not be found then; if one of us had been there, the entire city would have been spared. We do not like what is going on in America, but we must not let discouragement diminish our faith in Jesus. Each one of us matters here now and for eternity.