The Daily Word of Righteousness

Making Trees of Life, #8

In that day you will say: "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted." (Isaiah 12:4—NIV)

When we thus are lost in God we always are making known among the nations what God has done. We always are declaring that His name is exalted.

How wise God is that He is able to bring us all the way from a worldly, sinful, self-centered individual to a new creation fashioned in the moral image of Christ and dwelling in untroubled rest in the Center of God's Person. This is the program and process of salvation.

For eternity we shall be an integral part of God and Christ, living in the glorious Holy Fire, serving as a tree of life to those who are weak and despondent. This will be our life and greatest joy.

What is the spiritual fulfillment of the physical Canaan?

It is, first of all, life lived in the fullness of the Spirit of God rather than in the frailties and corruption of flesh and blood.

Our inheritance is God Himself. After that, our inheritance is the nations and the farthest reaches of the earth.

Eternal, incorruptible resurrection life; the fullness of God; the nations to love; the farthest reaches of the earth to enjoy—an earth from which the curse has been totally lifted. Finally a new sky and new earth.

This is our Canaan, our inheritance through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. (Isaiah 12:5—NIV)

God has done glorious things. This is our song, our joy, our reason for boasting.

Sometimes, it seems, Christian ministry becomes a chore, a business, an endless labor to persuade people to join our religion and grow in it. Such work appears to be necessary in the present hour.

However, there is coming a better way.

The highest witness is a song of praise. It is to inform the whole world of the glorious things God has done. Perhaps when the nations hear that song and see that glory they will receive Christ and eternal life without studying our catechism or taking "the four steps of salvation."

The glory of the latter house shall be greater than the former. He has kept the best wine until now. The knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you. (Isaiah 12:6—NIV)

We who believe in the Lord Jesus are members of the Church of the Firstborn, the heavenly Jerusalem. God is dwelling in us. The Holy One is great among us.

Our present life is that of the animal. We are bound to the earth in our flesh and blood existence. If this is all we were to be given we would perish in our corruption.

But the Tree of Life, Jesus Christ, has come so whoever believes in Him should not perish in the corruption of flesh and blood but have eternal, incorruptible resurrection life—the Life of God.

Such life was lost to us because of the rebellion that occurred in Eden. For six thousand years mankind has groaned in the chains of futility, frustration, corruption.

Now God is preparing trees of life who will serve to release the creation from the bondage of decay.

To be continued.