"Face To Face"
Over the 21 years of sending out these messages, the Lord has blessed us with many dear friends whose faces we have never seen. Cyberspace has opened a door for relationship and fellowship unheard of in previous generations, and for which we can never begin to give enough thanks. Indeed, I cannot imagine life without the gift of your example, encouragement, and challenge. I am also reminded of Another whose immediate, physical presence none of us have yet experienced.
"For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face" (I Corinthians 13:12).
What will it be like in that twinkling moment when we see our blessed Lord Jesus Christ face to face? The prospect stills my fingers on the keys for a moment as a familiar sense of wonder fills my heart and mind. In one sense, we cannot imagine the holy view of our Savior "face to face." In another, however, our "through a glass darkly" experience of Him in this lifetime does provide an often vivid foreshadowing of things to come. Our present Heart to heart fellowship with our Lord through the indwelling Holy Spirit, the inspired Scriptures, and fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ reveals the living God to us in limited, but spiritually evidential reality.
"The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:16).
"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105).
"That which we have seen and heard declare with unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ" (I John 1:3).
We do well to realize the opportunity our present life offers to know our Lord and honor Him in ways the perfection of our Heavenly eternity will not allow. In that blessed existence, we will no longer open eyes of faith to see the Light as it "shineth in darkness" (John 1:5). We will not offer prayers from venues of difficulty, pain, sorrow, and bewilderment wherein "we are perplexed, but not in despair" (II Corinthians 4:8). Never again will we "glorify ye the Lord in the fires" by seeing Him walking with us in the furnaces of a fallen world (Isaiah 24:15; Daniel 3:25). Nor will we be honored by our Heavenly Father to "bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (II Corinthians 4:10). Yes, wonders exist in the heart of our Lord that only come forth when His children hurt, wonders that will never again be known when we see Him face to face and our tears of sorrow forever evaporate in the sublime joy of His direct presence.
"Faith to faith" in this life, "face to face" in the life to come (Romans 1:17). I think of such things when remembering so many of you who are dear to us from afar. I know you join me in also thinking of Another more dear to us than any other, despite never having looked into His face. That moment of glory approaches when the Light will shine only in the light, and we will forever see the Lord Jesus through unclouded eyes. And as the hymnwriter exults, "What a day that will be!"
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure."
(I John 3:2-3)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Lord, Thou hast been our dwellingplace in all generations."
(Psalm 90:1)
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