Isaiah 60:1-3 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
On January 1st 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which proclaimed freedom for all slaves in the ten states which were in rebellion. At the time, when U.S. Secretary of State Seward took the document to the President to sign, Lincoln took a pen, and held it for a moment. He then removed his hand and dropped his pen. Lincoln turned to Seward and said, “I have been shaking hands since nine o’clock this morning and my right arm is almost paralyzed. If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.” He hesitated, then took the pen, and without wavering, took the document and boldly signed it!
When you do something for history, you want to do it right and with your whole heart! As children of God, what we do on this earth will redound to our eternal existence. As Abraham Lincoln recognized his quintessential moment in history — we too must recognize our “moment in time”. The season we are in seems filled with portent, and many of us may be making critical decisions and choices now. Like Esther, we were born “for such a time as this”. We will need prayerful, scripturally based discernment, and then, resolute boldness to stand where the Lord has placed us, say what He wants us to say, and do what He wants us to do.
While untold millions have been waiting for the promised return of our Messiah for centuries– the one sign they lacked was the restoration of Israel. Through all those past generations it was only in our own that the Jewish people have returned to their homeland, the beginning of Ezekiel’s vision, well under way, and inexorably headed toward the spiritual revival of the dry bones [Ezekiel 37]. We do not know all the details, but we are watching and participating in this with great excitement.
We are living prophetic history….and are probably in the last act. As history advances and accelerates there will be times when we must be decisive, bold, and unwavering in spirit – fully realizing that our actions are being recorded now…and in the annals of eternity!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]When the children of Israel were enslaved under Pharaoh, they were forced to labor seven days a week, working relentlessly without a break. Can you imagine doing hard labor for years on end without a break? This was Israel’s reality in Egypt.
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I just came across this story through a friend and thought it significantly appropriate for us today. Maybe it is for you too?
An African king had a long time friend who always looked at everything positively, always saying "This is good!" even in the face of the most difficult situations. Hunting one day, he was preparing the king’s guns. When the king took his first shot, his thumb was blown off. Though the friend realized that it was his grave mistake for not properly setting the gun, and even in the face of this furious, bleeding king, he looked at him and said, "This is good!" The king was LIVID, and ordered that his friend be thrown in jail immediately.
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