THURSDAY - 30TH MAY, 2024
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - Olusola ADEJUMO
EARS TO HEAR AND HEART TO BELIEVE
Read Revelation 20:11-15
Luke 3:7-8, NLT
"7 When the crowd came to John for baptism, he said, "You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee God's coming wrath?"
When in hearing you do not hear and in seeing you do not see, you'll be a living being not close to tripping or outright annihilation. As John preaches his message coming from God, multitude troops out to give attention and heed it. Seeing the crowd, he mocks and sarcastically asks who warned the multitude to flee God's coming wrath. He said this because the crowd have tarried in their sins without repentance or change of life. No wonder, he upraid them to bring forth fruits meeting repentance. First of all, let us establish that there's a wrath to come. For it is appointed unto man to die once. After that, it is judgement (Heb.9:27). All of us must appear before the judgement seat of Christ to receive that done in the body, whether good or bad (II Cor.5:10). For souls in Christ, they shall wake up to everlasting life while souls without Christ shall be appointed unto the second death. That aren't to scare you but it's sure the truth and if you're ever scared, be scared and snatched from hell, death and darkness into life and the kingdom of His dear son, Jesus Christ - in whom we have redemption, even the forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:14).
A hearing people would hear and flee but the dumb, nonchalant and doubters would weigh it, castigate it and reject it. Despite the wickedness of the multitude in the days of John the Baptist, they heard his message and fled from the wrath to come. They all came to be baptized unto repentance. They came to take the provision that'll qualify them for rightness with God (as it were). They could sense the wind gathering and to evade the rain, they ran and fled to take the prepared provision of repentance - which is a door to new life.
God wants you to be just like those who heard and acted. He wants you to be wise where others are not. The wise would hear, be moved and see the truth in the message but the foolish will despise it, calling it inconsequential.
In the days of Noah, he proclaimed the coming judgement of the Lord to his world but they were just deaf to it. It doesn't feel believable that it would rain non stop and that God would destroy creation with the flood (Heb.11:7). "How could He", somebody must have said? Only God knows what measure of mockery Noah had to endure as he keeps building the ship in anticipation of the rain that has not even yielded a drop.
Also, Lot warned his two sons in law of the soon judgement to come upon Sodom but it was too high for their fools to believe (Gen.19:14). They just could not be persuaded. So, another effort of futility resorts. These two occasions reveal blind and deaf children who wouldn't see or be persuaded by the coming judgement. The count down to the appearance of Jesus begun long time ago. That we are at the end time isn't a jargon made popular at all. Indeed, we're at the feet era of the giant statue Daniel interpreted for Nebuchadnezzar (Dan.2:32-33). Don't forget, each of the section that makes up that image is a timeline. We've gone farther to get here and after it, there's no further to go but rather to welcome the close of age. As such, you ought to take this provision made available by Jesus' death and resurrection. Today, you ought be a born again. The mixed and wicked congregation of John the Baptist heard and they fled for their lives. They escaped away like Lot and his family escaped from the wrath appointed to come on Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus is symbolic of the ark of Noah. Like it saved Noah's family alive from death and judgement, it'll save you alive from the second death if you're first in Him. If you'll confess Him as Lord and Saviour and believe in Him, you shall receive the gift of everlasting life (Rom.10:9-10). Even in death, death shall not swallow you up. Rather, you'll have victory over death and be woken up to resurrection in Christ. What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Don't banter with your soul. Secure a space and spot for yourself in eternity with the soon coming King. Hear and respond; hear and flee from the wrath to come. Don't be indifferent for that'll be danger and the undoing of yourself. Come to repentance right away.
Acts 17:30-31, KJV
"30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I'm sorry for my sinful life till now. Forgive and receive me. I believe.
BIBLE IN A YEAR: 2 Samuel 15:23-16:23, John 18:25-19:22, Psalm 119:113-128, Proverbs 16:10-11
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