Morning By Morning #38

Arise and go.

Micah 2:10 ESV

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

The hour is approaching when the message will come to us as it ultimately comes to everyone—“‘Arise and go’ from the home in which you now live, and from the city where you have worked, from your family, and from your friends. Arise and take your last journey.”

Yet what do we know of the journey or of the country where we are going? We have read a little bit about the future and some aspects have been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, but how very little we actually know of the coming kingdom! We know there is a foreboding and stormy river to cross called “Death.” God summons us to cross it, promising to be with us along the way, but what follows death?

What amazing world will dawn upon our astonished eyes? What scene of glory will unfold before us? Although no one has ever returned from there, we do know enough of that heavenly land to accept our summons from there with joy and delight. The journey through death may be dark, but we can face it fearlessly, knowing God is with us as we walk through that valley of gloom. Therefore we need “fear no evil” (Ps. 23:4).

We will be leaving everything we have known and loved here, but we will be going to our Father’s house where Jesus is—to that royal “city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10). This will be the final time we will ever be dislocated, for we will dwell with Him forever, in the midst of His people—in the very presence of God.

Dear Christian, meditate often on heaven, for it will help you press on and forget the toil of this life. This valley of tears is simply the pathway to a better place. This world of woe is but a steppingstone to a world of blessedness.

Prepare us, Lord, by grace divine,

For Your bright courts on high;

Then bid our spirits rise, and join

The chorus of the sky.

Anne Steele, 1717-1778

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

“The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’ So Abram left, as the LORD had told him” (Gen. 12:1, 4). Abram, later called Abraham, is a picture of what was to come. He became the Father of Faith because “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Heb. 11:8).

Abraham was headed to an earthly land, but he knew where he was going was not the final Promised Land. And just as we should do, he kept heaven in his eyes, “for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10).

Dear Lord, help me look forward with faith to the eternal city to come, and may I walk in obedience until You have fully prepared me to live there.

“And he carried me away…and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:10).