Until Then...

The last line in today’s Our Daily Bread devotion is this:

Until then, we live, work, pray, and wait in hope.”

The prettiest 'pretty'

the most marvelous 'marvel'

the most beautiful 'beauty',

or most delightful 'delight' 

...pales profoundly in comparison with what

awaits believers after this life...

***

For believers this world is the worst they will ever see.

For unbelievers this world is the best they will ever see

Source for quote unknown

***

Until we lay our bodies down, we live, love, work and pray

For divine words to teach us so we do not drift away

Until the crown of life is won, we humbly hope and plead

For God so rich in grace and mercy to supply our need

Until we join the chorus of love’s everlasting hymn

The joy still set before us will not let faith’s light grow dim

Until the ‘twinkling of an eye’ transforms our point of view

We yield the agony of ‘why’ to God, faithful and true

Until we witness face to face what Time was all about

Pray, we commit to run life’s race with endurance, not doubt

But until we are serious about knowing God's word

Our logic will be sensuous and fickle feeling-blurred

Until we repent and believe, hell waits in every breath

No gift of everlasting life to receive after death

Until we stand in awe beneath the cross of Calvary

And wonder at the One who died to set doomed sinners free  

Until His Lamp unto our feet and Light unto our path

Guides and directs, we are by nature still children of wrath

Until we ask, God will not give, or seek, we cannot find

Or knock, He will not open eyes to darkness of the mind

Until we confess our sin then by His counsel live

No earthly effort can begin what only God can give

But, when by His stripes we are healed and by grace we are saved

While what has not yet been revealed, on our hearts is engraved

...we have His Word; He will equip us to withstand the foe

His rod and staff will comfort us and never let us go

Until we will be like Him and see Him just as He is

We work, pray, wait in hope and lean upon His Promises

© Janet Martin

1 John 3:1-10 BSB

Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. 

And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. 

2Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. 

We know that when Christ appears, a we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. 

3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.b

4Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness as well. Indeed, sin is lawlessness.c

5But you know that Christ appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.

  6No one who remains in Him keeps on sinning.

 No one who continues to sin has seen Him or known Him.

7Little children,d let no one deceive you: 

The one who practices righteousness is righteous, 

just as Christ is righteous.e 

8The one who practices sin is of the devil,

 because the devil has been sinning from the very start. 

This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.

9Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; 

he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

  10By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: 

Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God,

nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

What a hymn this will be!

"We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,

The One who is and who was [g]and who is to come,

Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.

18 The nations were angry, and Your [h]wrath has come,

And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,

And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints,

And those who fear Your name, small and great,

And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”

Rom.11:17-18