I think God is a very Timely God.
With my recent musings about how He does and will make everything beautiful in His time, so even as I await His will for the greater of things, so also, this timeliness extends to the littlest of things. I often chuckle at how God is always very timely. He’s very Real, He is.
It is surely no coincidence, that tasked to lead the next Bible study, the passage I am to prepare for this week, is that of the Parable of the Vineyard Labourers, found in Matthew 20: 1-16. It is one that I have not had the chance to dwell upon at length in my Christian life, but now in view, God’s timeliness and its relevance to my dwellings, never ceases to amaze me. And so it is here, that I share a little of my thoughts.
From the recent posting on “Making the Best of one’s time at University: How God provided a 100 marks“, it had been greatly encouraging and heartening to have letters written and messages sent back and forth, conversing about what it means to walk in faith with God. I am only humbly glad and thankful that the Spirit of God would have found those who had been blessed and encouraged in its reading. Glory and Praise to our Awesome God for who He is! That the one post itself had close to 400 views, can be an unsettling thought. It remains my prayer, that all reading that post would be encouraged that this is the very Same God working in their lives, and that the Spirit would minister greatly to any condition that one is currently in.
God can and will work seemingly hopeless situations, for His very Great Glory.
So also among these responses however, was one that cried out to be addressed. Voiced or not voiced, some find this question surfacing: “Okay so now, if I just trust and follow God and do ‘great’ things for Him, He will bless me with that 100 marks too right?”, or, as once shared honestly by a sister, “Of course it’s easy for you to have such faith, you know, you are so blessed! And He just seems to bless you more each day!”
If you are one struggling with these thoughts and these questions, this post is for you. So also, may it be of great encouragement to brothers and sisters journeying along in this faith.
This is a post for the thinking Christian. Here, I share my ponderings on this God of mine, and how He has and has chosen to work in this path of ‘blessings’.
Firstly, and as a qualifier, it would be dangerous to assume that once one begins to do ‘very great things’ for God, i.e. go all out for evangelism, proclaim the gospel from the rooftops… that 100 marks is almost as good as in your pocket, guaranteed. No, this is not the way God works.
The call to how to live (University) life is clear – there can be no joy outside serving, loving and knowing Jesus. Already, we have been blessed with the GREATEST spiritual blessing of being God’s child through what Christ has done. There is to be absolutely no expectation that when one walks closer with God (indeed, no matter how ‘close’ we think we are, we are in actual fact incredibly far! This bottomless gap is only closed by faith in One Person – Christ alone), God then blesses one with material prosperity or health or wealth. That is what the ‘Prosperity Gospel’, often insidious in its workings, seeks to convey. Be watchful and be on guard for false teachers and false preaching. God is not a ‘Cai Shen Ye‘ (or money-shaker, money-tree) God – the more you offer yourself to Him, the more He blesses you materially. No.
Yes and most surely, He can. But He can choose to withhold that material blessing, too.
But Christian, He does blesses you more spiritually, and you will understand, in walking closer to Him, what it truly means to have “every spiritual blessing” in Christ (Ephesians 1: 3)
God has only one desire for every child – and that is to know and to experience the great joy and beauty of a genuine loving relationship with Him in Jesus Christ.
Knowing God goes beyond reading your Bible and praying regularly, serving regularly. Knowing God is a matter of the heart. And to Him who searches our all and knows the very depths of our being, and from whom nothing is hidden,
only one alone knows how one’s present relationship with God in Christ is.
There is no joy outside of knowing and loving Jesus. Not loving Jesus-and- grades He might give, Jesus-and-a marriage partner, Jesus-and- plus plus.
Just Jesus alone, and Above all things.
Can you, will you, be satisfied with that?
Do you really know Jesus, and realize what the Gospel truly means to you?
Dear friend, don’t simply read and take away my sharings in one post. I have shared about times when God had taken away worldly blessings from me, too.
A great place to start, for extra reading, is Philip Yancey’s great book on “The Jesus I Never Knew“. I have been thoroughly blessed in its reading. It takes you right to a historical and heartfelt examination of this strange Person who had once walked the earth thousands of years ago. And if you are a believer, knowing this Marvellous strange Person, who lives in you today.
Do you really know Jesus?
Christian, this is a lifelong process. A lifelong journey.
And an incredibly Amazing one, if you would truly let God enter your heart 🙂
Let’s return to thoughts about how God chooses to give ‘blessings’.
So the Parable of the Vineyard Labourers. My points here are very succinct, because the Bible study is one that is done at length, with many questions posed to be answered (it is to be held tomorrow evening), but the point to convey is simple and at its core, questions the Christian believer who may question how God apportions His grace and blessings to His children.
Matthew 20 is a follow on from Peter’s question towards the end of Matthew 19, where he questions how it should fare with those who, like himself, had ‘left all for Christ’. Jesus’ answer is the promise of reward (verse 28) and a reminder that God’s manner of distributing reward radically challenges the manner of men – “Many who are first will be last”.
That’s what Jesus’ mysterious parables do – They addresses particular views, transforms our way of thinking (for the way God works is often radically different from how the world thinks it should be), invite us to see ourselves in the story, and apply it to our lives.
In this parable, Jesus tells of the labourers in the vineyard.
Some of them had agreed to work from 6 am to 6 pm for a denarius. Some the Master hired at 9 am. Others at noon. Finally some he hired at 5 pm. When the day was done at 6 pm, he paid all the workers the same amount—a denarius. In other words, he was lavishly generous to those who worked only one hour, and he paid the agreed amount to those who worked twelve hours.
Those who worked all day “grumbled at the master of the house” (Matthew 20:11). They were angry that those who worked so little were paid so much. Then the master used a phrase about “the bad eye”, like the one back in Matthew 6:23. He said, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” (Matthew 20:15).
Peter, and all the disciples, knew they had given up a great deal to follow Jesus. Peter wanted to know what they would get in return. Jesus, through this parable assured Peter and the disciples that they will be rewarded – but the principle of many who are first will be last and the last first means that God may not reward as man expects.
This is the essence of God’s grace, when He rewards and blesses man according to His will and pleasure, not necessarily according to what men expect, or deserve.
The system of law is easy to figure out: you get what you deserve. The system of grace is foreign to us:
God deals with us according to who He is, not according to who we are.
It is important to see that the landowner did not treat anyone unfairly, though he was more generous to some than to others.
We can be assured that God will never, ever be unfair to us, though He may – for His own purpose and pleasure – bestow greater blessing on someone else who seems less deserving.
Grace does not give us more blessing than we deserve – it gives blessing to us completely apart from the principle of deserving. In this parable, Jesus shows that God can give to us out of the abundance of His Sovereign goodness.
Living under grace is sort of a two edged sword. If one really has a right understanding of grace, one knows we can’t come to God complaining, “Hey, don’t I deserve better than this?” because God will reply, “So, do you really want Me to give you what you deserve?”
God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness and blessing, are God’s to give away as God sees fit.
We may, subtly, covet God’s power to forgive and God’s control over who is forgiven and how, who God blesses, and how. This parable is perfectly matched in the lectionary to the parable of Jonah, who has run away to avoid delivering the message of forgiveness that God had sent him to proclaim. Jonah complains (complains!), “for I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing,” and surely this cannot be for them? It is ironic, that Jonah, who had earlier declared that “deliverance belongs to the Lord” (2:9, a deliverance he himself had experienced), had rejected the good news of who God is for others.
If we examine the true estate of our heart, we do subtly compare what God has given us, with that of others?
I think this parable teaches us much about the nature of God.
God loves to extend His great grace to the poor and the needy. Not in fact the material poor and needy, but the spiritual, and to those who admit their need for His grace.
God sees the real state of our hearts and lives, and loves to be the One who meets our needs. He is, in Truth, the only One who truly can. Those who feel no need of God and are oblivious to their needs get passed over. Those who are in need, and admits that need, God comes to with abundant grace. God works great reversals. That is the punch-line of the parable.
Jesus was constantly at odds with the religious leaders of His day because He taught and practiced grace. Why was Jesus rejected at Nazareth? Because He showed that grace is totally unmerited. He challenged the status quo that election was one that was nationalistic. John the Baptist challenged the same false belief (Luke 3:8) The sovereign grace of God shown in His election of some, may appear arbitrary and even unfair. Why does God say things like, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated?” (Romans 9:13).
The thought that God owes nothing to anyone and can show grace to whoever He chooses for reasons of His own, that is, His Sovereignty, without giving an account to us, is deeply humbling. It reminds us that we are sinners with no just claim on His love.
We come by His mercy, or we do not come at all. (1 Timothy 1:15)
So here is the bottom line. God loves poor and needy sinners, who know and who admit their need of God.
That is what I was, that is what I am, and that is what I always will be, when I am apart from the grace of God. So when God extends grace to others who also do not deserve it, I can only rejoice.
God treats us out of His sovereign grace. In other words, He dispenses His grace to whomever He wishes, as how He sees fit. Can one accept that?
I had ever, once, reflected on the estate of my spiritual life and the blessings that God has so graciously bestowed unto me:
Comparison. It is often, as if somewhat inherent in the human being, to compare one’s objective state of being to another. Even among Christians, it is easy to lapse into a state of “Oh, but I wish I had more faith as him or her… Why, God? Why do you not give me more faith? “ or, “Of course its easy for one to have such faith… he/she is so blessed!”
The corollary of these thoughts is that it breeds negative thoughts, of unfairness, of anger at God, even. I believe that the danger lies in realizing that even the nature of what ‘blessing’ means, has become measured according to the world’s standard of what it means to be ‘blessed’ by God – health, wealth, family, youth, intellect, even experience, become objects of comparison, objects of measure. Even the legitimacy of one’s faith might be put into question.
Blessed is the Christian. Why? Blessed is the Christian because – and chiefly and solely because – of how he has been reconciled with God through faith in what Jesus Christ has done on the Cross. Blessed is the Christian, who has now entered into a living, active relationship with the God and Heavenly Father to whom he belongs.
I may speak from my own position. In the words of another, I agree that God has been very gracious to gift me with a measure of youth, a measure of health, a measure of wealth, a measure of intellect – circumstances not dissimilar to you who are reading this, too.
One might then ask: How can the faith of one Christian who is enjoying ‘First world comforts’, who is in an objective state of well-being, how can faith, bred in the above context, be compared to faith of others who are without these? Think further to the Christian in Syria or China who is suffering real persecution, fleeing oppositionist attackers, sacrificing precious lives even, for the sake of the Gospel. How real must their faith be! For the truth of the Gospel, at stake is life itself!
I must admit that I dwell often on the measure of faith which God has apportioned to brothers and sisters who are suffering – and indeed rejoicing – for the sake of the Gospel in these other parts of the world, even around me. Surely, their faith, tested through such fire, would surface as purest of gold. Surely, such faith… the Truth of the Gospel, the sweet fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ, the promises of the New Heavens and New Earth, the promise of being with God in eternity… Surely, God’s promises, what depth they would mean to my dear brothers and sisters!
I do believe a Sovereign God apportions to each of His faithful children different measures of things. Different levels of health, wealth, youth, intellect… Different levels of persecution, I might go as far to say. All of God’s children are to expect the celebration of these – and too, this rejection – from the world. We are not to compare what is the level of such and such that which God has chosen to gift unto each of us, but humbly acknowledge that He will not give nor tempt us beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10: 13). We must rather seek to use all that we have – what little, or what lot – for His service. God does promise to meet our physical needs, and He does, indeed, bless His children spiritually and materially. But He blesses us for a purpose – not so we may squander those resources on ourselves, but so we may be faithful stewards of these gifts. We use them well for the advancement of His Kingdom, in His service, that His glory might be proclaimed among the nations, that many might come to know Him to win the lost to God’s saving grace. We await a Greater Kingdom, soon to come.
I take myself as an example. If I were not in Durham, if I had not a voice to speak audibly, if I had not the resources to travel to places to meet with people, I would have had the chance to be a part, tiny part that it may be, of God’s work to bring His dear children to Him, the chance to witness what God’s mercy and saving grace has accomplished in Durham, the saving of souls. Time, place, circumstance, context – God places each one of us in His Sovereign choosing of the Right place, Right time.
We are exactly where God has placed us, and where He has placed us – here and nowhere else – we are to live our lives for His Kingdom and for His glory.
I say here, and I say with the conviction and with faith God has given me, that I may very well wake up the next day, and have all of the above, all that I have – health, wealth, youth, intellect, etc – be taken away from me. Poverty – beyond material poverty – would become ever real to me.
And yet, even then, I can, I must, I will rejoice. I will not fail to sing His praise, shout and praise His name. In comfort, in affliction, His promise gives and continues to give me life (Psalm 119: 50). In Jesus Christ and His perfect obedience, His perfect and fully sufficient sacrifice for me at the Cross, I rejoice with gladness of heart in the unconditional Love of my Heavenly Father (1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18).
With what little I have of me, God will still use for His glory.
Stepping away from these thoughts then, this little prayer would hopefully encourage and strengthen the believing heart:
“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us, that Your ways may be known on earth on earth, Your saving power among all nations.” – Psalm 67: 2
Make my home on earth, dear LORD, a little emptier, I dare ask, that my love for Christ, might richer, deeper, fuller be.
~
Dwell deeply on the Grace of God, dear Christian.
Ponder on this free gift. Marvel at it.
Such Grace. Grace so Abundant, so Free, and so… Sovereign.
Turning back to the parable, one may ask: Who paid the worker’s wages at a day rate after just one hour of work? The master! It cost him personally. At Christmas each year, we remember how God sent his own Son into the world to rescue us. When the angel announced good news to Mary, he tells her that Jesus will have the throne of David. As she pondered on this, her reflections gave way to prophetic praise as she anticipated the nature of the Kingdom of grace.
He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. (Luke 1:52-53, ESV)
The Kingdom reverses the world’s normal order of success which is built on our own achievement. The Kingdom reverses the religious expectations of Pharisees of all generations. Yet, how will it actually be achieved? It is all about grace, all by grace. At the Cross, Jesus laid His life down to pay the way for our forgiveness. Nothing less would do. The law demanded a perfect life, an unblemished lamb for sacrifice. Jesus had to come into the world pure, and retain His purity. He who was completely blameless, and without sin, without blemish. Jesus had to resist all temptations (and therefore Christian, be reminded that Jesus CAN empathize with whatever suffering you may be going through, even if your dearest one is unable – God has given us a Saviour who is not foreign to our pain), to the very end and take the blame, the wrath of God that our sins merit. The propitiation for our sins, the perfect exchange. We come again to recognize that Christ died for the worst of sinners, which is all of us. None of us is any better than others. We all need this grace as much as anyone. We praise God for His kindness both to us and to others.
All these things My hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word. – Isaiah 66: 2, Psalm 51: 17
~
Are you one who truly recognizes, understands, the marvellous Grace of God?
~
Back to my musings on God’s timeliness.
What has Jesus done for me?
Yesterday’s excellent sermon, given in Christchurch Durham, on Romans 7-8 is a perfect illustration of Grace, and one of such encouragement for the struggling Christian, a reminder of the Gospel which saves.
SERMON, 23 FEBRUARY 2014.
There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1
God is Good, Holy and Righteous, and this is reflected in His Law (Romans 7: 12) When I am confronted with the Law, it is as though the mirror is being put in front of the hunchback of Notre Dame – “See, just see how wretched and deformed you really are!”
On one camp, John Wesley and Martin Lloyd Jones argue that this man being talked about in Romans 7: 13-24 is not the Christian because the Christian is dead to sin (Romans 6:2), no longer under sin’s dominion (6: 14), and has been set free (Romans 6: 18). They say that this passage here is referring to Paul’s testimony about his sinful estate before his conversion, that is, some substandard state, before he met Christ.
However, Augustine, Calvin and Martin Luther (of whose sides we are on!) argue – THIS IS THE CHRISTIAN, the now! This man is the Christian! Who is described here is not some kind of sub-standard person before his conversion but is the very Christian!
Romans 7: 15-19
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”
This Christian man is one who hates his sin – He struggles with it. Paul here prided himself on his legalistic righteousness, his blameless testimony. Just like the unsuspecting Christian, the way in this works is so very insidious. One might think, “Hey, I’ve got a pretty spiritual life – my evangelism is going well, so is my witnessing, my testimony…. God, I earned it! You must be mightily pleased with what I have done!” The ongoing obedience or what little fruit that we may see in our Christian lives, the victory in the battle over sin, all these may make one think Christianity a little like a ‘walk in the park’.
Yet 2 Corinthians 3 points us to this –
Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the LORD, the veil is removed… because only through Christ it is taken away”
This veil of self-righteousness is taken away at the point one meets Christ, when the Spirit of Jesus Christ enters a man to make him realize how much he is absolutely nothing before the LORD, and in Christ, everything.
Man, in our natural, totally depraved state, makes sinful decisions. In fact, left to our own recesses, we, by default, make decisions which turn us away from God. Any good, any measure of ‘good’ in us at all, comes from the mighty grace of God.
This certainly vividly depicts the inner conflict in the true Christian, the man in who the Spirit indwells and battles for a renewal in the mind, one who is in the Spirit, and yet one struggles in the flesh. In understanding this thorough primitive duality in the Christian, one may think of this: two completely incongruous figures being bound together, polar twins in the mother’s womb who are in a continuous struggle. The indwelling sin in us which makes us incredibly perverse, in the words of Martin Luther, like that stubborn race-horse which pulls, stretches so tenuously in the other direction, away from God…
And yet, that Spirit in us which makes us desire so much, by the grace of God at all, to do His pleasing, perfect will and consecrate oneself unto a life yielded to the Spirit, to be one of a renewed mind, the good tree which bears fruit.
This primitive duality, this spiritual battle, is one in which the Christian faces at every moment in the day, and as he cries out to JESUS CHRIST for sole/soul rescue.
“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 8: 24)
With all my so-called ‘righteous acts’, with my ‘successes’ in the Christian life, I am never confident in my own spiritual strength. How foolish I would be, to think of myself apart from God. I am very capable to descending into the bottomless depths of depravity in the very next moment. As I remain on this earth, I am a prisoner of war, and I have truly begun to understand, in these years past, that I fight a determined aggressor, sin, Satan, my terrible enemy. With such spiritual impotence at times, one might sometimes wonder,
“Perhaps I am not a Christian, after all? How can I be so guaranteed that I am a child of Christ? Is my salvation even guaranteed? Where is my standing before God… do I even have a standing?”
The good law which proclaimed death upon me, however, is revealed to be a blessing.
God’s good Law exposes my absolute wretchedness, and drives me wholeheartedly to Jesus Christ.
A programme, ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ in its 12 steps encapsulates the train of steps which recovers and finds great sobriety. I quote the first 8 here:
- Admitting one’s Powerlessness – our lives, left to our own devices, is unmanageable.
- We come to believe that a Power Greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. That, and none other.
- Make a decision to turn our lives and our will over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Makes a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Only then, can we come with a humble and contrite heart to receive the marvellous grace which forgives, and have all the defects of our character removed.
- Sought through unceasing prayer and meditation we make a conscious effort to improve conscious contact with God as we understand Him for the knowledge of His good and perfect will for us and the POWER IN CHRIST to carry that out.
Daily, I must admit complete defeat, my every natural instinct cries out against the power of the my sinful nature of the flesh, the revelation of God’s Holy Law bleeds me of all self-sufficiency, and I am convicted in my bankruptcy. It is my ultimate humiliation. All my failures past and present, and soon to come. They were taken by Jesus, at the Cross.
“THANKS BE TO GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!”
goes the Victorious Rally and Battle cry to Victory of the thoroughly gladful Christian.
That is the reason why Jesus Christ is so incredibly attractive to me.
& Daily, every moment, this is my battle cry.
~
God had exposed me in my nothingness.
And now He has proclaimed unto me, clothed unto me,
Jesus as my Sole Righteousness.
In finding Him, I found myself.
& So, enabled by His grace, I begin to live for Him.
This, dear friends, is my stand, as I hope it is yours.
To the struggling believer, be encouraged.
Any evidence of a struggle, a battle waged against sinful flesh, even in its minutest, is evidence that you are God’s – don’t doubt your salvation, don’t doubt your standing before God. It is, in the words of Tony Jones, “Proof-positive” that you are a genuine Christian believer. Why then, if you have been moved to realize what spiritual riches have been given you in Christ, would you not desire, yearn, strive, to know this God even more so?
In genuinely crying out for rescue in Jesus, I am liberated. I am free to serve Him 🙂 When He decides to bless me, I rejoice in gladful praise. Even when He withholds a hand of material blessings, I will be able to say like Job, who feared the LORD but had much of his wealth, health and family taken from him:
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21, ESV)
When I know and understand just how much I am loved by Jesus, I am free to serve Him with my heart, my soul, my strength, my all.
The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God’s sight, they are accepted and righteous. So we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope — at the very same time. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you.
But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin.” – Timothy Keller.
~
“There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:1.
Two equations illustrate this (a delight for the mathematical mind):
Law + sinful nature = Death.
This is the life of the unbeliever, which exposes man’s deep sin and condemns, humiliates, shows one’s utter wretchedness before the LORD.
Law + new mind by the Spirit of Jesus Christ
= Battle
= Cry for Rescue
= Life.
We should never underestimate the power of sin in us and our own peril,
But neither should we ever underestimate our ability to win the fight in Jesus’ name.
The application is this: We can trust the Gospel.
From the book of Romans, the Christian is reminded: The great work of God’s holy Law, righteous and Good, exposes our utter and complete depraved wretchedness, but oh, Christian, how it drives me to the deep bosom of Christ and His Loving Rescue.
Let us not read our Bibles in a self-righteous way, nor seek to proclaim any form of or measure of good upon ourselves. Nor grumble, resent, nor question, how a Sovereign LORD has apportioned His goodness and His grace to others around us. Let us look to ourselves, ourselves before God.
A true understanding of God’s Sovereign Grace in one’s salvation, spurs us ontoward a heart of deep thankfulness and great rejoicing for what God has done in Christ Jesus.
& Hey, I do believe a deep rejoicing in the Christian’s heart, is but a glimpse of Heaven in fellowship with the LORD. It truly is. 🙂
Let us pray for the indwelling Spirit to thoroughly convict us of our abject weakness and helplessness, and keep crying out to Jesus to embrace His Loving Rescue. Running to His arms wide open. We are clothed in His perfect righteousness, and now we stand before God as His sons and daughters, and call Him “Abba Father”.
Keep embracing Jesus, who first embraced you in His saving death on the Cross.
He now lives in me, He now lives in you, and of this, you who believe, it is guaranteed. It’s a highway to heaven we’re on, a path to glory, a path to be with God in eternity.
~
Dear friend,
This is my Jesus.
This is Grace – Wholly Undeserved, unearned, Unmerited Favour.
God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. (J. I. Packer).
That which keeps me alive, that which holds me to eternity
The God who blesses,
the God who withholds,
and Whom still I will bless,
Still I will praise.
This is my Jesus.
And now, the question is this,
Is He your Jesus, too?
~
We belong to the day
To the day that is to come
When the night falls away
And our Saviour will return
For the glory of the King is in our hearts
On that day we will be seen for what we are
We belong to the day
Let us journey in the light
Put on faith, put on love
As our armour for the fight
And the promise of salvation in our eyes
On that day the proud will fall, the faithful rise
Strong as a mighty rock
Our refuge in the coming wrath
The heart of the bride belongs
To Jesus, Jesus
The earth in its turning stops
To marvel at the Son of God
And all of that day belongs
To Jesus, Jesus
We belong to the day
We were bought with Jesus’ blood
Soon he comes as the Judge
In the power of his word
We must tell of His salvation while we wait
For the day when Jesus comes will be too late
Oh, if ten thousand years go by
We will wait
Let us tell of His great love
He will come
For His patience means salvation
~
Strong as a mighty rock
Our refuge in the coming wrath
The heart of the bride belongs
To Jesus, Jesus
The earth in its turning stops
To marvel at the Son of God
And all of that day belongs
To Jesus, Jesus
la vie et les temps d'un escargot 