LifeLink Devotional

Thursday, November 21, 2019

My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness.

The words of this grand old hymn are ringing in my head.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

No matter how sweet and inviting the world looks, it will not last, nor will it satisfy.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.

As I contemplated the application of these truths to my life, I was reminded by the Holy Spirit of the additional verses of that song.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

No matter how dark the world begins to look around me, and how severe the storms of my life become, I know I stand secure in Christ. Why? Because His Word NEVER fails. His promises are ALWAYS fulfilled. In Christ our hope is secure!

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Then the final verse came to my mind. It fixed my eyes where they are supposed to be all the time – on the coming of Jesus to reclaim what is rightfully His. Since I am His, I will be a part of the Lord’s worldwide reclamation project.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

At this point of remembering this song, I discovered the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah. It is the beginning of the conclusion of the story for this section, and describes God’s judgment on man’s sin and rebellion. Isaiah gets our attention in verse one.

Isaiah 34:1    Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it!

Isaiah then begins to describe the incredible day of the Lord’s vengeance (verse 8) which culminates in the enemies of God being destroyed and the people of God being restored in a transformed physical world.

As I was reading, a line from verse four jumped off the page and reminded me of another song – one that hitchhiked on the previous song still being sung in my spirit. The line is the clouds be rolled back like a scroll. As a part of God’s judgment of sin and redemption of the physical world, Isaiah describes the transformations of nature that will take place. As the stars of heaven dissolve, and the sky rolls up like a scroll, I am reminded that there’s nothing in this world upon which I can stand. But because I stand on the Rock of Jesus Christ, it is well with my soul.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Pastor John