After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Rev.7:9-10
Lord Jesus, thank you. I’m tired, but re-fired. I’m groggy from flying 4236 miles from London, England to Franklin, TN, but more so I am more encouraged, grateful, and hope-filled about what you are doing in your world. Faith not fear, hope not despair, life on mission—not a life of fretting is our Gospel-fueled calling and privilege.
For the past three weeks, you gave me and Darlene a palpable taste of the vision you gave the Apostle John. One Day your impossible-to-count Bride, from-every-nation Bride WILL gather and sing praise to you with such passion and joy it will take our glorified ears to sustain the volume and wonder.
It’s not that we saw so many believers we could not count them. It’s that we met so many believers from all kinds of stories, backgrounds, nations, languages, and ages we could not ignore what we were witnessing. Salvation belongs to you, Jesus, and you are generous with it. Hallelujah, and thank you.
From Edinburgh to the highlands of Inverness, in the middle of downtown Manchester to the lovely community of Maynooth—just outside Dublin N I, in the seaside town of Buncrana to the farmlands of Fahan, and in the giant mega-city of London, you are loving and you are redeeming. Thank you for our friends Neil and Louise, Ralph and Anna, Tom and Vicki, and Marty and Julie, and Rose Marie Miller—and every grace of her nearly 100-year-old life. They serve you faithfully in all these places, and loved us well. However long you give us, Jesus, we want to follow them as they follow you—all the way into the new heaven and new earth. So Very Amen.
