VIDEO Club 33

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15

Most of the Walt Disney parks have an exclusive area known as Club 33, a VIP lounge modeled after the private areas of the 1967 World’s Fair. Walt Disney wanted an area where he could conduct business and entertain high-income guests. Club 33 locations are hidden in the various parks, and most tourists walk by them without knowing they’re there. It takes years to join the club. There’s a $33,000 initiation charge plus an annual $15,000 fee. 

As for Walt Disney himself? He passed away six months before the club’s official opening, so he never experienced the luxury he designed.

All our lounges and luxuries and worldly trappings disappear from our view the moment we pass away, so it’s best to live as unattached to them as possible. On the other hand, the followers of Christ can look forward to Club Forever—our eternal inheritance in the new heavens, new earth, and New Jerusalem. We can’t afford the admission cost, but Jesus paid it for us.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.
Helen Howarth Lemmel, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”

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1 John 2:15-17, Dangerous Affections

A Great Multitude

Before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language. Revelation 7:9

We came together for our Sunday morning church service with joy and anticipation. Although we were spatially distanced because of the coronavirus pandemic, we welcomed the opportunity to celebrate Gavin and Tijana’s wedding. Our technologically gifted Iranian friends broadcast the service to friends and family spread out geographically—including in Spain, Poland, and Serbia. This creative approach helped us overcome the constraints as we rejoiced in the covenant of marriage. God’s Spirit united us and gave us joy.

That Sunday morning with our wonderfully multinational congregation was a small taste of the glory to come when people from “every nation, tribe, people and language” will stand before God in heaven (Revelation 7:9). The beloved disciple John glimpsed this “great multitude” in a vision he recounts in the book of Revelation. There those gathered will worship God together along with the angels and elders: “Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever” (v. 12).

The union and marriage of Jesus and His international bride in the “wedding supper of the Lamb” (19:9) will be an amazing time of worship and celebration. Our experience at our Sunday church service with people from many nations points to this celebration that one day we’ll enjoy.

While we wait in hope for that joyful event, we can embrace the practice of feasting and rejoicing among God’s people.

By:  Amy Boucher Pye

Reflect & Pray

How do you picture the wedding supper of the Lamb? How does being invited to this celebration affect your daily life?

Lamb of God, thank You for the invitation to the heavenly wedding.

The Reason for Our Boldness

We need to always be willing and searching for opportunities to share the gospel boldly and confidently with the lost

Romans 1:8-17

Even though Christians are familiar with the gospel, many are reluctant to share their faith. One reason is because they don’t feel capable of explaining it well and are afraid of negative reactions or questions they’ll be unable to answer. But we must remember that God has given us the most important message in the world. 

The apostle Paul welcomed every opportunity to tell people about Christ. That’s because he personally experienced the gospel’s life-changing power and made that his focus rather than the negative reactions he might encounter. Oftentimes the reason we’re ashamed to talk about our faith is that we’re concerned about ourselves. But if we begin to look at people who are lost and ask God to open a door for us to share our faith, He will answer that prayer. 

We tend to be distracted by temporal activities that eventually fade away. But souls are forever, and people need to know the Savior. That’s why it’s important for us to understand the gospel well enough to present it with confidence and boldness. We can’t let fear or ignorance keep us from giving a lost world the only message that can change a person’s eternal destiny.

The Christian’s Possibilities

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ…May give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened.” (Ephesians 1:17-18)

The “spirit of wisdom” is applied to a wide variety of circumstances. It certainly includes leadership (Deuteronomy 34:9).

But wisdom is also identified with the ability to make beautiful clothing (Exodus 28:3) and to engineer and invent complex equipment (31:2-6). Daniel was said to have “an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts” (Daniel 5:12). We are even promised that our “adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist” (Luke 21:15).

A “spirit of revelation” is also made available to us. This revelation (literally “to take off the cover”) is not new doctrine or truth. Revelation is implemented by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10), having the source of His revelatory work from Jesus Christ on behalf of Christ (John 16:13-15).

The Greek language of the phrase “the eyes of [our] understanding being enlightened” (Ephesians 1:18) could be translated “the vision of your deep thought will be made to shine,” or paraphrased in a more colloquial expression, “the light comes on!”

There are three specific enlightenments cited here: The hope of our calling (see Romans 15:13-14), the riches of the glory of our inheritance (11:33-36), and the exceeding greatness of His power exercised on our behalf (Ephesians 3:20; 6:10).

Each of these three are specifically designed by God to undergird our faith and embolden our confidence, even though we are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). HMM III

Second Movement: My Spirit Faints With Longing

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all You have done; I reflect on the work of Your hands. I spread out my hands to You; I am like parched land before You. Answer me quickly, Lord; my spirit fails. Don’t hide Your face from me, or I will be like those going down to the Pit (Psalm vv. 5-7).

David was no stranger to suffering. It became the foundation upon which the Lord erected a rich, intimate relationship with him.

The psalmist is now rescued through reminiscence. He considers God’s mighty acts in history. He meditates on his supernatural works. These thoughts begin to restore and renew him.

Before, David’s personality resembled a dry, parched land. Now he recognizes his inner thirst and longing for God and reaches out to his Heavenly Father. His request is of the utmost urgency. He feels as if he is about to die, “going down to the Pit” (v. 7). Perhaps his most horrifying thought is that the Lord will overlook him!

Spiritual pain is often the catalyst for change and growth. As I reach the end of my own limited resources, I grope toward God in desperation. He closes that great gap with his own presence and lets me know that he has not overlooked my need!

Personal Prayer

O Lord, please look beyond my fault to see my need. My soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Refresh me with the rains of your love.

He Looked Beyond My Fault

Amazing grace shall always be my song of praise—

For it was grace that bought my liberty—

I do not know just why He came to love me so—

He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.

I shall forever lift mine eyes to Calvary To view the cross where Jesus died for me—

How marvelous—the grace that caught my falling soul

He looked beyond my fault and saw my need.

Words by Dottie Rambo. Music adapted from Londonderry Aire. © 1967 by Heart-Warming Music.
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Satanic Forces

He has kept, with eternal chains in darkness for the judgment of the great day, the angels who did not keep their own position but deserted their proper dwelling.—Jude 6

The Devil was created as a wise and morally perfect being (then known as Lucifer) who aspired to take over the throne of God and thus usurp the position of his Creator. Once that happened, Lucifer was expelled from heaven, together with the other angels who had sensed and shared his rebellious attitude. This is the fall from heaven that Jesus told His disciples He had witnessed.

Since his fall from heaven, Satan, apparently losing little of his administrative skill, has marshaled these fallen angels (now known as demons) into a hostile force to work against God and His creation. We do not know just how many angels fell with Satan, but doubtless it must have been a colossal number. When Jesus once asked a demoniac: “What is your name?” (Lk 8:30), the demons answered: “Legion.” If they were telling the truth, the man was controlled by thousands of demons. A Roman legion contained six thousand men!

It is little wonder, then, that the Apostle Paul warned the Ephesians that they were involved in a tremendous spiritual conflict: “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens” (Eph 6:12).

One of America’s founding fathers said: “If men will not be governed by God, then they will be ruled by tyrants.” How sad that people actually choose to be governed by Satan rather than by God.

Prayer

O God my Father, I am so thankful that I have left the tyranny and rule of Satan to come under the sway of Your eternal and everlasting kingdom. May I come more and more under its sway hour by hour and day by day. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Further Study

Lk 10:1-19; Ps 44:5; Rm 8:31

What event did Jesus witness?

What power did He give to His disciples?

O Boundless Salvation

Hebrews 7:25

O Boundless salvation! Deep ocean of love,

O fullness of mercy, Christ brought from above,

The whole world redeeming, so rich and so free,

Now flowing for all men, come, roll over me!

My sins they are many, their stains are so deep,

And bitter the tears of remorse that I weep;

But useless is weeping; Thou great crimson sea,

Thy waters can cleanse me, come, roll over me!

My tempers are fitful, my passions are strong,

They bind my poor soul and they force me to wrong;

Beneath Thy blest billows deliverance I see,

O come, mighty ocean, and roll over me!

Now tossed with temptation, then haunted with fears,

My life has been joyless and useless for years;

I feel something better most surely would be

If once Thy pure waters would roll over me.

O ocean of mercy, oft longing I stood

On the brink of Thy wonderful, life-giving flood!

Once more I have reached this soul-cleansing sea,

I will not go back till it rolls over me.

The tide is now flowing, I’m touching the wave,

I hear the loud call of the Mighty to save;

My faith’s growing bolder, delivered I’ll be;

I plunge ‘neath the waters, they roll over me.

And now, hallelujah! The rest of my days

Shall gladly be spent in promoting His praise

Who opened His bosom to pour out this sea

Of boundless salvation for you and for me.

William Booth, The Salvation Army Song Book