"There Will Be Glory" -2

"The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." (Psalms 58:10) It just so happens that there are two very contrasting worlds; and I know that this is going to sound a little odd, but please excuse my state of mind for a moment; but just imagine what it was like to be the High Priest in Israel in the time of offering and giving of sacrifices; I mean, that must have been one bloody mess of a job! There was a reason that the fire of the alter never went out, because there was always the need for a sacrifice to be offered, always! And as I was praying for God to speak to my heart, I saw a very vivid picture of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples; a very contrasting view of what is being said in this verse, but does it have any significant meaning? And then I thought of a word, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" (Matthew 18:18). Besides the fact that Jesus humbled Himself when He came to die for us, and when He returns He will be a Conquering King;  His vengeance will be sweet, but it will be His vengeance, not ours; what we receive is all about reward! I heard a message the other day, it is one that I never really thought of before, but it involved the return of Jesus as described in Revelation 19; the main point I took away, was that none of His army that came with Him had swords, only He had a sword, and it was His word (v.21). Now that I think of it, I have seen pictures that show it either way; but according to the Bible's description, we that are riding with Him do not fight, nor do we need to; His word that proceeds out of His mouth will slay the remnant that oppose Him. Just a thought, but do you think Jesus might have had this thought in His mind as He washed His disciples feet? I mean, do you really think that Jesus was looking forward to the cross? or was it that He was looking beyond the cross, to what He would accomplish? Of Course He was not looking forward to being torn apart, or nailed to a cross, or looked upon and despised by those that were His own. Who in their right mind would look forward to that? I heard another message, and I am not sure how I can explain it without getting into a really long discussion on what it means that our debt has been paid; but the message was about the fact that we do not owe God anything, but who we do owe, are those that we can reach with the gospel message. When you think about the parable of the unfaithful servant that was forgiven, he owed the king nothing when he departed out of his presence, because the king had forgiven his entire dealt; but what he did owe, he owed to those to whom he could show forth the same compassion that was shown to him (Matthew 18:21-35). It is really not about me owing God anything, except that I might be His faithful servant; because the king's servant in the parable, although his debt was paid in full, he still remained under the lordship of the king, but under a new standard of living; a standard that represented the forgiveness that he had been forgiven... "Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help understand all of this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:19-23)