The Pilgrim Path---First Corinthians 2: 9, 10

But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

Nor the heart of man imagined,

What God has prepared for those who love him”---

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit…

“WHAT GOD HAS PREPARED…”

The Followers of Jesus must “live” in this world. We have to work---eat---sleep---raise a family. Yet, the real---glorious life is ahead. We have all known people with all kinds of motivation for living. I have observed people who get a “charge” out of the “applause & praise” of others. Some “exist” to exact revenge upon people (a sad way to live---it has driven a host of souls on this globe). There are folk who simply want to “make a name for themselves.” We naturally desire to secure our personal peace and prosperity. The God-Man Jesus simplified matters. He declared, “Deny yourself---take up your cross and follow me.” The LORD of Souls meant for us to lose our life in His holy Person and Purpose. Then---know that when “forever” begins (Eternity)---the grandest benefits are available to ALL who belong to HIM. And amazingly---it continues to be better, age after age (Eternity)---because The Living Christ has sealed HIS Own with His blood of the Covenant! This is truth from another world---the revelation of God from Holy Scripture…

Think long and hard upon HIM and what grace has “won” for HIS Own. This sacred musing carries us through this world to the Celestial City to come. This is to frame our work---our relationships---our suffering---our childrearing---our living---and our dying (and what is death for the Christian---but the midwife that “births us” into the presence of Jesus---Thomas Brooks).

The Lord Jesus Christ said,

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. John 14: 1 – 3

From Thomas Watson: Labor to know HIM in all his excellencies, holiness, wisdom, love, and truth. If we knew him more, our hearts would be fired with love to him. Meditate much on God and his word. Beg that your love might burn on the altar of your heart---he will not deny you such a request!

From St. Basil of Caesarea (330—379): If we could review and condense all the happiness there has ever been on earth, since human beings first existed, and if we collected it all together in a single place, it still wouldn’t be equal in value to the slightest foretaste of the future life! In fact, the absolute entirety of good things attainable in this present life is like mere shadows and dreams, compared to the good things of the next life. Or here’s a better way of putting it: to the degree that the soul is more valuable than the body, so vast is the gulf between present and future blessedness!

Meanwhile on the other side of the world:

---The Mayor of the Ukrainian City of Kherson asks for safe passage to remove the wounded. He says, “We are waiting for a miracle. We need it.”

---Russian artillery has devasted “built up areas” of Chernihiv---Kharkiv---in addition to Kyiv…

---Russia has shelled Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Ukraine…fire at one of six reactors…

---The UN tells the world that at least a million people have fled Ukraine…

---Russian citizens cannot talk about the war in Ukraine---it might cost them at least five years in prison. The Russian Government tells its people they are involved in, “a military operation in Ukraine to demilitarize and de-Nazify the country” (check in out on BBC and Reuters). Oh, the horrible human tragedy a tyrant and war criminal bring upon the world (Putin).

---US Department of Defense Briefings have revealed “acts of vandalism” among Russian troops---including puncturing gas tanks on vehicles, presumably so soldiers can avoid being transported into combat (many Russian soldiers are young---with no combat experience).

---We pray for Ukraine’s President: Volodymyr Zelensky / his wife: Olena Zelenska / children: Sasha and Cyril.

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28: 20

Grace and Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason