Meditation on 'the day of the Lord' | 默想“主的日子”

 

Author：Karen   Narrator：Liying

Have you ever wanted to know what lies ahead of you? I bet you did. We tend to think that if we could foresee the future, we would make some wise decisions. But sadly, we have no way to foresee the future using our human power , so we hardly know if our decisions are good for us or not.

 

But God, our Creator, doesn't want us to live our lives without our destination in mind. He leaves us no doubt about individuals' and the whole world's future. He makes the truth about the future abundantly clear. He revealed to us that human history will end in judgment of rebels and blessing on the obedient. The Bible calls the final time period of human history "the day of the Lord".

 

The term "day" could refer to any length of time. I think the period of "the day of the Lord" begins with the Lord first coming to this world about two thousand years ago. It continues until the "day of judgment" when God sits on His throne to judge every people and nations. Right now, we live in the period of "the day of the Lord" when God waits patiently for all who will be His can come to repentance.

 

The proclaim of "the day of the Lord" is a resounding wake up call. It calls us to wake up from our drunkenness, from our complacency, to consider soberly His ultimate judgement, to live in light of the reality that God will judge. God judges sinners who deliberately refuses to repent.

 

The announcement of "the day of the Lord" is immediately followed by God's astounding news: He prepared a way for sinners to escape from His dreadful judgment. The way is Jesus. The sinless Son of God took His people's judgment on Himself on the cross. He died for repentant sinners. He also resurrected for them. Everyone who trusts in Him may find assurance of new life, a sinless one which would not be judged.

 

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

 

God keeps His word. Do we confess in order to be saved, to take Jesus as our refuge on the day of judgment. On that terrible day，it will be too late to confess, it will be too late to ask for forgiveness. Do not wait! Make the decision now to seek safety in "the day of the Lord".This is the best decision we can make in our life. It is infinitely good for us.

 

你想不想知道你的未來？我猜你想的。我們以為若能預知未來，便能做出些聰明的決定。可是很悲哀啊，我們靠著人的本事，無法預知未來，當然也就沒辦法知道我們的決定是不是聰明。

但是，我們的天父，我們的創造主，不想讓我們走人生路的時候，腦子裏沒有目地的。祂對每個人和整個世界的未來描述的非常清楚，沒留下什麽疑問。祂啟示我們人類曆史將以對不信者的審判，和對信靠祂的人被拯救為終結，聖經把人類曆史的最後一段日子叫“主的日子”。

這個“日子”是一段可長可短的時間，我認為“主的日子”這個時期始於兩千多年前主耶穌基督第一次降世，一直延續到父神坐在寶座上審判萬國萬民的“審判日”。現在，我們正處於“主的日子”這段時期，神在這個時期耐心地等待著祂的子民悔改。

宣告“主的日子”相當於敲響了哄亮的警鍾，把我們從麻醉，自滿的狀態中喚醒，使我們嚴肅地思考神的最終審判，在度日時，牢記神終歸要審判這個事實，神審判那些一門心思拒絕悔改的罪人。

約珥書2:31節剛宣告完“主的日子”，緊接著在2:32節就告訴我們，祂為罪人們準備了一條逃避可怕審判的道路。這道路就是主耶穌，無罪的神子在十字架上頂了世人的罪。祂為所有悔改的罪人死，也為他們複活。每個信靠祂的人都會得到新生，無罪的，不受審判的新生。

“我們若認自己的罪，神是信實的，是公義的，必要赦免我們的罪，洗淨我們一切的不義。” 約翰壹書1:9

神信守諾言，我們要不要認罪悔改，在審判的日子可以躲在耶穌裏得救恩呢？在那個可怕的日子，悔改求原諒可能有點兒晚，不要拖延，今天就做個決定吧，定意在“主的日子”能有平安。這是我們能做的最好選擇，絕對的好選擇。