Song number 48 "Look up, Look up, Thy redemtion draweth nie."

"May I say to you" is what I hear. The voice and words of Dr. J. Vernon McGee with his Through the Bible programs, which are still being aired almost 30 years after his death. Thru the bible

I use his podcasts and sermons as a great source of meditation and understanding. 

We have so much information at our fingertips via tv, radio, internet and telephone. Sometimes it is almost impossible, no my friends it is altogether impossible to understand what we are up against. We see through a glass darkly, as the King James bible puts it. 1st Corinthians 13:12.

It is so easy to just be taken up with our every day existence and not to worry or care about the things we seem to have absolutely no control over. But there is something you and I can do, should do. Must do! We can Pray! 

My thoughts today take me to Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, South Africa, the middle East, Europe and Eastern Europe, the millions of souls who are displaced by famine and war. Most of the old world and much of the new world. I see children all gaunt and shriveled up, hollow eyed with their abdomen distended from starvation. See people drowning and being murdered while trying to flee the destruction. To use McGee's words, "may I say to you my beloved", there will be no end to these trials in our lifetime. In Luke 21:9-38,"

⁹ But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
¹⁰ Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
¹¹ And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
¹² But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.
¹³ And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
¹⁴ Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
¹⁵ For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
¹⁶ And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
¹⁷ And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
¹⁸ But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
¹⁹ In your patience possess ye your souls.
²⁰ And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
²¹ Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
²² For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
²³ But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
²⁴ And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
²⁵ And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
²⁶ Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
²⁷ And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
²⁸ And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
²⁹ And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
³⁰ When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.
³¹ So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
³² Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
³³ Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
³⁴ And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
³⁵ For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
³⁶ Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
³⁷ And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives.
³⁸ And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him."

This song came from a dream I had in 1972. The dream was very real to me. I was standing and talking with a friend about how the Lord would come in the clouds and as I spoke to her, I looked up and saw a swirling in the clouds and then Jesus emerging with his hand reached down to me. As I saw this, I reached out my hand and was lifted up to meet him in the air. Praise God! It was and is real to me.

 

"Look Up, Thy redemption draweth nigh"

©1994 John Blodgett

While I kneeled in prayer last night at my bed,

The spirit of God came over me.

I will not forget the words that he said,

three times he repeated it to me.

Look up, look up, thy redemption draweth nigh

The kingdom of God is at hand.

Watch and pray that worthy you may be

to stand before the Son of Man.

As I lay asleep, I dreamed my savior came,

I was standing with a friend,

and as he approached, I heard him call my name,

He reached down and took me by the hand.

What a thrill filled my soul, as I was lifted up.

My friend was left standing there.

From behind me she called, but I couldn't turn my head

and I met my savior in the air.

What a wonderful dream, I will not forget

But a heavenly message was there.

I must reach my friends so they may not be left

and remember them always in prayer.