He will see her again, and He is grieved until He does. But “heaven cannot restrain Him forever,” only until the time appointed by the Father to hand the scroll over to the Lion of Judah, lashed like a lamb, who has overcome and can be trusted to come on the clouds in power and glory. When He does, she’ll be singing the song He quoted as He wept over her… In return, He’ll sing over her the song stuck in His head for eternity…
If wine is richer than water, and old wine is better than new wine, Jesus is out for our fullness—our maturity, to be sure (old wine), but our transformation as well. Truth transforms us insomuch as it sets us free from the slavery of this “present evil age,” and the wise folly of Heaven prescribes a song for us to sing our way through this holy exodus. That song opens with this mighty blast: "Your love is better than wine!" Or, perhaps, "better than bourbon."
As we barrel towards the Day of the Lord, as crises mount and the pregnancy of this age approaches the escalating birth pangs and labor into the next age, we must “be sober, redeeming the time” because the present days are “evil.” These mundane days are full of micro injustices, full of macro injustices, and all of them have an appointed end—when Jesus rides His horse.
It’s easy to dehumanize God, to view Him as a rock wall. At best, we see Him as able to connect with our pain and empathize with us. But what if it is His pain we connect with when we suffer? When affliction won’t relent and life has wrung us out, we’re stepping into an area of God’s heart only suffering can take us to.
It wasn’t God’s design for the people to have earthly kings. His desire for them was to have judges as the leadership in place, men and women who knew Him and were familiar with His ways, listening to Him for their guidance, rather than lusting after power and control—the undying, infamous motivation of earthly princes. We all long for a good and trustworthy king, but there is only one.
Many Christians fall into the deception of believing their practices to be biblical, rather than cultural—and placing culture above kingdom. When Jesus called people to follow Him, He called them to leave behind their cultural priorities. There is a disciple of whom He said, “Truly I tell you, wherever the Gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told,” because she set aside her culture in order to worship. May we remember her reckless abandonment of cultural idolatry, and the King who made it worth it.
The hope of the prophets of old and the redemptive work that was guaranteed at the cross will be fulfilled. The Lord is burning with desire for the day He gets to come back, and so should we. It is only when we come into alignment with the Lord's heart for the restoration of all things that our participation will be "of the Father's business.”
He does not relent, continuing to insist upon our full fervency and entire devotion, irrespective of what unfolds in our lives. To demand less would not be love. This is not His being unreasonable. No, it’s simply His being unwilling to deny us our full inheritance and His full inheritance in us. We were made for wholehearted love, and He refuses to relent in establishing that in us.
Written by Dalton Thomas in the months leading up to the birth of FAI in Dec. 2011, UNTO DEATH explores the implications of the resurrection, the imperatives of costly discipleship, and invites those who love and confess Jesus to invest their limited life in this age for an abundant life in the next—driven by the apostolic "blessed hope" befitting those who worship a crucified King & slain Lamb.
Written by Dalton Thomas in the months leading up to the birth of FAI in Dec. 2011, UNTO DEATH explores the implications of the resurrection, the imperatives of costly discipleship, and invites those who love and confess Jesus to invest their limited life in this age for an abundant life in the next—driven by the apostolic "blessed hope" befitting those who worship a crucified King & slain Lamb.
FAI will celebrate our 10-Year Anniversary on December 23, 2021. In this excerpt from 'The Ultimate Conquest,' Stephanie Quick examines Hudson Taylor’s journey from confusion related to the Millennial Reign into profound clarity and a concrete hope—one he called a “thoroughly practical one.” This shaped and steered his leadership over the China Inland Mission as they made disciples across the largest unreached people group in their day and time.
The age-ending Day of the Lord will expose every wicked thing and reveal every holy mystery kept hidden from our eyes until then. We will not dread eternity with Him. We will not resent His reign. We will not resist His hand. The dim mirrors removed and shattered, our eyes will see Him fully and clearly. Adoration will erupt from our hearts and rush from our lips: “You are everything You said and more.”
Put simply, “You’re everything.” Nothing else will matter.
We who believe will marvel the sight of the One we’ve waited so long for. Jesus spoke of this coming moment, when Heaven ceases to contain Him, when every eye will see Him, as the “birth,” the joy for which every mother endures the pain of labor. And in the birth pangs, what the author of Hebrews calls “shakings,” I pray we come to love the earthquakes that betray our idols and quicksand foundations for all they are.
![TEN YEARS [A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c66d4d50490793ae134b381/1674163402850-3B8IINODED60U7VUBL3P/DECADE.jpeg)
