Category: Devotion of the Day

The Greatest Far Country

I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
Revelation 21:1

Here is the fairest vista of all after the vision of the Fair King – the life beyond, all eternity “with the Lord.” It is the person who makes the place. Paradise, heaven, the new earth, there is much we do not understand about these, but we know that He said, “Today shalt thou be with me.” “Where I am, there ye may be also.”

For the new creature in Christ “old things are passed away” – the old things of sin. John saw a new heaven and earth, “for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away” – the old creation has gone. He also observed that “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” The Christian outlasts all that went with the old Adam, for he belongs to the new creation of the last Adam. “The world passeth away and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”

Just as we first see, then serve, the King in the Far County of the Christian life and the Far Country of Christian witnessing, so in the greatest Far Country of all, the world beyond, “his servants shall serve him.” Not a glorified vacation but a glorious vocation; no longer hindered by the limitations of the old Adam, we shall see Him as He is and serve Him as we should.

Another Far Country

Go ye into all the world.
Mark 16:15

We are not only to see the King, we must serve the King. And the far country of service is as big as the world, for the world is our parish. Your own part of the Lord’s vineyard may be across the sea or just across the street, but what you do may reach around the earth.

Every Christian is a missionary, for all the world is a mission field. Do not think of missionaries as meaning only those witnesses abroad who have returned from Africa or Asia with pictures to show to sleepy church members in an after-meeting. If you cannot cross the sea in person you can project yourself by prayer and provision. You can pray laborers into the harvest and you can provide for them while they are in the harvest. The smallest country church may have a world-wide ministry and the lowliest Christian may touch earth’s uttermost corner.

“After he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go” (Acts 16:10). The Vision, the Vista, the Venture! The “Lo” must be followed by the “Go.” Isaiah saw the King. He saw the country, “a people of unclean lips.” He heard the call, “Whom shall I send?” He answered it: “Here am I, send me.”

The Far Country of the Heavenlies has its counterpart in the Far Country of the Earthlies. The Mystery must be made known amidst the Misery!