Present

"The Lord's teachings will go out from Zion," Isaiah 2:3.

In the eighth century, B.C., a prophet saw the word about the last days. Here's the word he saw: the hill that the Lord's temple sat on in Jerusalem would become the most exalted of all mountains, all peoples would flow up to it to learn and walk in God's ways; God's judgment and peace would reign supreme over all. So, in the last days, seven and a half centuries later, God spoke to us humans through his son, Jesus, whom he raised up (from the dead) to reign beside. As Jesus prepared to leave earth and to rise up into the clouds, he told his followers: Repentance and forgiveness of sins must be announced in his name to all peoples, beginning from Jerusalem. And so it was. And so it continues. Until Jesus should appear again in the clouds. Sky kingdom.

We meet with each other today, brother or sister, walking in the Lord's way. And, as we turn together toward Zion's hill, we give thanks for the Lord's teachings reaching out to us all the way from the hill's cross to our very present.