"He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
"And behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.
"And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon He was, to the threshold of the house. And He called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side;
"And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
"And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
"Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at the sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house" (Ezek. 9. 1-6).
"And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that they should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
"And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
"Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads" (Rev. 7. 1-3).
"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin AT US..." (1 Pt. 4.17).
...We have heard of the mark of the beast, and getting the mark of the beast in the right hand or forehead.
What about getting the mark of the Lord in our foreheads? Someone once mentioned to me this is the way they used to mark slaves. And so by a certain mark, this one would be openly displayed as belonging to a certain one. And so, whose slave am I? Of the beast, or of the Lord?
Those who are mourning over the abominations they see in the city of God are being marked in their foreheads: in their minds. It will not do us to get a mere definition of what this is, this seal, this mark. We must receive it. And it is a Way of thinking; it is the mind of Christ. The mind of the Spirit, "which is life and peace." It is a transforming in the very way I think, a transforming by the renewing of our minds because we have presented ourselves unto Him "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." It is something wrought deeply within by the Man in fine linen with the writer's inkhorn... so that I am no longer thinking in my own carnal ways, but in union with the Christ.
So may I bear on my forehead, and in my right hand-- in all the way I think, and in all I do-- the mark of the Lord Jesus Christ: "this one belongs to ME."
God will clean up His own backyard before He begins on the neighbours.
AD _________________ Allan Halton
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