A Beautiful Crown

 Jesus is going to set up His eternal rule on earth. But like us, Christ's disciples had to learn that the Cross precedes the Crown - Calvary is before the Kingdom. But in between those two mountain peaks, nestles the dispensation of the grace of God, which includes 1) The Church age in which we live, which was hidden from the prophets in time past, but also 2) A time of great judgement (the time of Jacob's Trouble - the coming Tribulation Period) about which the prophets of old wrote.
 The Day of the Lord will first come as a thief in the night when for seven years, the wrath of God will be poured out in fullest measure on a God-hating, Christ-rejecting, sinful world with its prime objective to open the eyes of a blinded to the identity of their promised Messiah and to save a multitude of Gentiles without number: "So that the nations will KNOW that I AM THE LORD and there is NO other."
 As foretold by many prophets, in that day the LORD of hosts will become A Beautiful Crown and a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people. But before the Lord returns to earth in the splendor of His majesty and in power and great glory, the little remnant of Israel will first acknowledge the Lord Jesus as their Messiah-King and God of the universe, shouting in harmony: "Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!
In that day the LORD Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people.

Our United Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You that Your plans and purposes will never fail and that nothing happens in our lives that is not known or permitted by You, for our eternal benefit and to Your greater praise and glory. Until that great day when Jesus comes in the clouds to rescue the us from the wrath that is to be poured out on a Christ-rejecting, sinful world, we pray that we may be salt and light to those whom You place in our path. This we ask in Jesus' name, AMEN.