The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage: Revelation 10:1-9; 11:1-15 (day four)

Our God is a God of details.  At the creation of the world, even the smallest details of design were carefully planned and executed.  Now, as we read in our Re:Verse passage this week, we discover that the end of time has been carefully planned out with every detail in place.  From start to finish, God has established a well-ordered design.  Every event in history, from creation to final judgment, has been a part of God’s grand design.

For a God to be able to plan such a vast array of details…each one building to a climax of grace and judgment…why do we question whether or not He can take care of the details of our lives?  Something happens…good or bad…in our lives, and we begin to “re-calculate” the direction of our life, based on the new circumstances.  Our “re-calculations” may be accompanied by great anxiety or great excitement, depending on the circumstances.

When will we learn to go to God first to seek His counsel…His direction…His wisdom…His comfort.  Paul said it best…”Be anxious for nothing, in everything give thanks.”

Re:Verse passage: Revelation 10:1-9; 11:1-15 (day three)

“These two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.”  It’s not uncommon these days for someone to claim that he’s “evolving” on this or that issue, which almost always means that he’s moving from a biblically orthodox belief to a novel, less biblically-faithful position.  But the word “evolving” is a dodge.  Rather than owning his heresy, rather than arriving at a position through careful reflection, the person who caves to the spirit of the age will assign responsibility to forces beyond his control.  Both the Bible and the church will stand through it all, bearing witness to the truth: Men are accountable to God.  The Bible explains what the church lives out, and wicked men and women will find comfort in neither.  But they will find the way to eternal life.  Stay true, church.

 

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 10:1-9; 11:1-15 (day two)
“Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshippers there.” 11:1

Locusts, beasts, dragons, plagues, famine, war, calamity, and most certainly death…yet there are still those remaining who refuse to give up the hope that is promised in Jesus Christ. What does adversity do to your faith? When push comes to shove and everyone, and everything you hold dear is falling away can you still gather together with other saints and cry out to the Lord? No one can truly know how far they can be tested, but we can gird ourselves for the trial. Our spiritual training that comes through our time spent in reading the Word, communing in prayer, worshipping with others is all the pre-requisite to building that spiritual muscle need for the day when we will face the challenge. May we all stand to worship when the world around us falls.

 

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 10:1-9; 11:1-15 (day one)

“And he swore . . .that there shall be delay no longer.”–10:6

Ever seen a football team try to win a game in the last few seconds?  The clock ticks away as they march down the field.  A field goal or a touchdown needed to claim victory?

Often, time runs out before they can achieve their goal.  The team still has plays left to run, energy and ideas but the last seconds have ticked away.  “Game over” says the referee.

Revelation 10 is a similar picture related to a much more important endeavor.  After multiple moments of God’s patience, after many delays as He waits for men to repent, the angel suddenly announces “there will be no more delay”.

Literally it reads, “there will be no more time (chronos).”  No more seconds on the clock.  No more opportunities to get it right.  The judgement comes swiftly now.  Game over.  The world has run out of time.

 

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 8 and 9 (day seven)

“And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions.”–9:3

Been to Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico?  Remember the story of its modern discovery? In 1898, Jim White was a seventeen year old cowboy. Looking for stray cattle. Saw instead a cloud rising from the desert hills.  But it wasn’t a cloud, it was bats! Swirling upward, spreading out for a night of doing what bats do.

In Revelation 9, John sees something similar.  A cloud of smoke rising up out of the Abyss. From the smoke,  a swarm of locusts.

Normally, locusts eat vegetation and leave people unharmed.  Not these.  They symbolize God’s wrath on the race of men who have resisted and rebelled past the threshold of His patience.

Is wrath real?  Are people and nations moving toward an encounter with an angry God? John says yes. Jesus says yes.  What do we say?

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 8 and 9 (day six)

The trumpets are a kindness, and so were the seals. Every seal, every trumpet blast is a call to repentance. We read death and destruction, but each day that God delays the “Day of the Lord” is a kindness, not just to the unbelieving but also the church. It is no coincidence that Revelation begins with letters to seven churches; the trumpets are as much for them as they are for those who remain in their sin. They serve as a reminder, a wakeup call, that all of creation is careening towards a final and eternal judgment; that the Father, through Jesus, will finish his work of salvation.

So you see, the trumpets are a kindness to us. Revelation was not intended for our varied speculations, but for action. Do you hear them?

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 8 and 9 (day five)

Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Most often, we think the context is a present desire for God’s will and direction to be clear and then accomplished in us and through us. Looking at Revelation 8, scripture reminds us that this prayer has implications for the future and the end times. God is answering this prayer (His will being done and Kingdom coming), and they serve to usher in the end of the world.

Rev. 8- “that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God…” No prayer is ever unheard, ignored, forgotten, or set aside. All the prayers of all the saints counted, remembered, and rightfully placed before the throne of God.

How does this reality shape your prayers today??!!

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 8 and 9 (day four)

These chapters could sour you on the trumpet section of an orchestra.  Seven trumpets…when each blows its blast, bad things happen.  Things are destroyed…people and animals die…pain and torment prevail.  Is this the same God that Scripture describes as ‘Love’?

God is Love!  Never is His love demonstrated any more than through His justice and judgment.  The world has tried to paint a picture of a god of their own design.  They create a god of their selective choosing that preserves their desire for control of their own lives.  This is called idolatry.

Do we, likewise, fashion a god of our own design?  Do we live our lives as we choose rather than how God describes His followers?  Holiness, purity, consecration, Godly character…are those expectations of our lives or are they ancient pictures no longer valid in our modern world?  One of God’s characteristics is that He is Unchanging.  Guard against discounting Scripture to fit your own idolatrous preferences.  His choices have not changed!

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 8 and 9 (day three)

“The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands.”  God has designed this universe in such a way that our freedom to indulge in evil results in deadly consequences—sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but always by the end of history.  In other words, the wrath of God is reality.  That wrath is not the result of God’s getting worked up into a lather by unruly men.  Wrath isn’t an eventual state of mind that God arrives at after he’s tried to entertain us into good behavior.  No, wrath is a constant quality of his character.  Men who turn their minds against God will discover that God is already against them.  There is no secret escape passage from sin.  Do you know someone who needs to know this?

Re:Verse reading–Revelation 8 and 9 (day two) “The rest of mankind…did not repent of the works of their hands.” 9:20

Have you ever heard of someone narrowly avoiding death or some terrible disaster who gratefully exclaims that they will live their lives “better” from that day forward only to fall back into patterns and habits that had previously defined them. They were stirred by something catastrophic, but they never let it penetrate their hearts that they truly needed to change.

Most of us don’t live in peril everyday, and we become numb to our eternal condition. These people in Revelation completely skipped the ‘grateful to be alive’ part and simply refused to repent. We aren’t that different if we are continuing to surrender to sin rather than Christ. The fact is that death, plague, destruction, or famine did not sway the minds of those in John’s revelation. We cannot change ourselves, we must submit to that same Lamb that John saw opening the seals.