"The Reason for Fear PT-3" (Rev. 6:12-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/2/2015 8:38 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  The Reason for Fear PT-3

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 6:12-14

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

            We want to begin this SD by focusing in on the later part of verse twelve where we read “and the whole moon became like blood.”  We have been hearing a lot about “blood moons” in recent times and what we see in verse twelve seems to be the moon looking like blood because of the results of the earthquakes which caused volcanic eruptions and with that different types of gasses coming out of the earth which will be an environmentalist nightmare.  I remember ten years ago when we were living in Aruba and I was working at a refinery which had very little if any pollution controls intact.  We lived fairly close to the plant and in the evening when the sun was about to go down we saw some of the strangest, but most beautiful sunsets because of the pollution that came from those smokestacks.  Pollution in the air can cause dramatic effects on what the sun and moon look like.  Isaiah 13:10 reads “For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its light.”  Joel writes “the sun and the moon grow dark” (Joel 2:10).  When all of this happens it will have a dramatic effect on many things on the earth including the tides and also cycles of light which will effect plant life and food supply, which will cause a great deal of panic.

            Next we look at what verse thirteen says “and the stars of the sky fell to the earth.”  John MacArthur writes “Asteres (stars) can refer to actual stars, but can also describe any heavenly body other than the sun and the moon.  Obviously, in this context it does not refer to actual stars, since they are far too large to fall on the earth and would incinerate it long before striking it.”  Since this earthquake which we have been looking at could cause problems in the universe what we may be looking at here is meteorites or let me also think about something else that this could be and that is rockets coming out of some type of satellite from the sky.  I remember a long time ago when I was studying a book written by Hal Lindsey on psychics who would get information  from strange places like demons and a woman got information about what was called MIRV which was a Russian Satellite that would have multiple war heads with nuclear bombs on it that could be fired at the earth.  I am not saying that this is what we are looking at in this verse, but man does have the technology to do something like what is described in this verse and we must also remember that John was using first century language to describe what was going on in perhaps the 21^st century or even later.  John later in this verse writes that the result of these “stars” coming from outer space would be like “a fig tree that casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.”  MacArthur writes “With the whole earth being pummeled by fiery balls plunging out of the blackness there will be nowhere for people to flee, nowhere for them to hide.”

            Now as we look at verse fourteen I want to quote my former Spiritual Diary from May 14, 2005 in which I again go back to some things I learned when I first began to study Revelations much earlier than 2005:  “As I look at verse 14 it makes me go back to the very early times of my Christian life when most all the time I would be reading Hal Lindsey’s books on prophecy, because that is what the Lord used to draw me to Himself.  In his books and tapes he often said that this verse was a good description from the 1^st century of a modern day atomic bomb, and as you read this verse and then think of pictures of an atomic bomb with the large mushroom cloud it does makes you think that this could be true.  At any rate this future earthquake will cause a lot of damage on this world as it will level the mountains and it will cause islands to disappear.”

            Now as we look at the section from verse fourteen which reads “every mountain and island were moved out of their places” I want to quote again from who John MacArthur quotes in his commentary, Dr. Henry M. Morris who writes “The earth’s crust, highly unstable since the great Flood, will be so disturbed by the impacting asteroids, the volcanic explosions, and the worldwide earthquakes, that great segments of it will actually begin to slip and slide over the earth’s deep plastic mantle.  Geophysicists for many years have been fascinated with the idea of ‘continental drift’ (although strong evidence has been accumulating against any such phenomenon occurring in the present age).  Several have published theories of a past naturalistic catastrophism involving what they call ‘the earth’s shifting crust.’  Some such phenomenon my actually be triggered under this judgment of the sixth seal, dwarfing the damage occasioned by the mighty earthquake of the past.” 

            Well we have looked at a lot of possibilities of how this sixth seal will happen and perhaps none of what we looked at will be the way that it does happen, but one thing for sure it will happen and another thing for sure it will bring great fear to those living on planet earth at this time.  So what is the best thing a person can do now?  Make sure that you get your ticket out of here before all of this happens.  How do you do that?  Receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord?  How do you do that?  First of all you must admit that you are a sinner, that you have offended God because of this sin, and then confess this to the Lord.  Then pray to the Lord saying something like “I know that I have offended you with my sinfulness which I confess to you at this time.  I truly believe that when Jesus Christ died on the cross that He died in my place and I want to receive His forgiveness and exchange my sin for His righteousness.”  2 Corinthians 5:21 says “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that the certainty of the Word of God shows me that all of these terrible things that perhaps are not too far off, that I will not have to go through them because God said in Revelation 3:10 “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love that Christ has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Samuel, Saul, and David.”

Today’s Bible question:  “The word ‘gerah,’ the smallest of the Hebrew weights, signifies what?”

Answer in our Next SD.

4/2/2015 9:33 AM

 

  

The Reason for Fear PT-2b (Rev. 6:12-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/1/2015 9:28 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  The Reason for Fear PT-2b

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  Revelation 6:12-14

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

            I was thinking last night about earthquakes and why they happen and so I began to think about when God created the earth and when it was all done He said that it was very good, so we can be sure that there would not have ever been an earthquake happen, but man sinned and that changed everything in all of the universe.  When we look at the days of creation we see that the Lord began with water and then the Holy Spirit hovered over the earth.  That is the same concept of a chicken setting on the next in order to have the baby chick be born.  The warmth of her body causes the fertilized egg to change into a baby chicken.  The Spirit of God hovering over the unmade earth caused the earth to begin to take shape.  It is believed that there was a canopy of water over the earth and that there was water inside the earth for when the flood came as seen in the seventh chapter of Genesis we read:  “11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. 12 The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.”   We see from verse eleven that the fountains of the great deep burst open and what I believe, and not me alone on this is that the water that burst forth from the earth had made a cushion inside the earth to make it more stable and since that is gone the earth is less stable and therefore it can be affected by earthquakes.  Also we read that the “floodgates of the sky were opened” and many believe that the canopy of water that was around the earth broke loose and the water from that came down upon the earth.  It is also believed by many that this canopy protected those on earth from harmful rays that we now have coming down from the sun and thus people do not live as long now as they did before the flood.  The main point I am making is about the earthquakes we now can experience and the main problem of all of this is sin, for that caused all of the problems we experience now as far as nature.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I can only praise the Lord for His wisdom, mercy, and grace for the way that He prepared the earth when He made it.  No it is not the same way it was when He created it, and it was because of sin that it is not the same way, but we still live on a beautiful earth in spite of the curse that is upon it and we also can be forgiven for our sins all because of God’s mercy and grace through Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection and one day live in the New Jerusalem which will never be effected by sin.  As we enter into the celebration of what Christ did on the cross for us take time to praise Him for His sacrifice that was done for all those who will call upon His name and ask for forgiveness.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love that Christ has for me on a daily basis.

Answer to our last Bible question:  “Joseph” (Genesis 41:33-46).

Today’s Bible question:  “The books of Samuel consist of closely related biographies for what three persons?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/1/2015 9:59 AM

"The Reason for Fear PT-2" (Revelation 6:12-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/31/2015 8:42 PM

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  The Reason for Fear PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 6:12-14

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

            In this second part of “The Reason for Fear,” we will begin to look at the different elements that are found in these verses and begin to comment on them.

            The first thing we will look at is that “there was a great earthquake.”  We can go back into history and read about many earthquakes that have literally killed millions of people, but the earthquake that John is writing about here will actually shake more than the earth.  John MacArthur in describing this writes:  “Seismos (earthquake) literally means ‘a shaking.’  In Matthew 8:24 it describes a great storm on the Sea of Galilee, and the Septuagint uses it in Joel 2:10 to describe the heavens trembling.” 

            God has used a shaking to get peoples attention in the past as in the case when the Law was given as seen in Exodus 19:18 where we read:  “Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.”  There have been other times too like when Paul and Silas were in the Philippian jail and God shook the jail so that all of the chains of the prisoners fell off.  He did this to get the attention of the jailer in order for Paul to present the gospel to him so that he and his whole family would be saved, and thus began the Philippian church.  God also used these shaking to judge people, for instance in the other book I am currently studying, the book of Ezekiel where he wrote “"In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel (38:19).”  As we look at reasons for fear then an earthquake is among the top reasons for people to be afraid.  The earthquake that John writes about here as a part of this sixth seal will be one that will bring great fear and probably much death and destruction upon the earth and it will even cause trouble in the sun and moon as we see in the second part of this verse which reads “the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair.”  Sackcloth was a rough material like burlap is something many people may not remember when feed came in burlap bags.  In Bible times it was used when a person was mourning or when they wanted to confess their sins and were greatly sadden about it.  In John’s description the sackcloth would have come from black goats.  John MacArthur quotes Dr. Henry M. Morris who explains what could cause this phenomenon:  “The great earthquake described here…for the first time in history is worldwide in scope.  Seismologists and geophysicists in recent years have learned a great deal about the structure of the earth and about the cause and nature of earthquakes.  The earth’s solid crust is traversed with a complex network of faults, with all resting upon a plastic mantle whose structure is still largely unknown.  Whether the crust consists of great moving plates is a current matter of controversy among geophysicists, so the ultimate cause of earthquakes is still not known.  In all likelihood, the entire complex of crustal instabilities is a remnant of the phenomena of the great Flood, especially the breakup of the fountains of the great deep.

            “In any case, the vast worldwide network of unstable earthquake belts around the world suddenly will begin to slip and fracture on a global basis and a gigantic earthquake will ensue.  This is evidently, and naturally, accompanied by tremendous volcanic eruptions, spewing vast quantities of dust and steam and gasses into the upper atmosphere.  It is probably these that will cause the sun to be darkened and the moon to appear blood-red.”  All we have to do is think about how the earthquake in Greenland cause so much trouble a few years ago causing planes to be rerouted coming from and to Europe to understand a small bit of what Dr. Morris is speaking about.

            We have looked before at what the prophet Joel has written about what will happen concerning the “Day of the Lord,”  “"The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes (2:31).”

            This SD is shorter than I would like it to be, but my wife and I are on vacation and I have driven 1100 + miles in the last two days and I am tired, but wanted to keep up with my SD’s on Revelation.

3/31/2015 9:29 PM

The Reason for Fear PT-1 (Rev. 6:12-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/30/2015 7:33 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  The Reason for Fear PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  Revelation 6:12-14

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

            I want to begin again with something that I wrote from an earlier SD on these verses which is dated May 13, 2005 “These next six verses describe the sixth seal being opened, and the results of that seal being opened.  The sixth seal is a tremendous earth quake that will affect all of the earth in one way or another.  It also affects the sun, moon and the stars as they will not shine like they use to, possibly because of all the added pollution on the earth as a result of this earthquake.  In verse 13 it speaks of stars falling from the sky, and this could be referring to meteorites or it could possibly be referring to rockets with nuclear bombs on them and appear to be stars coming out of the sky.  Whatever they are, they are a judgment from God.  God’s judgment is holy and just and because God is holy He has to judge sin, and for those who have not accepted the judgment of sin that was laid upon Jesus Christ at the cross they will one day have to face the wrath of God and the Lamb.”  You can see that when I wrote this I spoke of the possibility of some of these judgments coming from man, but controlled by God as a judgment none the less.  Mankind has the technology to destroy this earth and later on in the book of Revelation we actually see a statement from God about this in “Re 11:18 “And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth."”   The possibility is there for sure, but I don’t think that anyone can be dogmatic about this one way or the other.

            Now what we see in this sixth seal is unlike what we saw in the first five seals and that is that humans are involved in those seals, but this one involves God as He acts alone.  Now I know that this may sound like I am saying that it is impossible for man to be involved in these judgments, but that is not the case for even if man is involved by sending rockets with nuclear bombs on them it would still be a judgment from the Lord.

            As this seal is broken the world is in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation period, a period which is actually called “The Great Tribulation” by our Lord in Matthew 24:21 “"For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.”  Remember that in the middle of the Tribulation the Antichrist goes into the temple and performs the abomination of desolations which Daniel spoke of.  Now we will look at another verse from Matthew twenty-four as we have noted that chapter twenty-four is  what is called “The Olivet Discourse,” with Jesus speaking about the same things that are written in some of the judgments described in the book of Revelation.  “"But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken (Matt. 24:29).”  Let us also look at a similar passage from Luke’s gospel: “and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven (Luke 21:11).”  Remember Luke 21, and Mark 13 are parallel passages to Matthew 24.  More now from Luke “25  "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26  men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

            Joel is one of the OT prophets who speaks of the endtimes and he wrote in 2:1-2, 10 the following:  “1 Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the LORD is coming; Surely it is near, 2  A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations.  10 Before them the earth quakes, The heavens tremble, The sun and the moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness.”  It is amazing to me that we can see these prophecies written in the Old Testament and then spoken again in the New Testament.  Joel was not the only prophet who speaks of these things happening for Ezekiel 13:5-16 and Zephaniah 1:15 also write of this.

            We will continue with this in our next SD as we will break down thee verses from Revelation 6:12-14 at that time.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am so very thankful for the Word of God, and also the God of the Word.  It is wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit of God has put together the Bible using many different authors from different centuries and yet having it fit together in such a wonderful way.  Man could have never written the Bible without being led by the Spirit of God, for man would not have written the things that we see in the Word of God for mankind is to self-centered and would not have been able to tell the truth of his condition.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love of Christ today.  I ask the Lord to give my wife and I safety as we begin a trip of some 1300 miles to Key Largo Fl for a month of R & R.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Mount Carmen” (1 Kings 18:19).

Today’s Bible question:  “Whom did Pharaoh, king of Egypt, appoint to prepare for the famine?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/30/2015 8:09 AM

           

 

 

Introduction to the Sixth Seal (Rev. 6:12-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/29/2015 10:32 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  Introduction to the Sixth Seal

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 6:12-17

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they                                                                                                         said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"”

            I want to go over something that we have spoken about before, but needs to be done again today and that is “The Day of the Lord.”  The Day of the Lord is mentioned nineteen times in the Old Testament and four times in the New Testament.  What we are learning from Revelation chapter six on has to do with the Day of the Lord.  When it is mentioned in the Old Testament there were times when it is mentioned during a time when judgment was going to fall upon the nation of Israel, and so the prophet would use that current judgment to picture what would happen in the last days.  Psalm 7:11 says “God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day (NIV).”  While this is true “the Day of the Lord is an expression used to describe periods when God specially intervenes in human history for judgment (J. MacArthur).”  MacArthur goes on “It is a unique time when God’s power and holiness are unveiled, bringing terror and death to His enemies.  The prophets describe the Day of the Lord as ‘destruction from the Almighty’ (Isa. 13:6; Joel 1:15), a time of ‘fury and burning anger’ (Isa. 13:9), a ‘time of doom’ (Ezek. 30:3), ‘great and very awesome’ (Joel 2:11), and ‘darkness and not light’ (Amos 5:18; cf. v. 20).” 

            I want to focus in on the final eschatological judgments of the Day of the Lord which happen during the times in the Tribulation period because that is what we are looking at in the book of Revelation, however as stated earlier there were times when “Day of the Lord” events happened during the Old Testament times when judgment came upon Israel because of their sin against the Lord. 

            Joel 2:28-32 “28 "It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. 29 “Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30 “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. 31 “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 32 "And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the LORD has said, Even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.”

            Zechariah 14:1 “Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.”

            Malachi 4:1, 5 “1"For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch."   5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.”

            Acts 2:20 “20 ’THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME.”

            1 Thessalonians 5:2 “2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.”

            2 Thessalonians 2:2 “2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.”

            2 Peter 3:10 “10  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

            When we looked at the first five seal judgments we can say that these were preliminary judgment that lead up to the rest of the judgments that will follow which include the sixth and seventh seal judgments, and then the seven trumpet judgments and finally the seven bowl judgments.  MacArthur writes concerning this “That Day will unfold in two stages, first during the Tribulation (1 Thess. 5:2), and then at the end of the Millennium (2 Pet. 3:10).  Those two stages are separated by a thousand years.  It is noteworthy that Peter, as if to erase any questions about that separation, reminds the reader that ‘with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day (2 Pet. 3:8).’”

            Now when we studied the books of first and second Thessalonians we went over why Paul wrote so much to them about the Day of the Lord and the end times when the Lord Jesus would come in the clouds to receive His bride.  The Thessalonians had many questions, and for that I am glad because if they would have understood exactly what Paul had taught them when he was with them then we would not have had what he wrote to them in order to straighten up their views on the end times.  The return of Christ is mentioned in very chapter of both first and second Thessalonians.  The study we did on this was last year beginning on March 11, 2014 and then it finally concluded on 12-13-2014, but I was also looking at different Old Testament books during that time so it did not take all that long for the Thessalonians letters. 

            People living through the Tribulation Period will not realize exactly when the Day of the Lord will begin as is stated by both Paul and Peter for when the church is taken out at the rapture there will not be any believers at that time, but God will begin to save people during this time, but they will not have the knowledge right away to understand all that is happening.  When things begin to happen as far as the Day of the Lord beginning they will then understand what is going on at as we stated before when they begin to share this information is when they will begin to be killed for the cause of Christ.  There will be 144,000 Jewish witness during the end times along with the two witness which will come during the last half of the Tribulation period, and then there will be an angel flying in the heaven telling people about the gospel, so it seems that eventually people will get a crash course on the end times. 

            In this sixth seal one of the things that helps identify it is fear and as I was listening to John MacArthur’s sermon on this section we will be looking at he gave a list of things that people fear that came from the columnist Ann Landers.  I will quote this list as many may get a laugh when reading it.

             FEAR

 

If a person can't handle normal fear, we say that person has a phobia. By phobia we basically mean an abnormal response to a normal fear, or the invention of an abnormal and bizarre fear. A phobia is fear exaggerated. It is fear that disables a person. It is fear that is uncontrollable and unconquerable, it is fear that totally takes control of a person so that they cannot function normally. Such phobia leads to paranoia, panic attacks, and various kinds of deviant and anti-social behavior.

 

 When you look at people and examine what they're afraid of, it's quite amazing. Ann Landers, interestingly enough, through all the years accumulating her mail, has listed what people are afraid of. She's got a list of the things people fear most. She says, "First of all, there are very bizarre fears about which people have written me, such as the fear of falling into the toilet, the fear of certain colors, the fear of being buried alive, or the fear of calling someone by his given name. But the most common fears, according to my mail...she said...are the following: animals, bees, being alone, being stared at, blood, blushing, cancer, cats,

choking, corpses, crowds, darkness, death, deformity, demons, dirt, dogs, dreams, elevators, enclosed space, flying, germs, height, horses, illness, insanity,

insects, lightning, mice, nakedness, noise, pain, poverty, pregnancy, robbers, school, sexual intercourse, sleep, smothering, snakes, spiders, strangers, surgical operations, syphilis, thunder, travel, vomiting, work and worms."

 

            I hope you enjoy this list.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I know that it will be a fearful time during the Tribulation period, but as a believer I am trying to learn to only fear the Lord and not my circumstances around me.  I don’t always succeed.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the Lord of the Lord so that I will not fear the circumstances around me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego” (Daniel 3:17).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did Elijah contend with the prophets of Baal?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/29/2015 11:36 AM   

The Promise (Rev. 6:11)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/28/2015 8:47 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                         Focus:  The Promise

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Revelation 6:11

            Message of the verse:  “11  And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.”

            I wrote the following on May 12, 2005:  “It may seem from this verse that patience has to be exercised in heaven too.  This verse also speaks of these martyred believers receiving a white robe, which speaks of righteousness, and also means that they have a body in order to put this robe on.  The last part of this verse shows, like many other places in the Bible, that God has a plan and nothing will be able to stop this plan, and part of that plan is that there will be a number of believers who will die for the cause of Jesus Christ, and when that final number is complete then God’s plan will be complete and His wrath will be satisfied, and justice will be served by Him.”

            In Revelation 6:9-11 we have been looking at the prayers of the saints who have been transported to heaven because they have died for the cause of Christ.  There prayer is that God would bring about vengeance upon those who have been committing these crimes.  In today’s SD we will look at the promise that God gives to these saints.  I spoke of these saints has having a body, and I do believe that when a believer dies that they will receive a body, but not the type of body that they will receive at the rapture which will be like the glorified body that Christ now has.

            Now as for the gift that God gives to each of these believers it is a white robe and John MacArthur writes the following about it.  “The gift that was given to each of them by God as they arrived in heaven was a white robe (stole; a long robe flowing to the feet).”  Now we have learned earlier that this white robe symbolizes righteousness, eternal righteousness. 

            Next we see that God tells them to rest for a little while longer, and this certainly is not a rebuke from the Lord to them for being impatience for these saints are now perfect and cannot sin.  God wants them to trust Him and His plan to care for the judgment that the evil men on earth deserve and to just stop and enjoy heaven.  We know that it will not be too long before God does exercise judgment on these men.  In the tenth chapter of Revelation and verse six we read “there will be delay no longer,” so this must mean that the waiting of these saints is over.  God tells them that others will be killed for the cause of Christ and He had to wait for that to happen.   MacArthur writes “God sovereignty predetermined the exact number of those who would be killed.  The petitioners were told to enjoy heaven’s rest until that number had been reached.  Robert L. Thomas notes:  ‘The word to the souls under the altar gives them reassurance that God will eventually avenge their blood, but the time for the culmination of that vengeance has not yet arrived.  One feature that must yet transpire beforehand is the increase of their number through additional martyrdom.  The earth dwellers under the dawning leadership of the beast from the sea will take an even greater toll of human lives before Christ finally intervenes through His personal arrival back on earth.  Until then, the already martyred are told to rest and enjoy their state of blessedness already attained.’”

            Now as far as the “fellow servants and brethren,” they are two different classes of people.  The fellow servants may or may not die for the cause of Christ, but the brethren are the ones who will die for the cause of Christ. 

            The world today seems to forget the things that are right and wrong.  Our parents fought in WWII against a demon possessed Hitler who was trying to kill all of the Jews and thus what came out of it was the Jews were brought into their land and given a nation in May of 1948.  Now we see that our government is trying to distance themselves from the very people that our parents died to save.  Is it so hard to believe that we will go through the same type of thing that Hitler was trying to accomplish in the Tribulation period?

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  What I can learn from this is that God surely does answer prayers in His own time when He is ready, and that God has a plan and nothing will stop it.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and also to live in the love that the Lord has for me.  To better understand that love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The first day” (Luke 24:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace?’”

Answer in our next SD.

3/28/2015 9:19 AM

 

Petition From the Souls under the Altar (Rev. 6:10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/27/2015 11:36 AM

My Worship Time                                                Focus:  Petition From the Souls under the Altar

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 6:10

            Message of the verses:  “10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"”

            On May 11, 2005 I wrote the following in my Spiritual Diary about this verse:  “I am sure that this verse has given problems to many people throughout the ages as they have read it because some perhaps cannot understand why these martyred saints are calling for their own blood to be avenged.  As believers on this earth we are told to pray for those who are our enemies, and both Jesus Christ and Stephen have done this just before they died, but these believers are now in heaven and they, along with I suppose martyrs throughout the Church age, have been asking when will God avenge their deaths and when will God’s justice be given upon this earth to all those who have rejected Him.  It is in God’s character to judge sin because justice is part of His character.  There are many of the Psalms which cry out this same cry, and one day soon God will answer all of these prayers.”  I certainly cannot say that I have changed my mind about what I wrote in May of 2005.

            There are some who think that the fifth seal is martyrdom, but when we look at the purpose of these seals that Christ is opening they are judgments and martyrdom is not a judgment, so we have to conclude that this fifth seal depicts God’s wrath and God’s judgment upon those who are evil and who are killing the believers who are trying to tell the truth about Christ, and about what is going on during the Tribulation period.

            I have been thinking a lot about prayer in the last few months and have come to some conclusions about it that to me, are very important in my walk with the Lord.  Prayer is having God’s will be aligned with my will and that is an important thing to remember.  As we look at these saints who are now perfect because they are in heaven we see that what they are praying is in the will of God for they have no sinfulness about them, the flesh is not a part of them so they can pray with a pure heart which is unlike those of us who are believers still in our bodies here on earth. 

            Jesus prayed for those who had Him crucified, and Stephen did the same as seen in Acts 7:60, but there will come a time when the patience of God will come to an end and He will judge because that is also a part of His nature, and we are seeing that time described in the book of Revelation beginning with chapter six.

            John MacArthur writes the following about prayer:  “May Christians act as if prayer were a mere formality that has little effect.  Yet, amazingly, the prayers of the Tribulation martyrs will move God’s hand of judgment.  Jesus illustrated that same principle in the parable of the persistent widow and the unrighteous judge:  ‘Will not God being about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?  I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly’ (Luke. 18:7-8).  The prayers of the Tribulation martyrs will participate in activating the torments of the sixth and seventh seals along with the trumpet and bowl judgments which follow.

            “God’s hand of judgment will move in response to the martyrs because their prayers will be urgent, fervent, impassioned, and consistent with His purpose and will. Krazo (cried out) is a strong word that emphasizes the urgent need and denotes strong emotions (cf. Matt. 9:27; 14:26, 30; 15:22; 20:30-31; Mark 9:24).  The twenty-four elders and the angels loudly praised God (5:12), and the Tribulation martyrs will petition Him ‘with a loud voice.’  In keeping with their call for vengeance and justice, they address Him as the ‘Lord, holy and true. Lord’ does not translate kuios the common New Testament word for Lord, but the stronger term despotes (‘master,’ ‘ruler).  It speaks of God the Father’s might, power, majesty, and authority.”  I surely find the book of Revelation opening up more when I better understand some of the words that are given meaning to by John MacArthur. 

            I write about the attributes of God in my Spiritual Diaries because it is a good way to better understand God as we look at His different attributes.  Also by knowing His attributes one has a better idea of how to pray to Him about different things as seen here by the martyrs in this verse for they appeal to the holiness of God along with the truthfulness of God, the faithfulness of God and the justice and wrath of God.

            These martyrs have  question for God and that question is, as I stated in my May 11, 2005 Spiritual Diary, may be asked of God by all the martyrs, and that is how long will you wait before you avenge our blood and take action upon those evil men on the earth.  How long is a prayer that I am sure has been asked of God many times in the past, and will continue to be ask of God, probably every day.  One more thing I want to look at and that is the phrase “those who dwell on the earth,” as we have seen this phrase in 3:10 and will see it again in 8:13; 11:10; 13:8, 12; and 17:2 and 8. This phrase speaks of the ungodly.  MacArthur adds “As was the case with murdered Abel, the very ground cries out for their blood to be required at the hands o their killers.” 

            We are living in the last days of God’s grace upon this earth as we know it now, for once the Tribulation period begins it will signal that God is about to take back His universe, and He will do it with the series of judgments that are found in the book of Revelation as we are beginning to see.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord for the privilege of prayer, and for also teaching me more and more about it and how to better pray better.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the glorious love that Christ has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Titus” (2 Corinthians 2:13).

Today’s Bible question:  “On what day of the week did the women bring spices to Jesus’ tomb?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/27/2015 12:14 PM