No one able to break open the scroll and read it. Lion became a lamb, and could open it. Worship...Revelation Song: "Worthy is the lamb who was slain. Holy, Holy is He."
"Jesus stands at the door and knocks. When we open the door, worship happens. Worship centers, gathers, reveals, sings, and affirms. Worship is a meeting at the center so that our lives are centered in God and not in ourselves. In worship, everything is arranged around God...The last word in worship is Amen, or "Oh, Yes!" It's a word of affirmation that affirms us. God says yes to us. We say yes to God..." EP
Unsealing the Scrolls. 1st: white horse & victory garland. 2nd: red horse & taking peace from the earth and setting people against one another; 3rd: black horse & set of scales determining wages/justice; 4th: colorless horse & power to destroy a fourth of the earth by war, famine, disease and wild beasts; 5th: souls of the martyrs & white robes and told to wait; 6th seal: earthquake, sun turned black, bloody moon, stars falling out of the sky--affected everyone regardless of station in life.
"The great day of wrath has come. Who can stand it?" Back to chaos. No one can stand under this. No one except the angels. Angels stand as a model for us when the world falls apart. They still worship!
Four angels plus one. "Don't hurt the earth! Don't hurt the sea! Don't hurt a tree until I've sealed the servants of God on their foreheads." So what do this say to environmental devastation? Is harming the earth and the physical creation an act against God?
144,000 who were countable. And a huge crowd too large to count. All nations, all tribes, all races, all languages. Standing around the throne. The One on the throne will pitch his tent for them: no more hunger, no more thirst, no more scorching heat. The Lamb will shepherd them and bring them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every last tear from their eye.
"Who can stand in this world of evil? Followers of the lamb, of Jesus. The most frightening representations of evil (chapter 6) are set alongside the most extravagant exultations of praise (chapter 7). Perhaps praise is the greatest weapon we have in protecting ourselves agains the fear we naturally feel in the face of overwhelming evil. Just as God gives us a peace that passes understanding when we pray, perhaps he gives us a courage that passes all understanding as we praise."
7th seal. Silence in heaven for 1/2 hour. 7 trumpets, gold censor, incense for offering prayers. Smoke billows. Can you picture this? Censor filled with fire from the Altar and heaved to earth. Thunder, voices, lightning, earthquakes. Climax has been reached.
"The silence prepares the imagination to receive an incredible truth. While conflicts raged between good and evil, prayers went up from devout bands of 1st century Christians all over the Roman Empire. They were under heavy persecution, with no weapons or votes, little money and no prestige. They stayed together and strong because they prayed. Out of the silence of prayer, action developed. The angel mixed the prayers with incense, cleansing them of impurities, and combined them with fire, God's Spirit, from the altar. They he threw it down to earth. The prayers returned as a reversed thunder, with incalculable effects. Our world is shaken daily by prayer, and so is your world and mine." EP
Seven angel trumpet blasts. First: hail and fire with blood dumped on earth-a third of the trees and all grass burned up. 2nd: huge mountain on fire thrown into the sea, a third of water life died and a third of the ships sank. 3rd: star fell from heaven and wiped out 1/3 of the rivers and 1/3 of the springs-wormwood-1/3 of the water turned bitter and people died from it. 4th: 1/3 of the sun, moon and stars were blacked out, both day and night.
Eagle: "Doom! Doom! Doom to everyone left on earth! There are three more angels to blow their trumpets. Doom is on the way!"
So if I were reading the apocalypse into modern day so that I could mark the signs and do my check offs to the end times, I could easily draw the water crisis in our world to the 3rd trumpet. And, I could count it to God's sign of the times and do nothing about it. But how does that square with loving God (and potentially doing no harm to creation as noted above) or to loving neighbor as poisoned water makes people die? Scorched earth from global warming (if it is real), napalm, mining backlash...but I can "make" all of these occurrences "from God" if I don't want to assume any responsibility. And if "from God," who am I to stop it or do anything to reverse or change or slow? Wars have been and are being fought over these sorts of things. Are they of God?
Whatever the chaos or fear, do I trust God so much that I can still praise and worship God? In the midst of death, fear, suffering, estrangement, persecution, alienation, torture, more...can I still give God praise?
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