Mark 9:33-37
What were you discussing on the road? Which one of us is the greatest. Whoever embraces one of these little ones embraces me, and even more, embraces God who sent me. Lord, help me keep my focus on you and off of me and my petty quarrels, even if they are only internal to me.
Matthew 4:12-17
Arrest of John the Baptist. Jesus picks up where John left off: "Change your life. God's kingdom is here."
Matthew 5:14-16
"You are here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this...on a lamp stand. Shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up to God..." Need to keep that last part in mind, especially as I prepare messages and things.
Isaiah 9:1-3
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows--light! Sunbursts of light!"
May we be lightbearers, even in the spirit of Romans 13, awake to what God is doing in and among us.
1 Chronicles 5-6
The family of Reuben. And Gad. And Levi. David's worship leaders.
From Gburg daily:
Micah 7:1-20
Wow. V. 1-6 could apply to these times...But I'm not giving up. I'm going to wait and see what God will do. God will listen to me, and God will make things right. Down but not out. Dark, but God is my light. I can take God's punishing rage--I know God is on my side. ...You (God) don't nurse your anger and don't stay angry long, for mercy is your specialty. That's what you love most. And compassion is on its way to us. You'll stamp out our wrongdoing. You'll sink our sins to the bottom of the ocean. You'll continue to show us the compassion you showed Abraham. Micah's name means, "Who is like the Lord?" Those like the Lord will be full of mercy, not anger; compassionate, not condemning; forgiving sin to the point of forgetfulness. No known gods of that, or any other day, were/are like that. How great is our God!
Psalm 30:1-12
I give you all the credit, God--you got me out of that mess...I yelled for help and you put me together...you gave me another chance at life when I was down & out. Sing your hearts out to God! Thank God to his face. He gets angry once in a while, but across a lifetime, there is only love.
When I thought I had done it and could keep doing it from myself, and I took my eye off of God, God looked the other way and I fell apart. I called out, and you came, despite my fallen pride and self-centeredness. You changed my lament into dancing, took off my mourning band and clothed me with wildflowers. I can't keep quiet about God. I can't thank God enough.
A person praying joy, the result of something God is doing or has done. Joy is what we experience when God takes over our lives, when our self-sufficiency gives out and God's all-sufficiency takes over. The experience of joy is derivative. It doesn't come from us; it comes to us. It isn't something we do; it's something God does...so we give God all the credit.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Advent 1
Looking at Romans 13:8-14 for this week, and how it flows and forms into the week's worship theme of Hope...that next year, things will be different. For those who have been hunting for a "real" job for well over a year, for those who dream of the day when they can go to the doctor and not also go a step closer to bankruptcy, for those who await pathology reports, diagnosis and treatment, for those who fear daily the bullies in workplace and school, for those who are caught in the sandwich generation, raising children and caring for elderly parents, for those who have lost a significant relationship and see no "up" sign in sight, for those whose earnings regularly run out before the end of the month, for those who wonder what they'll feed their children tonight, for those who wonder how many gunshots will ring through their neighborhood tonight, or which loved one will come down with cholera...hope that next year, things will be different.
Love is the word for a relationship between people. Christian love is the kind of love in which I'm concerned for others and do what needs to be done to make their lives complete. The Greek word is agape. It is giving-love. It's the love that the Bible is concerned with when it tells us to "love others." This is the love Paul uses as the key to making our ethical decisions. If we put this love in the driver's seat, we'll be able to make decisions that will produce a Christian life that's pleasing to God. We see this new love in Jesus. By looking at him, we can find out just how love shapes ethical decisions. Jesus, it would seem, was oblivious to rules and regulations in his decision making. His question was always, "How can I act so that this person becomes the person God wants him to be?" Eugene Peterson
Run up the huge debt of love you owe one another. Complete what the law has said all along. Don't lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. Is it possible to be oblivious to God if we are living by the love ethic? I would doubt it. If we are living "in love", chances are we are awake to what God is doing. I would like to think that is so. Don't squander in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get with it! Dress yourselves in Christ (which would naturally be love), and be up and about!
So what's that have to do with Christmas, and the anticipation of the Advent season? Am I loving my daughter if I simply indulge her with all of her "must-haves" on her Christmas list? How am I preparing her to love others and receive love from others if it's so tied to material things? How do I deepen her holiday awareness? How do we focus on love made flesh, by becoming love in the flesh during this waiting time? We will find ways. We will make time. We will be changed.
The 18 year old in the video. She was 14 when she began. How do we inspire children of God, both young and old, to reach out and make a difference? I've got to start at home, in me, in my home. What needs to change so that God can move through me? Critical spirit, be gone! And be gone again...help me to see the good, all of it, long before I see the bad, long before I judge and become critical. Help me to believe the best, so that I and others might become our best. Help me love others into a new creation, even as I am being newly created day by day.
All for now...
Love is the word for a relationship between people. Christian love is the kind of love in which I'm concerned for others and do what needs to be done to make their lives complete. The Greek word is agape. It is giving-love. It's the love that the Bible is concerned with when it tells us to "love others." This is the love Paul uses as the key to making our ethical decisions. If we put this love in the driver's seat, we'll be able to make decisions that will produce a Christian life that's pleasing to God. We see this new love in Jesus. By looking at him, we can find out just how love shapes ethical decisions. Jesus, it would seem, was oblivious to rules and regulations in his decision making. His question was always, "How can I act so that this person becomes the person God wants him to be?" Eugene Peterson
Run up the huge debt of love you owe one another. Complete what the law has said all along. Don't lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. Is it possible to be oblivious to God if we are living by the love ethic? I would doubt it. If we are living "in love", chances are we are awake to what God is doing. I would like to think that is so. Don't squander in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get with it! Dress yourselves in Christ (which would naturally be love), and be up and about!
So what's that have to do with Christmas, and the anticipation of the Advent season? Am I loving my daughter if I simply indulge her with all of her "must-haves" on her Christmas list? How am I preparing her to love others and receive love from others if it's so tied to material things? How do I deepen her holiday awareness? How do we focus on love made flesh, by becoming love in the flesh during this waiting time? We will find ways. We will make time. We will be changed.
The 18 year old in the video. She was 14 when she began. How do we inspire children of God, both young and old, to reach out and make a difference? I've got to start at home, in me, in my home. What needs to change so that God can move through me? Critical spirit, be gone! And be gone again...help me to see the good, all of it, long before I see the bad, long before I judge and become critical. Help me to believe the best, so that I and others might become our best. Help me love others into a new creation, even as I am being newly created day by day.
All for now...
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Day 63: Revelation 20-22
The End of the New Testament Challenge. Bittersweet. Still hungry. May have to go back through the readings and do the re-reading I talked about along the way.
Angel coming from heaven. Chained up the Satan and sealed it tight. No more trouble out of him. Surely we aren't there yet!
Those who'd been faithful to Christ, not worshiping the beast, lived and reigned with Christ the next 1000 years. The rest of the dead did not. The first resurrection of the dead. Most blessed, most holy. No second death for them. When the 1000 years is over, Satan goes to work again, working against God. God will win, as God always does. Satan will join the Beast and False Prophet (as if there's only one?!).
Judgment. Nothing could stand. Nothing. No one. The book of life. Judged by the way they had lived. Second death. Problem of evil is resolved as the three beasts (the anti-Trinity?) are thrown into the Lake of Fire. In the end, every form of evil is banished from history, finally and forever.
Everything new. New-created. Coming down, out of heaven, to earth. "God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people. He's their God. He'll wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good-tears gone, crying gone, pain gone--all the first order of things gone. I'm making everything new...A to Z. I give freely to the thirsty. I'll be God to them; they'll be sons and daughters to me. For the rest: feckless and faithless, degenerates and murderers, sex peddlers and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, it's Lake Fire and Brimstone. Second death!"
"Holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God, resplendent in the bright glory of God." Pristine and majestic. Orderly and precise. Gem-laden, treasure-full. Gold streets. No sign of a temple. The Lord God is the temple. No lamps, as God's glory shines. Open gates all the time. Nothing dirty or defiled will get into the City, and no one who defiles or deceives it. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life shall get in.
It's a new beginning filled with promise. "In our end is our beginning..." from Hymn of Promise.
In Christ we are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). Do we believe it, in the same way. Does God's light illuminate us from the inside out? Does God order our lives perfectly? Do we allow God to do so? Are we willing to participate in the new creation? From what part of being newly created do we pull back or resist? Formed by God. Illumined by God. Sustained by God.
Water of Life River flowing down the middle of the street. Tree of life on each side of the river, producing 12 kinds of fruit. 12 tribes of Israel, 12 months. Leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations. Never again will anything be cursed. The Throne of God and of the Lamb is at the center. His servants will offer God service, worshiping. God is all the light anyone needs.
John reaffirms the accuracy of his visions, and his blessed assurance that in the end of all of the struggles and battles of life, God wins. We honor God with our worship of God and only God (not angels, prophets, or earthly rulers). God. Worship God! Don't forget and don't hide it.
"Come! Whoever hears, echo, 'Come!' Is anyone thirsty? Come! All who will, come and drink, Drink freely of the Water of Life!"
"If you add to the words of this prophecy, God will add to your life the disasters written in this book; if you subtract from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will subtract your part from the Tree of Life and the Holy City that are written in this book.
Come, Master Jesus. Come!
The grace of the Master Jesus be with all of you. Oh, Yes!
EP: "As Christians, we pray, 'Yes! Come, Master Jesus!' And when he comes, there's always an element of surprise in the often unexpected ways he comes, which puts a keen edge on our expectation. No longer do we face the future with anxiety about chronology but with eagerness about his coming. We look to the future not as some death-row prisoner counting down the days to the end but rather as eager children...full of hope...waiting for Christmas morning."
May our hope be found in the sure and certain hope that is ours in Jesus Christ.
Angel coming from heaven. Chained up the Satan and sealed it tight. No more trouble out of him. Surely we aren't there yet!
Those who'd been faithful to Christ, not worshiping the beast, lived and reigned with Christ the next 1000 years. The rest of the dead did not. The first resurrection of the dead. Most blessed, most holy. No second death for them. When the 1000 years is over, Satan goes to work again, working against God. God will win, as God always does. Satan will join the Beast and False Prophet (as if there's only one?!).
Judgment. Nothing could stand. Nothing. No one. The book of life. Judged by the way they had lived. Second death. Problem of evil is resolved as the three beasts (the anti-Trinity?) are thrown into the Lake of Fire. In the end, every form of evil is banished from history, finally and forever.
Everything new. New-created. Coming down, out of heaven, to earth. "God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people. He's their God. He'll wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good-tears gone, crying gone, pain gone--all the first order of things gone. I'm making everything new...A to Z. I give freely to the thirsty. I'll be God to them; they'll be sons and daughters to me. For the rest: feckless and faithless, degenerates and murderers, sex peddlers and sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, it's Lake Fire and Brimstone. Second death!"
"Holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God, resplendent in the bright glory of God." Pristine and majestic. Orderly and precise. Gem-laden, treasure-full. Gold streets. No sign of a temple. The Lord God is the temple. No lamps, as God's glory shines. Open gates all the time. Nothing dirty or defiled will get into the City, and no one who defiles or deceives it. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life shall get in.
It's a new beginning filled with promise. "In our end is our beginning..." from Hymn of Promise.
In Christ we are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). Do we believe it, in the same way. Does God's light illuminate us from the inside out? Does God order our lives perfectly? Do we allow God to do so? Are we willing to participate in the new creation? From what part of being newly created do we pull back or resist? Formed by God. Illumined by God. Sustained by God.
Water of Life River flowing down the middle of the street. Tree of life on each side of the river, producing 12 kinds of fruit. 12 tribes of Israel, 12 months. Leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations. Never again will anything be cursed. The Throne of God and of the Lamb is at the center. His servants will offer God service, worshiping. God is all the light anyone needs.
John reaffirms the accuracy of his visions, and his blessed assurance that in the end of all of the struggles and battles of life, God wins. We honor God with our worship of God and only God (not angels, prophets, or earthly rulers). God. Worship God! Don't forget and don't hide it.
"Come! Whoever hears, echo, 'Come!' Is anyone thirsty? Come! All who will, come and drink, Drink freely of the Water of Life!"
"If you add to the words of this prophecy, God will add to your life the disasters written in this book; if you subtract from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will subtract your part from the Tree of Life and the Holy City that are written in this book.
Come, Master Jesus. Come!
The grace of the Master Jesus be with all of you. Oh, Yes!
EP: "As Christians, we pray, 'Yes! Come, Master Jesus!' And when he comes, there's always an element of surprise in the often unexpected ways he comes, which puts a keen edge on our expectation. No longer do we face the future with anxiety about chronology but with eagerness about his coming. We look to the future not as some death-row prisoner counting down the days to the end but rather as eager children...full of hope...waiting for Christmas morning."
May our hope be found in the sure and certain hope that is ours in Jesus Christ.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Day 62: Revelation 17-19
Hopefully you noticed that we had chapter 16 down twice.
Great Babylon, Mother of Whores and abominations of the earth. Woman was drunk on the blood of God's holy people, drunk on the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
Physical and spiritual affections have gone astray. Whore represents this image, slanted more toward the spiritual. John has nothing to say about sexual immorality. He's talking all spiritual. His pastoral responsibility is to prevent Christians from abandoning the arduous life of worship in favor of something that appears just as spiritual but looks a lot better and easier. He uses the image of the Great Whore to open their eyes to the differences between the worship of the Lamb and this other worship, which isn't worship at all but keeps us from true worship. Throughout biblical history, worship has always been vulnerable to infidelity. We so quickly go after other gods. We're so easily seduced into idolatry of one kind or another. And that's as much a temptation today as it was back then.
Doom to the city of darkness. Angel floods the earth with brightness.
Interesting read in the shadows of the 2008 economic meltdown.
Great whore is contrast to virgin bride. Judgment is prayed for...passionately. First time hallelujah shows up in Revelation. It protects our gratitude and relief for judgment from degenerating into gloating over the judged. Four hallelujahs snap us out of the temptation to gloat and bring us back to worship, where we are humble and adoring in the presence of God's glory. Hallelujah 1 celebrates the truth and righteousness of God's judgments of the Great Whore-every temptation to abandon God, every trap to betray Christ, every ambush to our endurance, every seduction to our faith. 2 hallelujah: breathed gratitude as the billowing smoke of the whore's incineration disperses in the air. 3rd hallelujah: Amen, Yes, by 24 elders and four creatures gathered around the throne. 4th hallelujah: thundering congregational response to the call to worship that's issued from the throne and called everyone to praise God. It announces the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb. All of human history leads to this crescendo in heaven. All of our history leads there.
The sound of hallelujahs.
White horse and its rider. Faithful and true. Judges and makes war in pure righteousness. Word of God. King of Kings, Lord of Lords. The birds are invited in to feast on the flesh of the kings and captains, champions, horses and riders. The Beast and the False Prophet were thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone. The rest were killed by the sword of the one on the horse, the sword that comes from his mouth. Significance of mouth-listen?
John's salvation vision is a meal and a war. The power of the eucharistic meal is to keep us involved in the essentials of salvation, that our salvation was made available to us by the breaking of Christ's body and the shedding of his blood. The second element is war. The image of Bridegroom married to his Bride is expanded into the Lamb Christ providing himself as the Eucharistic meal. Paradox with the warrior Christ riding into the great war, Armageddon. Salvation as a marriage feast, and as an aggressive battle and decisive defeat of evil. Salvation is neither by itself; it is both the embrace of love and the assault on evil, in polar tension, each defined by the other, each feeding on each other. Both poles must be kept in tension to keep our spiritual lives balanced. If marriage isn't balanced with war, we may be romanticizing the spiritual life. If the war metaphor isn't balanced with the marriage metaphor, we're in danger of depersonalizing the spiritual life. We're a bride embroiled in a battle against the enemies of her beloved groom. Both images are necessary for balance.
Great Babylon, Mother of Whores and abominations of the earth. Woman was drunk on the blood of God's holy people, drunk on the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
Physical and spiritual affections have gone astray. Whore represents this image, slanted more toward the spiritual. John has nothing to say about sexual immorality. He's talking all spiritual. His pastoral responsibility is to prevent Christians from abandoning the arduous life of worship in favor of something that appears just as spiritual but looks a lot better and easier. He uses the image of the Great Whore to open their eyes to the differences between the worship of the Lamb and this other worship, which isn't worship at all but keeps us from true worship. Throughout biblical history, worship has always been vulnerable to infidelity. We so quickly go after other gods. We're so easily seduced into idolatry of one kind or another. And that's as much a temptation today as it was back then.
Doom to the city of darkness. Angel floods the earth with brightness.
Interesting read in the shadows of the 2008 economic meltdown.
Great whore is contrast to virgin bride. Judgment is prayed for...passionately. First time hallelujah shows up in Revelation. It protects our gratitude and relief for judgment from degenerating into gloating over the judged. Four hallelujahs snap us out of the temptation to gloat and bring us back to worship, where we are humble and adoring in the presence of God's glory. Hallelujah 1 celebrates the truth and righteousness of God's judgments of the Great Whore-every temptation to abandon God, every trap to betray Christ, every ambush to our endurance, every seduction to our faith. 2 hallelujah: breathed gratitude as the billowing smoke of the whore's incineration disperses in the air. 3rd hallelujah: Amen, Yes, by 24 elders and four creatures gathered around the throne. 4th hallelujah: thundering congregational response to the call to worship that's issued from the throne and called everyone to praise God. It announces the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb. All of human history leads to this crescendo in heaven. All of our history leads there.
The sound of hallelujahs.
White horse and its rider. Faithful and true. Judges and makes war in pure righteousness. Word of God. King of Kings, Lord of Lords. The birds are invited in to feast on the flesh of the kings and captains, champions, horses and riders. The Beast and the False Prophet were thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone. The rest were killed by the sword of the one on the horse, the sword that comes from his mouth. Significance of mouth-listen?
John's salvation vision is a meal and a war. The power of the eucharistic meal is to keep us involved in the essentials of salvation, that our salvation was made available to us by the breaking of Christ's body and the shedding of his blood. The second element is war. The image of Bridegroom married to his Bride is expanded into the Lamb Christ providing himself as the Eucharistic meal. Paradox with the warrior Christ riding into the great war, Armageddon. Salvation as a marriage feast, and as an aggressive battle and decisive defeat of evil. Salvation is neither by itself; it is both the embrace of love and the assault on evil, in polar tension, each defined by the other, each feeding on each other. Both poles must be kept in tension to keep our spiritual lives balanced. If marriage isn't balanced with war, we may be romanticizing the spiritual life. If the war metaphor isn't balanced with the marriage metaphor, we're in danger of depersonalizing the spiritual life. We're a bride embroiled in a battle against the enemies of her beloved groom. Both images are necessary for balance.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Day 61: Revelation 13-16
The Beast from the Sea
Dragon on land and Beast from the sea. Dragon turned over its power to the Beast. People worshiped the dragon, then gave their power/worship to the beast. Beast: loud mouth, boastful, blasphemous against God/Christ/Church...held absolute sway over all tribes and peoples, tongues and races.
"Everyone on earth whose name was not written from the world's foundation in the slaughtered Lamb's Book of Life will worship the Beast." Can't really just pluck this phrase out of context, but if one would, how would this effect thoughts of the possibility of salvation for all people, for all creation? It suggests there's an "in" list, which means there must be an "out" list, regardless of what we do or believe, as it's "written from the world's foundation." May have to look back at that one...
God's holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground.
Beast from under ground. Pointed to the first beast as the object of worship.
EP: "If the devil's design is to separate our behavior and our belief from the rule of God, politics will be a field where he deploys his troops. The beasts from the sea and the earth are images John uses to show how the satanic will covertly work in the areas of government and religion. With the sea beast, the Dragon will frighten us into disobedience ('to make war on God's holy people and conquer them; to deceive them into illusion). To intimidate and to deceive are countered by John's words to his parishoners. 'God's holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground.' We may lose our lives by violence in this world, but death is not defeat. Death is not the worst thing that can be done to us. Exiles and martyrs were active in their suffering, witnessing the passion of Christ, seeing endurance and faith as aggressive forces in the battle that rages between God and the devil."
Anyone not worshiping the Beast would be killed. Without the mark, it was impossible to buy or sell anything. 666.
"John expects the deceit of the land beast to be penetrated by the hard, critical thinking of the Christian mind. The land beast is, more than anything else, religious. It has a Christlike quality; it's like a lamb but it's a parody, not a derivation of Christ. There's no part of life in which deceit is more prevalent than in religion. How do we protect ourselves from organized deceit? John says: 'Use your heads. Figure out what's going on. Most of the conspicuous religion at any time derives from the land beast. Expose these religious pretensions. They have nothing to do with God. It's a human number, a human manipulation, not divine mystery. It's religion that makes a show, that vaunts itself, that takes our eyes off the poor and suffering and holy Christ. 666 is a triple failure to be a 777, the three-times perfect, whole, divine number. The number is a riddle, but it's not rocket science. John wants us to use our heads and figure it out. For the Christian's greatest weapon against deceit is discernment." EP on the end of chapter 13.
A Perfect Offering. Only the 144,000 learned to sing the song. The first fruits, pure, perfect offering.
Angel voices: Fear God and give him glory! His hour of judgment has come. Worship the Maker of Heaven and earth, salt sea and fresh water! 2nd and 3rd angels proclaim judgment. "Blessed are those who die in the Master from now on; how blessed to die that way!"
Harvest time. Harvest earth's vineyard. The grapes are bursting with ripeness. The giant winepress of God's wrath. A river of blood flowed out for 200 miles.
EP: "Paranatural power we're not used to, these satanic forces. The forces of salvation are always at work behind the scenes on our behalf. The beast visions penetrated the hoax of evil; the salvation visions reveal the support system that backs up the life of endurance and discernment. 3 Salvation assisting vision: Lamb leading worship, three angels preaching sermons in midheaven, Son of Man harvesting the fields. While we're doing our best to worship God and not the powers of world, to understand our faith and not be misled by the Devil's religious flimflam, and to cultivate a life of holiness in a weed-filled society, we're being helped to do each task.
"Three activities by which we survive and flourish politically: engaging in worship, listening to the proclaimed Word, and practicing holy living."
Song of Moses. Angels carried the disasters, not the other way around.
"Seven congregations barraged by violence from without and infiltrated by lies from within, John can think of nothing better than to call them to worship. His insistence on putting everything they're experiencing in the context of worship isn't the work of someone who can't bear the assaults of life and seeks an escape. No spiritual leader has been as in touch with the realities of living in a difficult world as John was. His recurrent representations of worship aren't pious, escapist fictions; they are theological convictions. The conviction is that God's action, not the world's action, is what we want to be involved in. The world isn't the context for dealing with God. God is the context for dealing with the world. And so, in a turbulent world where we're constantly getting disoriented, worship is the way we get reoriented." EP
Pouring out the seven disasters. Graphic. Can see it, smell it, touch it, maybe even taste it. Foul demons crawling out of the mouths of Dragon, Beast False Prophet. Frog-demons gathered the kings together at the place called Armageddon. Back to chaos.
"Consequences poured out on earth. Get them all the time, but we don't see. Aspect of judgment, not unlike the plagues of Egypt. Moses' task (and every spiritual leader's is) was to shape a worshiping people before the Lord. 'Free my people so that they can hold a festival for God in the wilderness.' Moses' task was to lead his people in worship. Pharoah's sin was that he prevented them. The judgment plagues are visited over this issue and this issue alone. The greatest evil that people of faith face from the outside is the obstruction of worship. The greatest evil that they face from the inside is the subversion of worship. This is what we have most to fear."
Dragon on land and Beast from the sea. Dragon turned over its power to the Beast. People worshiped the dragon, then gave their power/worship to the beast. Beast: loud mouth, boastful, blasphemous against God/Christ/Church...held absolute sway over all tribes and peoples, tongues and races.
"Everyone on earth whose name was not written from the world's foundation in the slaughtered Lamb's Book of Life will worship the Beast." Can't really just pluck this phrase out of context, but if one would, how would this effect thoughts of the possibility of salvation for all people, for all creation? It suggests there's an "in" list, which means there must be an "out" list, regardless of what we do or believe, as it's "written from the world's foundation." May have to look back at that one...
God's holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground.
Beast from under ground. Pointed to the first beast as the object of worship.
EP: "If the devil's design is to separate our behavior and our belief from the rule of God, politics will be a field where he deploys his troops. The beasts from the sea and the earth are images John uses to show how the satanic will covertly work in the areas of government and religion. With the sea beast, the Dragon will frighten us into disobedience ('to make war on God's holy people and conquer them; to deceive them into illusion). To intimidate and to deceive are countered by John's words to his parishoners. 'God's holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground.' We may lose our lives by violence in this world, but death is not defeat. Death is not the worst thing that can be done to us. Exiles and martyrs were active in their suffering, witnessing the passion of Christ, seeing endurance and faith as aggressive forces in the battle that rages between God and the devil."
Anyone not worshiping the Beast would be killed. Without the mark, it was impossible to buy or sell anything. 666.
"John expects the deceit of the land beast to be penetrated by the hard, critical thinking of the Christian mind. The land beast is, more than anything else, religious. It has a Christlike quality; it's like a lamb but it's a parody, not a derivation of Christ. There's no part of life in which deceit is more prevalent than in religion. How do we protect ourselves from organized deceit? John says: 'Use your heads. Figure out what's going on. Most of the conspicuous religion at any time derives from the land beast. Expose these religious pretensions. They have nothing to do with God. It's a human number, a human manipulation, not divine mystery. It's religion that makes a show, that vaunts itself, that takes our eyes off the poor and suffering and holy Christ. 666 is a triple failure to be a 777, the three-times perfect, whole, divine number. The number is a riddle, but it's not rocket science. John wants us to use our heads and figure it out. For the Christian's greatest weapon against deceit is discernment." EP on the end of chapter 13.
A Perfect Offering. Only the 144,000 learned to sing the song. The first fruits, pure, perfect offering.
Angel voices: Fear God and give him glory! His hour of judgment has come. Worship the Maker of Heaven and earth, salt sea and fresh water! 2nd and 3rd angels proclaim judgment. "Blessed are those who die in the Master from now on; how blessed to die that way!"
Harvest time. Harvest earth's vineyard. The grapes are bursting with ripeness. The giant winepress of God's wrath. A river of blood flowed out for 200 miles.
EP: "Paranatural power we're not used to, these satanic forces. The forces of salvation are always at work behind the scenes on our behalf. The beast visions penetrated the hoax of evil; the salvation visions reveal the support system that backs up the life of endurance and discernment. 3 Salvation assisting vision: Lamb leading worship, three angels preaching sermons in midheaven, Son of Man harvesting the fields. While we're doing our best to worship God and not the powers of world, to understand our faith and not be misled by the Devil's religious flimflam, and to cultivate a life of holiness in a weed-filled society, we're being helped to do each task.
"Three activities by which we survive and flourish politically: engaging in worship, listening to the proclaimed Word, and practicing holy living."
Song of Moses. Angels carried the disasters, not the other way around.
"Seven congregations barraged by violence from without and infiltrated by lies from within, John can think of nothing better than to call them to worship. His insistence on putting everything they're experiencing in the context of worship isn't the work of someone who can't bear the assaults of life and seeks an escape. No spiritual leader has been as in touch with the realities of living in a difficult world as John was. His recurrent representations of worship aren't pious, escapist fictions; they are theological convictions. The conviction is that God's action, not the world's action, is what we want to be involved in. The world isn't the context for dealing with God. God is the context for dealing with the world. And so, in a turbulent world where we're constantly getting disoriented, worship is the way we get reoriented." EP
Pouring out the seven disasters. Graphic. Can see it, smell it, touch it, maybe even taste it. Foul demons crawling out of the mouths of Dragon, Beast False Prophet. Frog-demons gathered the kings together at the place called Armageddon. Back to chaos.
"Consequences poured out on earth. Get them all the time, but we don't see. Aspect of judgment, not unlike the plagues of Egypt. Moses' task (and every spiritual leader's is) was to shape a worshiping people before the Lord. 'Free my people so that they can hold a festival for God in the wilderness.' Moses' task was to lead his people in worship. Pharoah's sin was that he prevented them. The judgment plagues are visited over this issue and this issue alone. The greatest evil that people of faith face from the outside is the obstruction of worship. The greatest evil that they face from the inside is the subversion of worship. This is what we have most to fear."
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Day 60: Revelation 9-12
5th angel trumpet. Star fell from heaven, falling into the abyss. Locust/scorpians crawl out to sting any not marked with seal of God. Don't kill them; torture them, the human race, for five months. Apollyon-Destroyer. From Joel's prophecy. A life refusing the way of repentance; repentance saves us from the terrors of sin.
6th angel trumpet. Four angels kill 1/3 of the human race. Today that would be over 2 billion people. If those not marked by the seal, number would be fewer. How many fewer? Who knows. Fire, smoke, brimstone. Those who remained "went on their merry way of life, didn't quit worshiping demons, didn't quit centering lives around lumps of gold and silver and brass and wood and stone. No change of heart. Kept on in murderous, occult, promiscuous and theiving ways.
Hardly seems just, that 1/3 would be killed and "that" would be left?! Destruction is not complete, not total.
7th angel trumpet. Rainbow over his head. 7 thunders called back. Time's up when this trumpet blows. All plans of God would be completed. "Give me the book." "Take it. Eat it. It will taste sweet like honey but will sour your stomach."
"Go and prophesy again over many peoples and nations and languages and kings."
Eating a book means you take it in. You assimilate and absorb it into the tissues of your life. Witnesses first become what they say before they say it. John is commanded to assimilate the Word of God so that when he speaks, it will be an essential part of him. Every witness experiences the polarity of sweetness and bitterness. It's sweet when received from God; it's bitter when rejected by others. Biblical witnesses are warned of this tension.
Two Witnesses. 42 months of prophecy, with super powers from these two. Beast of Abyss will rise, fight, and kill them, leaving them lying in the street. The Spirit of God will enter them after 3 1/2 days, and they'll rise again. Moses and Elijah. Giver of Law and Giver of Prophecy. They point to Christ. Must have both law and prophecy for complete witness.
Last trumpet sounds. Doors of heaven fly open. "The kingdom of the world is now, the Kingdom of our God and his Messiah. He will rule forever and ever!"
The Woman, her son and the dragon. Woman. Baby. Dragon poised to eat the baby. Flashback of Rosemary's Baby in my mind, a movie that gave me nightmares and shakes, even to today. Son born and given safety before God on his throne. Woman escaped for 1260 days. War in heaven. Good vs. evil. Angels vs. dragon. Dragon/devil/satan thrown out with all his angels, to earth, to chase the woman and seek to corrupt the children who keep God's commands and hold firm to the witness of Jesus.
"Kingdom" insists on a gospel that brings everything and everyone under the rule of God. Two temptations pull on Christian community. First is to retain the political dimensions of the gospel and to take up the unusual political means of force. The other is to give up the political and have a nice little fellowship, abandoning the world of government, economics, culture and society in favor of saving a few souls.
"We overestimate the politics of earthly governments and underestimate the politics of heaven. John's imagination is a rush of adrenaline to those of us with little faith. And so infused, we're fearless, unimpressed by the bluster of the Dragon. The child survives. Salvation is assured. And God's rule is intact. No matter how daunting the Dragon, the child always survives." EP
6th angel trumpet. Four angels kill 1/3 of the human race. Today that would be over 2 billion people. If those not marked by the seal, number would be fewer. How many fewer? Who knows. Fire, smoke, brimstone. Those who remained "went on their merry way of life, didn't quit worshiping demons, didn't quit centering lives around lumps of gold and silver and brass and wood and stone. No change of heart. Kept on in murderous, occult, promiscuous and theiving ways.
Hardly seems just, that 1/3 would be killed and "that" would be left?! Destruction is not complete, not total.
7th angel trumpet. Rainbow over his head. 7 thunders called back. Time's up when this trumpet blows. All plans of God would be completed. "Give me the book." "Take it. Eat it. It will taste sweet like honey but will sour your stomach."
"Go and prophesy again over many peoples and nations and languages and kings."
Eating a book means you take it in. You assimilate and absorb it into the tissues of your life. Witnesses first become what they say before they say it. John is commanded to assimilate the Word of God so that when he speaks, it will be an essential part of him. Every witness experiences the polarity of sweetness and bitterness. It's sweet when received from God; it's bitter when rejected by others. Biblical witnesses are warned of this tension.
Two Witnesses. 42 months of prophecy, with super powers from these two. Beast of Abyss will rise, fight, and kill them, leaving them lying in the street. The Spirit of God will enter them after 3 1/2 days, and they'll rise again. Moses and Elijah. Giver of Law and Giver of Prophecy. They point to Christ. Must have both law and prophecy for complete witness.
Last trumpet sounds. Doors of heaven fly open. "The kingdom of the world is now, the Kingdom of our God and his Messiah. He will rule forever and ever!"
The Woman, her son and the dragon. Woman. Baby. Dragon poised to eat the baby. Flashback of Rosemary's Baby in my mind, a movie that gave me nightmares and shakes, even to today. Son born and given safety before God on his throne. Woman escaped for 1260 days. War in heaven. Good vs. evil. Angels vs. dragon. Dragon/devil/satan thrown out with all his angels, to earth, to chase the woman and seek to corrupt the children who keep God's commands and hold firm to the witness of Jesus.
"Kingdom" insists on a gospel that brings everything and everyone under the rule of God. Two temptations pull on Christian community. First is to retain the political dimensions of the gospel and to take up the unusual political means of force. The other is to give up the political and have a nice little fellowship, abandoning the world of government, economics, culture and society in favor of saving a few souls.
"We overestimate the politics of earthly governments and underestimate the politics of heaven. John's imagination is a rush of adrenaline to those of us with little faith. And so infused, we're fearless, unimpressed by the bluster of the Dragon. The child survives. Salvation is assured. And God's rule is intact. No matter how daunting the Dragon, the child always survives." EP
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Day 59: Revelation 5-8
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?
"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?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)