Monday, March 30, 2015

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 or 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

           

 

 

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