SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/20/2015
9:44 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Storm
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
8:5)
Message of the
verses: “5 Then the angel took the
censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and
there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an
earthquake.”
Now as we look at what happens it probably surprised John
to see that the same angel that had just offered prayers up by offering incense
up as the prayers of the saints suddenly takes the same censer and fills it
with fire and throws it to the earth where there is a great thunder storm and
then an earthquake. The first thing I
want to address is whether or not this was a part of the seventh seal, or part
of the first trumpet or neither one. I
have always been taught that the seventh seal was the beginning of the first
trumpet and then the seventh trumpet was what brought on the first bowl
judgment so my answer is that it is neither, but perhaps this was the answer to
the prayers of the people under the altar who had been praying for revenge on
those who had killed them and many other believers. The silence is over the prayers are over and
now comes the answer of judgment from God and this will not be the end of the
judgments as we will see in our continued study of this eighth chapter of
Revelation.
John MacArthur writes about the peals of thunder and the
sounds and flashes of lightning as these “are associated with the awesome
majesty of God’s glorious throne in 4:5; 11:19; 16:18 (cf. Ex. 19:16-19).” So I
would say that it is safe to assume that this is no ordinary thunderstorm. Now as far as the earthquake we have no
details as to where it was or who it but it could be as strong as the one seen
in the sixth seal as the judgments seem to be getting worse.
Now we must look at the sad part of what we are reading
about and that is that many of the people on earth who according to what we
read in chapter six realize that these judgments are coming from the Lord and
they will do nothing about confessing the fact that they are a sinner and
repent and be saved. The 144,000 Jewish
evangelists are at work, the judgments are at work what come from God, there
will be an angel preaching from the heavens, and then also as we see later
there will be two witnesses who will preach the gospel, and yet people will
continue to love their darkness and not come to the glorious light as we see in
the following verses: “19 "This is the judgment, that the Light
has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for
their deeds were evil. 20 “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does
not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
When Jesus came the first time and gave many proofs that
he is indeed the Messiah, the promised One from God who would die on the cross
and make salvation possible for all who come to Him in repentance, and yet
people turned their backs on Him then and are still doing the same now and what
will the result be “26 For if we go on
sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer
remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a
terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME
THE ADVERSARIES (Heb. 10:26-27).”
The offer of salvation is here now and when a person accepts
that offer at this time they will miss all of the horrible things that we have
and are about to study that will soon take place on planet earth. The Rapture of the church can happen at any
moment and once it happens those who have rejected the gospel, even if they
finally realize that it was the truth will have to go through the Tribulation
Period and only one out of four people who begin the Tribulation will end up
alive after it is over.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: One of the things that I see in this section
is prayer being answered, and even though it is seen in judgment the prayers
were offered sincerely and God answered them. Prayer is something that gives us a direct
contact with the Lord and I want to take better advantage of it. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter five that
we are to pray without ceasing and Warren Wiersbe’s comment on that passage is
that we have to keep the phone off the hook.
I want to do a better job at that.
My Steps of Faith for today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to better understand the love Christ has for me and to
live in that love, and also to keep the phone off the hook.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Ahab” (1 Kings 22:30).
Today’s Bible
question: “Where did Elijah go to be fed
by a widow woman?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/20/2015 10:29 AM
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