SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/12/2015
10:10 AM
My Worship Time
Focus:
John’s Unusual Assignment
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
10:8-11
Message of the
verses: “8 Then the voice which I
heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, "Go, take
the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on
the land." 9 So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little
book. And he said to me, "Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach
bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey." 10 I took the little
book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey;
and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. 11 And they said to me,
"You must prophesy
again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings."”
I have mentioned many times in my Spiritual Diaries that
it was prophecy that the Lord used to draw me to Himself so that I could hear
the truth of the gospel and be saved and prophecy is a very important part of
the Word of God. It is a very exciting
part of the Word of God that people can get caught up in trying to fit some of
the pieces of the prophetic word into what is happening in their world. I have even heard stories of those who had
read the “Left Behind” series stating that they really wanted to go through the
Tribulation Period because of the adventure that it would bring. Christianity is rather unique because of all
of the prophecies that are in the Word of God although the Muslin “religion”
also has eschatology in it as they look for what they call the “Twelfth Iman,”
who when you read about him seems to fit into the role of Antichrist in
Christian eschatology. My point in
writing all of this is that those who are believers have a responsibility in
telling others about what the Lord is someday going to bring upon the people of
planet earth, things that are spelled out in the book of Revelation. Peter writes the following on this subject: “9
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient
toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 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. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way,
what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the
day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the
elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are
looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” Peter is saying that since you know all of
the things that will happen to this earth and the people in it what kind of
believers should you be. Well I think
that those who know these things should be telling others about them. Prophecy is sweet and also bitter just like
the book that John is told to eat. It is
sweet to know that the Lord is going to take all of His people to heaven in the
rapture so that they will miss the awfulness of the Tribulation Period, but it
is bitter for those who will be here going through those awful judgments and as
far as John is concerned he has to continue to tell others of the coming
judgments that are written in the scroll that was opened in chapter six for
there will be seven more judgments to come.
We can rejoice that the Lord will one day take planet earth back for Himself
and for His Son, but we can also morn over the fact that we know people that if
the rapture came today would be left on this earth to face the awfulness of the
Tribulation period.
John MacArthur writes the following in conclusion of his
commentary for chapter eleven. In
keeping with his bittersweet experience, John was told ‘You must prophesy again
concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.’ ‘Again’ indicates John was being commissioned
a second time (cf. 1:19) to write the rest of the prophecies God was going to
give him. What he was about to learn
would be more devastation than anything yet revealed—and more glorious. He was to be faithful to his duty to record
all the truth he had seen and would soon see.
The prophecies John would receive would relate to everyone (summed up in
the four people groups of 5:9 and 7:9 everywhere. So John is to warn of all the bitter
judgments coming in the seventh trumpet and the seven bowls. As an exile on Patmos (1:9) he had no
opportunity to preach to all nations, but he was to write the prophecies and
distribute them, so as to warn all people of the bitterness of judgment to come,
and of death and hell. Sinners everywhere
may know because John recorded these prophecies that, while judgment is
presently restrained, a future day is coming when the seventh angel will should
his trumpet and sin’s dominion will be broken, the freedom of Satan and his
demons will come to an end, godless men will be judged, and believers will be
glorified. This chapter represents an
interlude of hope tinged with bitterness that reminds all Christians of their
evangelistic responsibilities to warn the world of that day.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It is my desire to
tell others of the things that will soon take place, soon is the word that is
used in the book of Revelation about when these things will take place and we
surely are closer to these events than when Revelation was penned around 96 AD.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind and strength, and to better understand and live in the love of Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Seventeen” Genesis 37:2).
Today’s Bible
question: “Through what do we have
redemption?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/12/2015 10:46 AM
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