Thursday, March 30, 2006

Good Morning

 

-- Don't forget -- We are going to have a Sunday School Class meal on Monday, April 3, at 6P at the home of Ron and Michelle Ray.  All you need to bring is a dessert and your soft drinks.  We just need to let Michelle know whose coming -- email her at mray@vulc.com by today to let her know, and to get directions.

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 6:15-17; Pages 18-20 in Barclay, stop at "Rescue and Reward"

 

-- continuing with the effects of the opening of the sixth seal. This is a passage that should start moving Brad's Fear Meter up a bit.

 

-- as Barclay notes, this passage is one that continues John's reference to the language and images from the Old Testament and other Jewish scriptures of the end times.  As on some other things/images, I think that we have a pretty good of way of imagining what this vision looks like because of our exposure to movies/TV shows.  The images that came to me were from War of the Worlds last year, when people of every level were fleeing to wherever they could to hide, powerless before the aliens.  There are two big exceptions to this comparison though:

 

-- one is that in War of the Worlds, the people were trying to flee at least to the places where the aliens were not at.   There were some safe places here and there.   In this scene from Revelation -- where can you go to flee from God?

 

-- secondly, one of the things that sort of gave hope to the humans in War of the Worlds was the basic human struggle to overcome an adversary, to find a way to fight and win, regardless of how hopeless it seems.  However, who thinks that they can fight God and win?

 

-- So my take on this comparison is that the refugees in War of the Worlds had far, far more hope than those who are around during the opening of the sixth seal.  And given how desperate and utterly hopeless the people were in War of the Worlds, it is hard to imagine a situation even more hopeless and fearful.

 

Today's Scripture

 

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all

Titus 2:11

Today's prayer requests:   John Ciza, co-worker with Ron Ray

Please pray for John Ciza.  He works with me on the Trading Floor.  The paramedics took him to hospital on Wednesday with dizziness, numbness and chest pain.  I’m not sure yet if it is serious or not.

Ron

Today's class member prayer:

Michelle Ray

Jay