Thursday, June 29, 2006

Good Morning  

 

Don't forget this Sunday, July 2 at 6:30P is the annual church July 4th cookout and fireworks. 

 

Today's Reading:    Revelation 16:17-21 , Barclay 151-152

 

-- short section today before tomorrow's long section to begin Chapter 17.

 

-- These verses cover the pouring out of the final bowl, and their is massive destruction from an earthquake -- cities over the world are destroyed and the great city -- Rome? Bablylon? New York? -- is leveled and broken into three pieces, island disappeared and mountains were leveled. And that doesn't include the 100 pound hailstones falling from the sky.

 

-- Thinking about this earthquake, I thought about the great earthquake from a couple of years ago in Indonesia -- think how much destruction that caused, and yet it didn't effect the entire world, mostly Southeast Asia.  In comparison, that earthquake was small compared to what is to come.

 

-- Couple of things I noticed in this section -- first, is the pronouncement from the throne "It is done" when the seventh bowl is poured out -- it reminds me of Jesus's last words on the cross -- "It is finished" (John 19:30).  While I might be reading too much into it, there is, to me, a sense of relief in both of those words -- Christ says them after struggling and suffering on the cross, and God says them at the end of seven terrible plagues released upon the earth --upon his creation.

 

-- The other thing to notice is that after the earthquake, the people who survive still curse God from bringing these hardships/plagues upon them, instead of repenting and submitting to God's authority. As Barclay points out in an earlier section, it isn't as if they don't know who is causing these plagues -- the people of the earth know exactly who is the cause, and their response is to curse and attack the name of God.  Sort of clueless, in my mind.

 

Today's Scripture 

 

 Wealth is worthlesss in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. 

 

 Proverbs 11:4 

 

Today's prayer requests:     

 

Today's class member prayer: 

Kelley Thaxton      

 

Jay