Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Good Morning 

 

Back from the ATL.

 

Just an early heads up -- we should be finishing this study by the end of the month or so.  Where do we go from here?  Any ideas -- either a suggestion of a specific book or study, or just a general recommendation of a particular kind or type of study would be appreciated.

 

Today's Reading:    Revelation 19:1-10b, Barclay 189-199

 

-- moving on to chapter 19.  

 

-- just to recap Barclay's summary of what happens in chapter 19  -- the first section (today's reading) is rejoicing about the destruction of Babylon/Rome.  Then there is the description of white horse and it's rider, who is Faithful and True.  After that, there is great assembling of the hostile powers against Christ, the final battle, the beast and the false prophet is tossed into the lake of fire, and the slaughter (Barclay's word) of all the rest.

 

-- The first 10 verses of this chapter offer a description of the rejoicing in Heaven over the destruction of Babylon, the victory of God over the sin leadership of Rome. Barclay points out a couple of interesting things about this passage.

 

-- One is that the word hallelujah surprisingly appears only four times in the entire Bible, and all four of those are in this chapter of Revelation, in this section of celebration of God and his power and works.

 

-- Second is the idea that the concept of God he Almighty appears only 10 times in the Bible, and nine of those are in Revelation, including this chapter.

 

-- In a sense, the use of the words hallelujah and almighty for the first time in Revelation do represent, to me, the idea of final victory -- that the events and outcomes that John describes are so unique, and so final, so complete, so monumental, that he needed to use language that had not been used before to describe the events and God's power.

 

-- As we move towards the final resolution of Revelation, we begin to hear of the idea of the marriage between Christ and his Church, which is a way of expressing the closeness and faithfulness of Christ and the his church to each other.  More about this is to come in later chapters.

 

 

Today's Scripture 

 

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Joshua 24:15

Today's prayer requests:    Update from Kelley Thaxton:

 

Just a quick update for you guys:

Don had his hip surgery yesterday, which went perfect.  He was moved to a step-down room today, room 9312.  However, the girls still cannot see him.  Only visitors 12 and up can go in.  We can go in any time between 9am and 9pm, but Sierra and McKinley still haven’t seen their daddy. 

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.

Kelley

Today's class member prayer: 

April Walker      

 

Jay