Friday, June 9, 2006

Good Morning   

 

The big news of the day is Christie is going to be induced today -- she's already at the hospital

 

Just fyi, it's a pretty good chance that I won't be there this Sunday morning.  This is a stretch where the next four Sunday's are iffy for me. but we'll see how it works out.

 

 Today's Reading:    Revelation 14:4b-5   , Barclay 122-123

 

-- this short section further describes the 144,000 who are with the Lamb (Christ)

 

-- It is interesting to me that, in describing these 144,000 and how they came to deserve to be in the company of the Christ, that being truthful is the highest praise that John can give them, and to describe why they are worthy of their position.  The simple act of being truthful is something that is not really valued that much in our society.  If we were to make the case why a person is a good person who is worthy of a position in the church, we would probably not go to truthfulness as the first and best reason -- we'd probably mention that their faithfulness in attendance, or their lack of vices, or their willingness to give of their time or money.  But here, in the most holy of holy situations, the most select position in all of heaven, truthfulness is lifted up as the first and best of all virtues.

 

-- For Sunday, based on this week's lessons/readings, I think that there are two or three interesting discussion points. 

 

-- Early this week, we had all of the 666 splash.  What do you think the hoopla about that says about our society -- did you takeaway that people are not really scared at all of the end times and the devil, and just thought it was silly superstition?  Do you think that all of the 666 talk brought people around to discussing what it was all about and what it might mean for them?  What do you think it says about 666 when you have movies with promotional campaigns built around it, or when some people actively seek to have their child born on 6/6/06, and then name their child Damien? (Follow this link: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_objectid=17188458%26method=full%26siteid=94762-name_page.html) Do you think people are taking the devil too lightly, or is 666 overblown as something to be serioius about.  Do you think that 666 is the most recognizable/remembered single piece of information in the Bible?  Is it in the Top Ten, Top 5?

 

-- how high is truthfulness on the list of must-have Christian virtues?  Barclay's commentary brings out some examples of how truthfulness is celebrated in the Bible.  But in your walk, is truthfulness one of the first things that you strive for in living out your faith?

 

-- so, in these few verses, we have a little different scene than we have been reading about in Revelation.  We start next week with three angels, and then to the seven bowls of wrath from God.

 

Today's Scripture   

 

 Jesus did many other things as well.  If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. 

 John 21:25  

 

 Today's prayer requests:       Christie and Andrew Peebles

 

As mentioned, Christie is at the hospital today and they were going to induce labor at 6A.  Need to be prayer that everything goes well for them. 

Today's class member prayer: 

April Walker

 

Jay 

Thursday, June 8, 2006

Good Morning  

 

Today's Reading:    Revelation 14:2:4a , Barclay 118-122 (two sections)

 

-- two very different sections from  Barclay today.

 

-- one thing I will note -- that in the normal reading of Revelation, without a study guide, you would normally just gloss over this passage as your read to find out what else happens. Readers have just come off a couple of chapters with beasts and marks of the beast and you want to know what else happens. I know that is true in my case, but I don't really ever remember reading any of this.

 

-- the first passage from today, Barclays does a very good job in making us pay attention to the fact of how John describes the voice of God.  Think about that -- the voice of God, in heaven, how majestic and powerful and melodic that must sound.  John really makes a point of trying to find the words to write that down.

 

-- also in this passage is the idea about the new song that these elect of God learn, and how only they could learn that song.  An interesting take of the priviledge afforded to those who are God's chosen people, that not only would they get to praise God, but would get to praise him with a song that only they could learn.

 

-- the second passage is a really, really tough one, in that it just flies in the face of everything that we think we know and believe.  We have talked off and on through this study as to the number 144,000, and whether it was a literal number or a symbolic number (and generally believing that it was a symbolic number, and that hopefully we would be included "in that number" when and if the time came for that during our lifetime.

 

-- now we find out, that apparently that this 144,000 is all male (which Barclay didn't really address that conclusion at all) and that they were virgins.  There is a train of thought that that statement is symbolic, and that it refers to spiritual purity and faithfulness.  But to me, it just seems too plain spoken and straightforward.  Barclay works around different approaches, and really comes to the conclusion that we should set it aside -- that either John wrote it, but it is simply so much at odds with the rest of the New Testament that we need to say that it isn't correct, or that it was just some random note that was put down by an early scribe, and then was incorrectly copied into later copies of the book of Revelation.

 

-- I may be old-fashioned on this, but I just don't believe that God would be so haphazard about his word, his book, that he would allow (1) the original writers to mess up and write something wrong or (2) allow a major typo to permanently creep into the text.   My take is that we just haven't thought about it enough to discern what God meant when he had John write this.  I think that might be because Revelation scholars want, just like we do, to get to the good parts -- the plagues, the locusts and all of the other elements that make Revelation, Revelation.  But I just don't think we can do what Barclay is doing, which is to look at a passage in the Bible and simply decide, on our own, that it is wrong and should be ignored.

 

-- For what its worth, in my Bible, the NIV version, the passage reads that "These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure."  It doesn't really mention virginity, but purity.  It could be that the passage is talking about sexual faithfulness, not sexual abstinance.  I have a hard time buying the symbolism about spiritual faithfulness and purity -- it just is too straightforward.  And while throughout the Bible we sort of make references to 'man' and 'men' more gender - inclusive, in this particular instance, it is a little more difficult to say that John meant to include men and women in this passage.

 

-- So, what's your take?

 

Today's Scripture   

 

As he who called you in holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct.

1 Peter 1:15 

 

 Today's prayer requests:      Saundra Aaron

Valerie's brother's mother-in-law continues to go through treatment for cancer.  Need to remember her and her family in her struggles

Today's class member prayer: 

Brigette Severance 

 

Jay 

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Good Morning  

 

Well, we survived 6/6/06.  Whether anything happened on that date that started the countdown to the end times we just don't know.   Which is exactly how much we knew on Monday.

 

Today's Reading:    Revelation 14:1, Barclay 116 - 118

 

-- On to Chapter 14.

 

-- In the first part of this chapter, things lighten up for a moment, as they do in this first verse.

 

-- I'm stunned that Barclay doesn't give us any insight as to where or what Mt. Sion is (not that it is not Mt. Zion - a quick read can make you think that it is a Z instead of a S)  Did some research online -- Christian tradition says that Mt. Sion is the hill in Jersusalem where the Last Supper took place, as did the Jesus's appearance to the disciples after his cruxifiction, and where the Holy Spirit appeared on Pentecost.  In other words, this is where the upper room was located.

 

-- In this verse the 144,000 reappear with Christ, standing in triumph in Jersusalem (Mt. Sion).  They are marked with the seal of God on their forehead.

 

-- We can't tell yet how this fits into the timeline, but this may or may not be in chronological order or not, or this may represent a break in time.  Barclay sets up this section as being John's "next vision".   As it stands, we have just come out of Chapter 13, the two beasts have risen, they have been given a period of time to rule, and they have been placing their mark on their believers.  Again, a point that I find very interesting is the idea that both God and Satan are marking their followers with a seal/a mark, essentially to protect them -- not from the other, but from the wrath/destruction that they are going to bring on.  In other words, God marks his folllowers to protect them from the wrath/plagues that he was sending to the earth, and Satan was going to attack/persecute all of those who did not have the mark of the beast.

 

Today's Scripture   

 

 Be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.

 

Luke 12:35-36

Today's prayer requests:      Brad's grandmother 

From Brad on this past Monday:

My grandmother, Doris Adair, who is in the final stages of her fight with alzheimers, has been heavily medicated and asleep since Wednesday.  She has not had anything to eat or drink since Wednesday either.  This waiting has been tough, especially on my mother, because the nurses originally said she only had 24-48 hours left on Wed.  I will keep you updated on this.

Today's class member prayer: 

Christie Peebles 

 

Jay 

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Good Morning  

 

 The big day is here. Interested to see what happens.  One interesting note -- we had a woman at our office who was due this week as well, and they induced labor yesterday -- she had said that the hospital maternity area was really crowded over the weekend and on Monday, as a lot of women wanted their doctors to induce labor early so that they wouldn't have their baby born on 6/6/06. 

 

It is also election day, so don't forget to vote.

 

Today's Reading:    Revelation 13:18 , Barclay 113-116

 

-- in the spirit of God working out all things, I don't think it is an accident or coincidence that we are reading this verse on this day.  No big sigificance to that, other than I believe that it is just God's way of showing that he is paying attention to what we are doing in this study.  We started this back at the first of the year, and with all the weekend's and travel days that I've missed, to have us end up with this verse on this date is just too coincidental to me.

 

-- With all the hoopla about 666, today's Barclay is a bit anticlimatic.  He runs through several possible meanings to 666, but in general he lands on the idea that it refers to Nero -- his name adds up to 666 (if you spell it Neron, which is how you spell it in Latin)  Even more telling is that some ancient manuscripts have the number of the beast as 616, which is the number of Nero's name without the N.

 

-- That said, if you look at Barclay's various alternative's for the 666, note that he is using different values for different words -- for instance, in some of his examples E = 5, in the Nero example E = 6.  Same thing for R -- for one name it equals 100, for Nero, it equals 500.  So there apparently is not a standard code for this letters, so the Nero answer is built on an assumption of what the numerical values of the letters are.

 

-- Note that one of the alternative explanations of 666 is that it represents man, since in the ancient world, the number 6 is "man's number" --  an imperfect number -- one less than 7, which is the perfect number in their system of numerology.

 

-- So,  if we connect with the explanation that 666 refers to Nero, then what do we have to look forward to?  As Barclay notes, the legend of the times was that Nero was going to return from the dead, and as one of the most evil men to have lived, he certainly was worthy of the title of Antichrist.

 

-- The other thing I would note is that the scriptures say that the number of the beast is a man's number.  There is a little contradiction between Barclay's call that the beast is the Roman Empire, and then for the number of the beast to be that of a man, and to be referring to a specific man -- Nero. 

Today's Scripture   

 Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.  Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

 

1 Peter 3:8-9 

Today's prayer requests:      Brad's grandmother 

From Brad:

My grandmother, Doris Adair, who is in the final stages of her fight with alzheimers, has been heavily medicated and asleep since Wednesday.  She has not had anything to eat or drink since Wednesday either.  This waiting has been tough, especially on my mother, because the nurses originally said she only had 24-48 hours left on Wed.  I will keep you updated on this.

Today's class member prayer: 

Krystle Hatton 

 

Jay 

RE: Monday, June 5, 2006

Please keep Dan Page's family in your prayers. Dan passed away Sunday morning in Auburn. He was my and Brad's Finance professor.

Thanks,

Ron

Monday, June 5, 2006

Good Morning  

 

Aren't we just all over this Revelation and apocalypse talk in the media that has been stirred up by 6/6/06 date?

 

Couple of web sites that have been noted in the latest press:

 

www.raptureready.com

 

http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/666.htm  -- some fun stuff at the top -- more serious academic stuff at the bottom of the page.

 

Today's Reading:    Revelation 13:11-17, Barclay 111-113 (two sections, stop at The Number of the Beast -- we'll cover that section on -- how odd -- on 6/6/06)

 

-- Continuing on with Barclay's approach that this second beast represents the vast governmental infrastructure of the Roman Empire.

 

-- some interesting thoughts about this passage from the commentary from my NIV bible.

 

-- one is the fact that the first beast came from the sea, while the second beast came from the earth -- just an interesting tidbit.  The second beast is later identified as the false prophet, and in a sense, he is a counterpart of the Holy Spirit. 

 

-- The miracles that the second beast performs are somewhat of a reminder of the miracles that Pharoah's priests performed to mock and mimic Moses's miracles, in that they were miracles intended to deceive.  I guess that the warning here for us is that miracles alone should not lead us, we need to see the whole picture.

 

-- The mark of the Beast that everyone will need to have is a parallel to the seal that God places on his believers to protect them from his wrath.  In a sense, Satan is marking his people/his believers so that he can protect them (so to speak) from the persecution is going to inflict on God's people.

 

-- again, consistent with Barclay's take on this section, citizens during the time of the Roman Empire received a mark to acknowledge their worship of Caesar, so this is entirely consistent with his take on this section.

 

Today's Scripture   

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith..

Ephesians 3:16-17a

Today's prayer requests:     Our bosses

Need to pray for those who lead us at work -- the managers, owners, etc. that we work for.  We need to pray that they lead in a manner that is consistent with our faith, and that they do the right things for the right reasons

Today's class member prayer: 

Michelle Ray 

 

Jay