Friday, July 28, 2006

Good Morning 

 

-- hope to see everyone on Sunday.

 

-- some interesting reading -- there is a writer, a Jewish guy, who is doing a project where he is reading the Bible and blogging about it.  The link is here: http://www.slate.com/id/2141050/    He has some interesting takes on the Bible, because he has not been a very observant Jew -- he hasn't studied the Bible much in his life, hasn't gone to temple, etc for most of his adult life.  But he felt drawn to the Bible, and he is reading straight through it, and has some interesting takes on the stories there so far.  He has about 10 entries so far, and he is currently in the book of Numbers in the Old Testament.   His first blog entry is here:  http://www.slate.com/id/2141712/entry/2141714/ 

 

-- we are at the end of our study with this reading.  I want to thank all of you for sticking with such a long study -- seven months! -- of probably the most challenging book in the Bible.

 

Today's Reading:    Revelation 22: 18-21   Barclay 259-262 

 

 -- we end our study of Revelation.

 

-- the commentary in my Bible has an interesting thought -- there are parallels between Genesis and Revelation.  Genesis recounts the creation of the earth and heavens, so does Revelation - of the new earth and the new heaven.   Man lives in Paradise with God at the beginning of Genesis, and lives in Paradise with God at the end of the Revelation.  The tree of life is present in both places, though in Genesis it was off-limits, but in Revelation it's fruit is free to all to eat you live in the new city.  If you take these kinds of connections, and then add them to the overall message of Revelation -- which is the idea that no matter how bad things will get on earth, in the end God is in control and evil will be defeated -- then you begin to see how necessary Revelation is for the Bible.  Many people didn't want to include it for the violence and vengence, but it completes the circle of the story of man.

 

-- taking this a step further, we go back to the original statement about Revelation, which is that it is a book of hope, even though most people think of it as a scary book, or a book of despair.  But knowing what we know now, I think we see that hope in Revelation.  It is interesting, in this light, to think about Genesis again -- we don't really have a negative opinion of Genesis like we do Revelation, but look at the book -- it recounts how, at the beginning of time that Paradise was lost, that man lost his original connection to God, that Satan was able to derail man's relationship with God for thousands of years, resulting in thousands of years of evil, of heartache, of pain.  Shouldn't Genesis be considered a scary book, one of despair, far more than Revelation?

 

-- there is, at the end of Revelation, a warning about adding or taking away from the words written by John.  If there is a warning that has more universally ignored than that one, then I don't know it.  How much of the Revelation that we thought we knew beginning the study are actually amplifications or assumptions added over the years by any number of people, and that have now passed into the culture?  Take a look at these Wikipedia entries about the Rapture   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture or Armageddon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armageddon, the mark of the beast http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_of_the_Beast to see how many divergent opinions, etc have been expressed about these topics. Also, think about how much of Revelation is dismissed as unimportant, such as the letters to the seven churches.

 

-- I think that speaks to the main thing we've all achieved with this study -- we've read the whole book of Revelation -- we took seven months and studied every word, and have read commentary about it and discussed it.  This allows us to do part of what we are called to do as Christians -- to be witnesses to the word, to help others with their faith.  Revelation and end times conversations are all around us -- how many references to the end times have come up as a result of the latest escalation of violence in Lebanon?  We have an opportunity to chime in on those conversations with some understanding and knowledge, and maybe even having the opportunity to share the idea of Revelation as a book of hope, rather than a book of fear. 

 

Today's Scripture 

 

 Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace.  And the God of love and peace will be with you

 

 2 Corinthians 13:11 

Today's prayer requests:      Melanie Tubbs, friend of Michelle Ray

 

 Melanie is a friend of Michelle's who has a serious problem with her foot, and needs to have it amputated, but they are having a terrible time getting her epidural to "take" so she can have the surgery.  We need to pray for her strength -physically, emotionally, and spiritually both for her and her family.  

Today's class member prayer:   

 

Elizabeth Barrett      

  

Jay 

Re: Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Hey guys-

Please pray for the family and friends of Kirk Tuck, especially his wife Melissa.  Kirk was a football player at UAB when I played softball.  He lived in the apartment above us.  He died yesterday after a year long battle with leukemia- he was only 27.