Tag: Revelation

Posted on

The Time For Faith

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 2  Samuel 7 Listen: (4:26) Read: Revelation 16 Listen: (3:17)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: 2  Samuel 8-9 Listen: (4:51) Read:  Revelation 17 Listen: (3:19)
Read: 2  Samuel 10 Listen (3:19) Read: Revelation 18 Listen: (4:48)

Scripture Focus: Revelation 16.10-15

10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in agony 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done. 12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. 13 Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty. 15 “Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

Reflection: The Time For Faith

By John Tillman

Revelation’s bowls of wrath are comparable to the plagues of Egypt.

Moses targeted plagues at the Egyptian rulers, economy, and gods. The angels target bowls of wrath at the empire of the beast, its economy, and the beast’s worshipers.

Egypt’s people and leaders had the opportunity to repent with each plague. Some did. They joined Israelite families and left Egypt with them. Some encouraged Pharaoh to give in long before he did. Others, including Pharaoh, hardened their hearts, refusing to submit to God despite demonstrations of his power. The bowls of God’s wrath will have the same effect. People will know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that God is real, powerful, and righteous, but will still refuse to repent.

Many sincerely make this claim: If God proved he existed, I’d believe in him. They want indisputable proof. Some might say an audible voice would do it. For some, an appearance of Jesus, a miracle, clouds spelling out a message, or a “feeling” in their heart. Then, they claim, they’d believe, submit, and call him “Lord.”

But would they, though?

Many people who see evidence still refuse to believe. The guards and religious leaders saw the empty tomb and knew what happened, yet they not only refused to believe, they manufactured lies to prevent others from believing. (Matthew 28.1-15) Festus heard the evidence of Paul’s changed life and knew about Jesus because, “these things were not done in a corner.” Yet he refused to believe and wrote Paul off as mentally ill. (Acts 26.24-29) In Revelation, indisputable proof is revealed, yet many stubbornly refuse to repent and be saved.

Searching for evidence with an open mind is good. Tim Keller called this “active doubt.” “Passive doubt” uses the lack of perfect clarity as an excuse. Passive doubters want God to, in effect, make them believe. They put the problem of their doubt on God. It’s his fault.

God does not and will not “make” people believe. God sends prophets, preachers, scriptures, his Spirit, and even miracles. The Bible itself is a miracle you can read and touch. God is sensitive to doubters and holds out his hands to appeal to them, but salvation comes by faith, not by proof. (Isaiah 65.1-2; Romans 10.10-21)

At the end of history, there will be no doubt in any human heart about God’s existence or righteousness. But at that point, faith will be impossible. The time for faith is now.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened by debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will come upon you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come down on all those living on the face of the earth. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to hold your ground before the Son of man. — Luke 21.34-26

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Revelation of Love

Christ’s apocalyptic second Advent is about releasing God’s love and about releasing us to be received by God’s love.

Revelation of Love :: Love of Advent
Consider Supporting Our Work

Our work needs more donors—ones just like you. Support ad-free content that brings biblical devotionals to inboxes across the world.

Supporting our Work
Posted on

Long For the Day of the True King

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 2  Samuel 6 Listen: (3:34) Read: Revelation 15 Listen: (1:29)

Scripture Focus: Revelation 15.1-8

15 I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:

  “Great and marvelous are your deeds,

    Lord God Almighty.

  Just and true are your ways,

    King of the nations.

  4 Who will not fear you, Lord,

    and bring glory to your name?

  For you alone are holy.

  All nations will come

    and worship before you,

  for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

5 After this I looked, and I saw in heaven the temple—that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law—and it was opened. 6 Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

Reflection: Long For the Day of the True King

By John Tillman

What a contrast from the stumbles, errors, and sins of Israel’s kings from Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles to Revelation’s images of God as king.

God is a king with no mixed motives. This King takes no half-measures with evil. This King is not stingy with the wealth and blessings of the kingdom. This King pours out his wrath on wickedness. This King mercifully welcomes the repentant respondents to his voice.

God, the King of Heaven, is not like the kings of the earth. Even the best of them cannot approach God’s majesty. Even the most righteous of them wears robes filthy with wickedness. Even the most generous of them is a miserly grinch compared to God’s magnanimous beneficence. Even the wisest of them covers his mouth, lest foolish blather spill forth in the presence of God’s wisdom. Even the strongest of them cannot rise from the floor. Even the boldest of them dare not raise their eyes.

Stand in awe of God, the King of Heaven, today. Compare God, King of the Cosmos, to earthly kings who command fealty to their confederations of dust. Compare God’s wisdom to human kings’ foolishness. Compare God’s strength and honor to their fragility and desperation. And do not forget to compare God to the monarch nearest to us, the emperor of self, sitting on the throne of our hearts.

We, like the kings of our past and present, are undone in the presence of God. Like Isaiah, we know we are unclean of lips, heart, and actions. Yet we are called, purified, and made part of the throng of God’s people. We are armed with harps rather than weapons and readied for worship rather than warfare.

Revelation shows us the scene. The Temple of God’s covenant is opened, ready for his people. The wrath of God is carried from the Temple and poured out, never to return. The Temple is filled with the smoke of the Lord’s presence. One day, we will enter it.

Every year, my longing for that day is greater. Every time an earthly king disappoints (including the despot of my own heart), I long for that day. Every time an atrocity shakes the ground, the sky, and the news cycle, I long for that day.

Let your longing for that day grow. “…we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4.17b-18)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. — Psalm 85.9

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Kingly Qualifications

You are the king. These principles are for you. The reason our leaders don’t match them is decades of us not matching them.

Kingly Qualifications
Read more: Dethroning Kings and Powers

The regime change we need is to dethrone the sinful powers in our hearts…drag them out…the seed of Eve will crush their heads under his feet.

Dethroning Kings and Powers

Posted on

Ending the Serpent’s Cycle

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 3 Listen: (4:14), Read: John 3 Listen:( 4:41)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Genesis 4 Listen: (3:54), Read: John 4 Listen: (6:37)
Read: Genesis 5 Listen: (3:18), Read: John 5 Listen: (5:42)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 3.8-15

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

Revelation 20.2, 10

2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years…

10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Reflection: Ending the Serpent’s Cycle

By John Tillman

The Ouroboros is an ancient image of a serpent eating its tail. It was well-known in Egypt and Greece, symbolizing the cycle of death and rebirth.

John connects the Serpent at the beginning of scripture to the one at the end by calling Satan, “That old Serpent.” Satan is introduced in Genesis 3 and defeated in Revelation 20. We live in the chapters in between where the cycle of sin feels repetitive and inescapable. How do we break out?

All things in this world are under Satan’s influence and he can make any of them a destructive tool. Where there is love, he spawns lust. Where there is passion, he births oppression. The world’s kingdoms are his and he tempts everyone with their power, including Jesus. (Luke 4.5-8)

If we do not resist him, whatever is true, he uses to deceive, whatever is noble, he corrupts, whatever is right, he uses wrongly, whatever is pure, he sullies, whatever is lovely, he scars, whatever is admirable, he debases. (Philippians 4.8)

Revelation warns us that Satan is thrown down to Earth, knowing his time is shortened, filled with rage and intent to deceive as many as possible. (Revelation 12.12)​​ He is the father of lies and hates those who are in the truth. (John 8.44) He means to do us harm.

How do we deal with his devilish influences? How do we shed shame and fight fear?

After watching Adam and Eve fall, we see them fight. We fight the same way if we only recognize the steps. When God calls, “Where are you?” stop hiding. Call out and come to him. When God says, “What is this you have done?” confess. Tell the truth and call the Devil a liar.

Scripture tells us to flee temptation and evil desires (2 Timothy 2.22), but don’t confuse fleeing evil desires with fleeing the Devil. We don’t flee the serpent. When we resist him, he flees us. (James 4.7)

This serpent’s cycle is doomed and he knows it. We resist the father of lies by reminding him of the truth. Even if Satan fools us temporarily, the truth will set us free and Jesus will straighten, repair, and restore everything twisted, damaged, and stolen.

The image of the Ouroboros is a lie. The cycle of the serpent is not eternal. The serpent’s end is assured. His head will be crushed, to eat no more.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

I sought the Lord, and he delivered me out of all my terror. — Psalm 34.4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read The Bible With Us

Invite friends to join our Bible reading plan. Walk with us through the Bible at a sustainable, two-year pace.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional

Read more: Christmas and Kaiju

He will not be a monster of rage, revenge, and havoc, but the same messiah of love, protection, and care revealed to us in the gospels.

Christmas and Kaiju — Love of Advent

Posted on

Wait for the Final Reel

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Nehemiah 13 Listen: (5:57), Read: Revelation 22 Listen: (3:59)

Links for Wednesday’s readings:

Read: Genesis 1 Listen: (4:55), Read: John 1 Listen: (6:18)

Scripture Focus: Nehemiah 13.6-11

6 But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission 7 and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. 8 I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. 9 I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.

10 I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. 11 So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.

Revelation 22.12-13

12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”

— Orson Welles

Reflection: Wait for the Final Reel

By John Tillman

A calendar year is an arbitrary measurement, like a reel of a film. Before digital projection took over, a thousand-foot-long reel would hold about eleven minutes of film. Projectionists changed reels continuously to show complete films.

How is the story of this year ending for you? Whether it’s bad or good…it’s not really the end. It’s just one reel.

In 1986, Saturday Night Live imagined a new reel to end the Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. After the happy moment of the community coming together and George’s business being saved, they continued the story in a darker direction. Uncle Billy remembers where he lost the money. They discover “Old Man Potter” deposited it. They rush out, find Potter, and beat him to death.

The sketch wrapped up a loose thread from the original in a darkly funny way. However, it illustrates that, depending on where you end it, a story can go from bright and hopeful, showing the best of humanity, to dark and ugly, showing the worst. George’s story would also be very different if it ended at the bridge, before Clarence interfered in his suicide attempt.

Biblical stories change too, depending on when you stop reading. Nehemiah chapter 12 has a perfect happy ending. The hero accomplishes his purpose. Enemies are shamed. Jerusalem is restored. But there’s another reel. Corruption creeps back in—literally. The greedy villain who dogged Nehemiah through the whole story moves into the Temple! Nehemiah throws Tobiah out, but that wasn’t the end. Nehemiah ends by repeatedly calling on God’s mercy.

There’s much to celebrate in Nehemiah, but it’s not a simple, happy story about good leadership or a template for legalistic enforcement of religious laws. 400 years later, Jesus cleansed the Temple of corrupt and greedy robbers and confronted legalistic systems Nehemiah enforced.

Nehemiah is just a reel out of a film we are all in—struggling against sin and crying out for mercy. The story isn’t over when we kick villains out or when they crawl back to power. In this world, corruption consistently creeps back in.

When we fail or when we win, it’s just the rise and fall of a thrilling tale. In the final reel, the real hero returns. Our story ends with Jesus’ ultimate victory.

Where you end a story, changes what kind of story it is. Wait for the final reel.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Happy are they whom you choose and draw to your courts to dwell there! They will be satisfied by the beauty of your house, by the holiness of your temple. — Psalm 65.4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about It’s Not Over When It’s Over

Can we save falling things? Perhaps. But failing that, we can rise from destruction…endure to the end. All will fall down. We will stand up.

It’s Not Over When It’s Over

Read The Bible With Us

It’s the perfect time to join our Bible reading plan. Invite friends to read with you at a sustainable, two-year pace.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional

Posted on

Now Jerusalem and Not-Yet Jerusalem

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Nehemiah 12 Listen: (6:30), Read: Revelation 21 Listen: (4:34)

Scripture Focus: Revelation 21.1, 22-27

1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Nehemiah 12.43

43 And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.

Reflection: Now Jerusalem and Not-Yet Jerusalem

By John Tillman

Nehemiah describes his Jerusalem rising from the rubble and John describes New Jerusalem descending from Heaven.

At first, Nehemiah’s task seems only to provide a wall for practical protection and safety of the citizens. God’s people were exiled in pagan empires but were given a safe and secure homeland again.

But Nehemiah saw a grander mission, more expansive than his mandate to build a physical wall. For this reason he also rebuilt the infrastructure, staff, and resources for the city’s spiritual health and welfare. The priests, musicians, choirs, and leaders were all part of his restoration plan. The worship of God and the purity and glory of his covenant with his people were at the center of Nehemiah’s true mission. And the joy of their worship poured out through the walls of the city, echoing far away.

The New Jerusalem descends after the destruction of judgment. God’s faithful people were suffering in kingdoms controlled by Satan but are now safe and secure. God makes his home with them. The city is the centerpiece of God’s remaking of the broken world. All kingdoms and people are brought under Christ’s benevolent grace.

The differences in Nehemiah’s and John’s Jerusalems are more striking than the similarities. The New Jerusalem has foundations and walls and nothing unclean will enter, however its gates never close. The city, instead of protecting itself from attack, projects blessings, pouring out living water, light, and glory. All will walk by the light the city provides, be healed by the leaves of the tree of life at its center, and worship God who dwells within it.

The worship of God and the purity and glory of his new covenant with his people is at the center of the New Jerusalem. When we are there the joy of our worship will pour out through the walls of the city, echoing far away.

Nehemiah lived in Now-Jerusalem and pointed to Not-Yet-Jerusalem. So do we. We point to the not-yet by tackling Nehemiah-inspired tasks that hint at the New Jerusalem. As embassies and ambassadors of New Jerusalem, let us bind up the broken, rebuild the destroyed, restore the degraded, and rededicate the defiled. Let those far off learn the songs of the coming city through our actions “far as the curse is found.”

Music: “Joy to the World” lyrics by Issac Watts, video by Reawaken Hymns.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. — Psalm 85.9

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about The Lord Is There

Wherever you go, as a Christian, you take with you the spirit of the city of God. Practice remembering that “the Lord is there.”

The Lord Is There  — Readers’ Choice

Read The Bible With Us

Join our two-year Bible reading plan and immerse in the Bible at a sustainable pace.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional