Tag: revelation

Revelation 11:15-19 – It Will Not Always Be This Way

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year A2 Comments
The World
“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” –Abraham Kuyper

At the sound of the seventh trumpet, loud voices were heard in heaven. They said,

“Now the kingdom
of this world
belongs to our Lord
and to his Chosen One!
And he will rule
forever and ever!”

Then the twenty-four elders, who were seated on thrones in God’s presence, knelt down and worshiped him.  They said,

“Lord God All-Powerful,
you are and you were,
and we thank you.
You used your great power
and started ruling.
When the nations got angry,
you became angry too!
Now the time has come
for the dead
to be judged.
It is time for you to reward
your servants the prophets
and all of your people
who honor your name,
no matter who they are.
It is time to destroy everyone
who has destroyed
the earth.”

The door to God’s temple in heaven was then opened, and the sacred chest could be seen inside the temple. I saw lightning and heard roars of thunder. The earth trembled and huge hailstones fell to the ground. (CEV)

The book of the Revelation was a vision given to the Apostle John late in his life.  At the turn of the first century, Christ’s Church was facing a great deal of difficulty and hardship.  Christians were in the minority; looked at with suspect; misunderstood; often persecuted because of false information.  In short, all the kinds of things that Jewish people currently face and have faced for millennia were true of the early believers in Jesus.

Therefore, the purpose of the vision to John was not to give slick preachers a reason to craft elaborate prophecy charts about what’s going to happen in the future.  Instead, God was concerned for the welfare of his people.  The vision was meant to bring  encouragement that this present hard situation will not always be this way.  The danger and adversity will not last forever.  There is a day coming when God’s judgment and benevolent rule will reign in its fullness.  In other words, our prayers will be answered that have been offered for centuries: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

God did not want his beloved children to succumb to discouragement and lose heart.  So, the vision from John assured them that all will be made right.  Jesus is Lord, and his good rule will have the day.  Yes, we currently live in a world profoundly touched by sin and death.  And because of that we feel pain and must endure the hardships of things like COVID-19 and economic woes. It is possible to observe it all and experience its effects and fall into despair, and, so, give-in to unhealthy ways of coping with the circumstances around us.

We graciously have been given a glimpse into how all of history will shake-out in the end.  That peek into what’s coming ahead is meant to bring us needed encouragement, steadfast hope, and patient endurance.  There is coming a day when our own personal and local expressions of grief and lament will give way to praise and gratitude to God.  And that incredible praise will explode with all believers, past and present, along with all creation, proclaiming together: “Lord God All-Powerful, you are and you were, and we thank you.  Now the kingdom of this world belongs to our Lord and to his Chosen One!  And he will rule forever and ever!”  Amen, and amen.

Click Hope in God to gain some encouragement from singer and songwriter Ken Medema.

Jesus Is Making Everything New

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

Jesus makes everything new

It feels great to have a day off, a bit of relaxation, a fresh year with new possibilities, a chance to do spend time with others for a bit.  It feels so darned good because maybe something in your life is getting awfully old, and you’re ready for a change:

A look in the mirror today has you longing for a new body… A glance at the financial budget reveals that it doesn’t budge a bit, and you long for a new job…  A walk into the kitchen looks like somebody puked dirty dishes all over, and you wish for a new house…  But this is nothing compared to not sleeping well; still grieving over a death in the family; constantly dealing with chronic pain, cancer, and sickness; and, facing, yet again, Mom’s barrage of Alzheimer inspired questions…. Maybe I could just have a new life….

These, and a thousand more circumstances, wait for us tomorrow morning when we wake up.  It is the same old, same old.  Day after day, month after month, year after year.  Maybe it will be different this year….?

The world as we now know it will someday pass away.  Christians have a future hope – it will literally be heaven on earth.  There will be a renewed earth and God will descend to dwell with us.  God will bring us to the original design He had in the garden with Adam and Eve – an unhindered relationship between Himself and humanity in which we are no longer dogged by our sinful nature, a sinful world system, and all the temptations that the devil uses to exploit for his own purposes.  Tears, death, sorrow and pain will a thing of the past.

Eventually, our struggle with the brokenness of this world and our lives will be completely over (Revelation 21:1-6).  To know your problems are temporary and that Jesus will change everything is a great comfort and help to us in our present troubles.

One of the problems we experience in this present age is that we are impatient people; we want good things to happen, and to happen now!  All of God’s people throughout history have been looking ahead for the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises.  God said to the prophet Isaiah:

“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.  I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more” (Isaiah 65:17-19).

In the first coming of Jesus to this earth, God’s people thought for sure all these promises would be fully realized.  But, like a young couple in their engagement period, the promises of God had been initiated and promised, but not yet realized or consummated.  There have been people throughout the centuries that have said, as the Apostle Peter identified:

“Where is this ‘coming’ he promised?  Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”  Peter responded, in part, by reminding Christians:  But do not forget this one thing, dear friends:  With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:4-9).

Jesus is making everything new.  God is even now in the process of moving history to its final stage.  Can we be patient in letting him do his work until that final day comes, or will we be impatient?

We live in an amazing time where we have instant communications and can travel anywhere in the world in a relatively short amount of time.  The earth is a big place, but we can traverse it by plane in less than two days.  It used to be that a ship going across the Atlantic Ocean took about three months from Europe to America.  Now, we fly across the ocean in a matter of hours.  Yet, we freak out that we’ve got to get to the airport two hours before a flight and grump and complain about standing in a twenty-minute line to board a plane.

It used to be that communication moved at the same pace as a ship.  Knowing about a significant event that happened in Europe would take three months to reach America.  Now we can know about what kind of bread some French dude ate for breakfast almost instantly after he eats it because he posted it on social media.  We act like a whiny pre-teen if we need to wait a few extra seconds for something to load on our computers and smartphones, as if the world were about to end.  Well, in all truthfulness it is about to end.

Yet, in the meantime, we are not to simply wait for the end to come and spend our remaining time trying to figure out exactly the day and hour of Christ’s Second Coming.  Instead, when Jesus said, “I am making everything new” he means that he is now at work transforming all things which will culminate in his Second Coming and the final passing away of the old order of things.

We properly anticipate Jesus coming again when we let God change our hearts and lives, our neighborhoods and workplaces, our families and churches, to be just like Christ.

God is now, today, in the business of preparing for Christ’s return by doing away with the old order to make room for the new.  The Apostle Paul put it this way to the Corinthian church:  If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17).  With every changed life, there is the reminder that God is not slow in keeping his promises, but is active in transforming lives for his own glory.

The book of Revelation helps us to break our fixation with our weird past.  It enables us to sever the ways we have always done things.  It reminds us of God’s capacity and action for renewal.  We can walk now in newness of life.  Christians are people, according to Paul that “were buried with Jesus through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)

To be patient, to hold fast in endurance, it is necessary for us to know the whole story of God and what he has done, is doing, and will do.  In the fall of 1991, a car driven by a drunk driver jumped its lane and smashed headfirst into a minivan driven by a man named Jerry Sittser. Sittser and three of his children survived, but Sittser’s wife, four-year-old child, and mother died in the crash. In his book, A Grace Revealed, Sittser shares the following interaction some months after the accident with his son, David, who was one of the children who survived:

“Do you think Mom sees us right now?” he suddenly asked.

I paused to ponder. “I don’t know, David. I think maybe she does see us. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t see how she could, Dad. I thought Heaven was full of happiness. How could she bear to see us so sad?”

Could Lynda, my wife, witness our pain in Heaven? How could that be possible? How could she bear it?

“I think she does see us,” I finally said. “But she sees the whole story, including how it all turns out, which is beautiful to her. It’s going to be a good story, David.”

God knows the whole story.  He knows how you are going to turn out.  When everything passes away, when all is stripped from your life, when the world as we know it is done away with, what are you left with? 

Christians are left with participating with God in the renewal of all things.  Followers of Jesus are left with alleviating and doing away with the evils and troubles of this world.  Whenever believers seek to do away with things like global poverty; when we work to end the world of sex-trafficking or abortion; when we help others come to grips with the evil of this world through changing old satanic ways of operating; when we come alongside others in their trouble; then, God is using us to make everything new.

The end is coming, but it is not yet here.  God is presently working to make everything new by bringing his salvation to all kinds of people.  Allow God to be God, and do that work both on others, and in you.

Revelation 21:5-27

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            Things will not always be this way.  Life will not always consist of heartache, suffering, and tears.  The world, as we now know it, will eventually pass away with its constant barrage of war, famine, hunger, sickness, misunderstanding, conflict, and pain.  There is a coming a day when Jesus will return and make everything new.  The vision of this next-to-last chapter of the Bible portrays a Lord who is in charge, and whose authority will, in the end, be seen for what it is.  Everything wrong will be made right; all that is crooked shall be made straight; and, the endless struggle to do what is right and just will prevail once and for all.
 
            Whenever we get caught in seemingly endless cycles of addiction, insecurity, and fear; whenever we find ourselves having to endure yet another day of undeserved backtalk; and, whenever we see that perseverance has become our abiding companion; it is in such times, like the original recipients of John’s vision of the final apocalypse, that we are to be strengthened and encouraged with the truth that Jesus is Lord.  Christ reigns as Supreme, and his rule will be shown and revealed to all nations.  In our Lord’s benevolent kingdom, everyone who is thirsty for justice will receive from a life-giving fountain; and, all who hunger for righteousness will be filled and satisfied.
 
            But until that time comes, we are to hold onto the hope that Jesus shall return to judge the living and the dead.  For the righteous this is truly good news, but for the wicked, this is anything but.  Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life will be in the celestial city.  So, let’s put on words and deeds that are appropriate for the light of Christ our King, and eschew the works of darkness, utilizing all the tools of faith, hope, and love given to us by our Sovereign Lord.
 

 

            Lord Jesus, you are making everything new.  You are the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.  All things hinge on your gracious rule in this world.  Help me to so embrace your kingdom ethics that every word and each deed is done consistent with your divine justice and mercy through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Revelation 3:14-22

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
            God is trying to get our attention.  He does it through all kinds of ways – adverse circumstances, other people (particularly prophetic voices) – knocking on our door, crying out to let him in.  Yes, God is the one knocking on our door – not us.  “Listen!  I am standing and knocking at your door.  If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will eat together.”  This is anything but an aloof God who is unconcerned for what is going on in our lives.  In fact, just the opposite is true.  We seem a bit unconcerned, even “lukewarm” about God and don’t pay much attention to him.  It is God who is longing to be with us and is on the outside pounding on the door and calling out so that he can come into our homes and have fellowship with him around the table.  Will we invite him in?  Will we accept his offer?
 
            Jesus stands.  Jesus knocks.  Jesus calls.  Will we respond?  That is the watershed issue of our day.  Maybe we can’t hear him because we are busy vacuuming.  Maybe we don’t hear because of the headphones we have on.  Maybe we are just too deaf and dull to notice the racket going on at our front porch while we watch TV.  Whatever it is, the only cure for being lukewarm is inviting Jesus into the house. 
 
            If Jesus is on the outside, he wants to be on the inside.  He could break your door down if he wanted to, but he chooses to respond to the invitation for hospitality.  Jesus wants to meet with us.  When and where will you meet with him today?
 

 

            Gracious Lord Jesus, you are standing at the door.  My door is open for you.  Come in and let us fellowship together and enjoy one another.  I have ears to hear what you are saying to me, through the Spirit.  Amen.