May 26, 2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.’” (Revelation 9.20-21)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Sometimes we find it easier to define something by what it is not because what it is defies our ability to describe. Even though we may have many things to say about something, if asked, we lack an ability to explain our true thought because it exceeds our knowledge or our desire for knowledge. It is with a simple example I will illustrate this logic: What is light? Light is not dark. What is dark? Dark is not light. It isn’t sufficient to say that dark is the absence of light unless we speak of absolute darkness. Just like one who says on a cloudy dark, “It is dark and gloomy, I wish there was sunshine.” What is meant is “I am grateful for the sun that shines on this dark and gloomy day. What I desire is for clear skies and no storm clouds.” When we received the conclusion of Revelation, chapter 8, it was with a forboding note that four angels, messengers from God, had each spoken with a trumpet blast. With each blast there was a terrible afflication which came upon the people on the earth in all their habitations. At the conclusion of those four trumpet blasts (imagine the sound byte used by the Minnesota Vikings during one of their games sounded especially on a critical defensive third down stand) one third of all life, living and creation was reduced to lifelessness. There was no life in them. They were more than dead, they were nothing. They had no hope, no spark of life, no viable DNA out of which life could be drawn. They were reduced to dust, ash and one step from total nothingness because there was at least dust and ash. And if that was not bad enough, the warning was given for three more blasts yet to come.

Let me offer a contemporary numerical image for you. If this “terrible day of the Lord” were to happen today, after the first four angel blasts 2,833,333,333 men and women and children would have died. Hard to imagine? Well, as we read through chapter 9, another one-third of the then existing population would be killed by the forces of Apollyon, the Destroyer, or Abadon depending on the language of choice. That would mean that at the end of seven angel blasts 3,777,777,777 men and women and children would have died. What did they all have in common? 

A PRAYER FOR TODAY:

You are our God and we shall be Your people in spirit and in truth. Continue to dwell among us. Let the revelation by Your Holy Spirit inspire us to greater service in a more refined identity. We do not live as ourselves for ourselves. Rather, we live in Christ as He lives in us. We declare it with all the elders and angels in Heaven, saying “Holy, holy, holy is He who was and is and is to come.” In Jesus’ name we live, serve and pray. AMEN.