church – SeekGrowLove.com

I love going to baseball games in a packed stadium full of loud and excited fans. The same could be said for football, basketball, hockey or even soccer (but I’ve never been to a professional soccer game). I’ll stick with baseball since it’s my favorite and I just went to a Washington Nationals game a few days ago.

In sports they talk about having “the home team advantage”. That comes with having the energy of thousands of cheering fans joining together to encourage you at just the right time, spurring you on, giving you that extra boost of adrenaline or confidence. Who doesn’t get an extra boost by hearing people enthusiastically offer you encouragement? If you’re on the pitching mound and your trying to get that last out, and 50,000 people are screaming for you with every pitch, it has to give your fastball just a little extra pop.

Games have their own rhythm and language. It’s very similar to a worship experience: The National Anthem followed by the announcement of the line-up is like the call to worship. The program is kind of like the bulletin. There’s a big screen with information on it just as many churches have on the wall behind the pastor. Instead of bread and wine for communion they serve beer/coke and hot dogs. And just watch what people do when their team hits a home run- they stand up and raise their hands in the air and shout, just like they do in Church with a big hallelujah during a worship song. When you go to games regularly you see the rhythm of the game and can anticipate what’s coming. (Be sure to stand up in the 7^th inning for the stretch). At times, they flash instructions up on the score board: “Let’s Go Nats” with a loud organist leading a kind of call and response.

Psalm 100 is a powerful Psalm which instructs us in how to worship God. It contains seven commands: Shout!, Worship, Come, Know, Enter, Give Thanks, Praise Him.

There are certainly times and places when silence and solitude are very appropriate and meaningful forms of worship, but there are also times when God wants his people to rock the rafters off the room of the house. Here God’s people are instructed to get loud and let the world know how great God is. Don’t keep it to yourself, shout!

The word for worship has to do with both worship and service. Our public worship is united with our daily service to God. We are to worship and serve God with gladness. Worship and service are not a duty that we have to do, but a joy that we get to do. Just as I go and happily cheer on my favorite baseball team (the Nationals), I get to come and worship my great and mighty God.

Come before Him with joyful songs is a reminder of the importance of gathering. In ancient Israel the people would come from all over the nation and beyond to gather at the temple of Jerusalem to praise and celebrate God. Sure, I like watching baseball on a 60 inch flat screen t.v. with surround sound in my recliner, but it’s still not the same energy I get when I sit in a stadium with 40,000 people on a Saturday afternoon in June when the stadium is shaking and my ears are ringing. During Covid lockdowns many were forced to worship in front of a computer screen, and that was better than not worshipping at all, but nothing beats coming together with other believers to sing joyful songs. The Greek word for Church: ecclesia means literally “the assembly.” True church needs to come together.

The center command in Psalm 100 is to know. Know that the Lord is the God who made us and that we are his people. Jesus said that we are to love God with our heart, soul, mind and strength. To know God with our mind means that we think about God, who He is and what He has done for us, his people. We are blessed to have a written record- the Bible, coupled with the verbal record- the testimony of others so that we continue to know God with our minds and have God shape our thinking.

The fifth command is enter His gates. There is no longer a temple in Jerusalem for us to enter to worship, but we have Jesus and his Church as the true and living temple. When we gather in the name of Jesus to bring worship to God we are entering his gate.

We enter those gates to worship with thanksgiving. Gratitude to God is foundational to true worship. Failing to be grateful to God leads to all kinds of sin and brokenness. Paul said it very clearly in Romans 1:21,”For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. “ When we fail to give thanks to God and give God the glory it ruins our thinking and our hearts. Take time every day to give thanks to God.

The seventh and final command is Praise Him. When someone hits the ball over the fence, everyone stands and cheers. When the pitcher strikes out three in a row everyone stands and cheers. The energy of the teammates and fans really does lift a player. I had the benefit of watching the Nationals during the 2019 season when they won the World Series. They were the most celebrated team: the crowd shouted, they danced, they screamed, they cheered and 40,000 people did the “baby shark” together. I saw that team literally come back time and time again to win because the level of praise was so great. If we can scream and shout and praise a man for hitting a home run or throwing a strike out, how much more can we praise the one who made us and gave us not only the gift of life today, but the hope of everlasting life in his coming Kingdom.

-Jeff Fletcher

Reflection Questions:

How much shouting do you do in worship? If not much, what’s holding you back?
What difference does it make to you in worship when you come together with other believers instead of just being alone?
How often to do you tell God, “Thank You”? Do you want to show your gratitude more to God? What’s keeping you from doing it?

2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading Plan Download

Order in the Church

1 Corinthians 14

June 15

“for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,” 1 Corinthians 14:33 NASB

In our house, we narrate the dog’s thoughts. Somebody will see Zippers make a funny expression and they’ll say “She’s like: “Umm guys I’d like to go to the park too. Is that okay? Or if not, I guess I’ll just stay here.” Then somebody else will chime in… “No, Zippers is like I really like to ride in the car…” and it goes on like that for a while. Then somebody will miss-hear what one of the previous dog interpreters said and will ask “Did you just say, ‘She said she wants to use a fork too?’” And everyone will bust out laughing. It’s not quite the same as speaking in tongues or sharing a revelation of prophecy, but it helps me imagine what it may be like to be in a church where more than one person is trying to do those things at once. With a family of six people plus a big dog, when everybody wants to talk at once, it gets a little overwhelming.

We have grown accustomed to our kids’ speech patterns and can usually understand what they are saying. For quite a while EmmaGrace could only say “ahhhhhh” with subtly different inflections to indicate if she was asking a question or affirming that she wanted milk to drink. As she got a little older she would tell you her favorite color was “lello”- which most people can probably figure out by context. But if she was just pointing out something that was yellow, you might need an interpreter.

When Weston was smaller he drooled more than our English Mastiff. So much so that he earned the nick names “Puddles” and “Weston the wet one”. When he spoke with a mouth full of slobber he sounded a lot like Sylvester from the Bugs Bunny Cartoons. When we make smoothies, they are “poovees” to him. When he had a little tummy bug, he told my mom that he had “buffered in the hall way.” That needed a little interpretation. (It’s the word that rhymes with scarf and when kids did it in school the janitor had to get those funny smelling wood chips).

Carter is all about airplanes. So he loves to talk in acronyms that he learned in his ground school for pilot training. From time to time he talks about MSL, VNO or VNE. I went to most of the classes with him but my 40 year old brain has less RAM (Random Access Memory) than his does. So I can get MSL- Mean Sea Level. I can remember that VNE is one that varies from plane to plane but basically it is the speed at which your wings will probably fall off if you continue to accelerate or hit any kind of turbulence. It is the Velocity to Never Exceed. Sometimes I have to ask him though “What does VNO stand for again? Oh yeah, velocity of normal operation.”

Communication is a two way street. When speaking we have to use words that the audience can understand. We also have to listen to the person that is speaking. I fear I am developing the multigenerational genetic gift of hearing loss, so sometimes I wish life had closed captioning.

1 Corinthians 14 tells us that these unique abilities to receive and deliver messages from God are pretty cool but they really only work if we have some order in the church. We can’t have everybody talking at once.

-Brian Froehlich

Application questions:

Paul seems to assume that the Corinthian church will have more than one person at a time that wants to speak in a tongue or deliver a prophetic word. It is almost like how he assumed they would be practicing communion. Are these gifts practiced in your church today?
If not, should they be?
If so, are they practiced as directed by Paul in this chapter?

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Led by the Holy Spirit

Acts 15

May 3

Acts 15 is a chapter of disagreements. Our first disagreement comes within the larger church and is about the rules for Gentiles regarding circumcision. Some of the church had been instructing new Gentiles to be circumcised and debate arose amongst the apostles and elders. Paul, Peter and James all make statements that are recorded in this chapter.

I’m going to bring up a couple of highlights from this chapter that may or may not be related. In verse 8 the marker that Peter uses that Gentiles are now welcome to the family of God is that the Gentiles recieved the Holy Spirit, the same way that the Jews did. The Holy Spirit being a marker for Gentiles is a significant statement about how critical the Holy Spirit is to Christianity. This statement shows that the apostles had a high view of the Holy Spirit.

At McGintytown we are currently revising our constitution. If any of you have been a part of one of these committees you know how much work it is. One of the questions that gets brought up is how much power should each individual person or group have over the church. Acts 15 is an interesting case study of this because of the scope of the decision being made. The decision the apostles and elders are making for Gentiles is going to affect ALL Gentiles. The apostles and elders are representing God for his people.

In verse 28 we have the reason provided for this decision. The apostles told the Gentiles that it seemed good to them and the Holy Spirit. If I were them I would want some sort of lighting bolt or some Gideon like signs or maybe having God rewind time like he did for Hezekiah. The apostles and elders feel good imposing only four rules on the Gentiles.

How could the apostles be so confident that they were doing what God wants? In Dallas Willard’s Hearing God he presents the idea that the same way that you may know what a friend or spouse or boss would want done in a situation, that as we progress in our spiritual lives, that we should know what God wants. This is why having a daily progressing relationship with God is so important. It is impossible to know what God would want if we don’t know God. This doesn’t mean God won’t continue to speak to us, it just means that we don’t need to be paralyzed by decisions. That is as long as you feel you know what God would want.

We encounter situations that the Bible doesn’t necessarily give us a direct command about. As long as we are spending time with God and have a sense of where he is leading us we don’t need to wait for some miraculous sign to make a decision. Being led by the spirit doesn’t mean having to pray what cereal to eat, what route to take to work or how to handle work decisions. We can lean in to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and proceed.

-Daniel Wall

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

In this chapter, what can we learn about handling disagreements that arise in the church? Consider how they handled the question of circumcision as well as the debate over John also called Mark.
How do you tend to handle disagreements? What can you put into practice next time?
Would you consider yourself more Spirit led, or self led? What’s the difference? When making decisions and living your life, how important is it to you to be doing what God wants? How do you work at knowing what He wants?

2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading Plan Download

Got Money?

We’ve talked about giving money to the church, but is there anything else we should be doing with our money? I found several ways in the Bible that we should be using our money.

The first way is not necessarily the most important thing I learned during my study of money in the Bible, but it is the most surprising thing I found. Jesus told us to use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves. Yup, we are encouraged to buy our friends. People have a hard time believing Jesus said that, but look at it for yourself in Luke 16:9. I think he is trying to tell us that relationships are important, and buying someone a lunch may be the start of a friendship that could have eternal consequences in a good way.

It is not surprising to hear that we should provide for our relatives, especially our own household in 1 Timothy 5:8. However, it is bit shocking that the verse tells us that we have denied the faith and are worse than a non-believer if we don’t. Worse than a non-believer! Don’t ignore the financial needs of your relatives.

1 John 3:16-18 questions if the love of God can be in someone who has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them. The verse in Timothy was talking about our relatives, but notice that these verses are referring to our brothers and sisters in Christ, our church family.

Deuteronomy 15:7-11 goes a step further by telling the Israelites that they should give generously to fellow Israelites who are poor. This opened the giving beyond the church family to any poor people in their community. In verse 9 it warns them that if they show ill will toward the needy and give them nothing, they will be found guilty of sin. It’s not just a good thing to give to the poor, it is a sin if you don’t.

Along those same lines, Proverbs 21:13 states that whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered. Ouch.

Acts 4:32-35 is not a commandment for us to follow, but it is an interesting way that believers took care of each other. No one claimed that any of their possessions were their own and they shared everything they had so there were no needy people among them. They went so far as to sell their land or houses and give the money from the sales to the apostles so they could distribute it to anyone in need. It mentioned that God’s grace was powerfully at work in them all. Would you be willing to sell your house for a brother or sister in need?

I hope the verses we covered today were enlightening or a good reminder if you had heard them before. I think Proverbs 3:9-10 sums up pretty well what we should be doing with our money. It says to honor the Lord with your wealth. I would feel pretty good about honoring the Lord, but wait, there’s more. It says your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine if you honor God with your wealth. And I think it is safe to say that some really nice blessings would be headed your way even if you don’t have a barn or a vat.

Got money? Honor the Lord with it.

-Rick McClain

Today’s Bible reading plan passages can be read or listened to at BibleGateway.com here – Isaiah 57-58 and 2 Timothy 4

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To Tithe or Not to Tithe

Our discussion this week about money would not be complete without talking about tithing. Many believe that we should be giving ten percent of our earnings to the church, which is called tithing. I must admit that I was very surprised when I researched the topic of money to find that it was not mentioned in the New Testament that we should tithe. Does that mean we are not required to tithe anymore?

Let’s start with some Old Testament history. Tithing was a practice back then (Malachi 3:8-12), but if you think you should be following the guidance from the Old Testament, you need to read about all the ways to give money to the church. I won’t go into great detail, but there were some pretty elaborate rules about giving. Check out Deuteronomy 14:22-29, Numbers 18:21-32, Numbers 18:8-11, and especially Leviticus 27:1-21. For example, in Leviticus, if anyone dedicates their house to the Lord, a priest will judge its quality and set a value on it. If the homeowner wants the house back, they can redeem it by adding a fifth to its value. You could also dedicate people to the Lord by giving an equivalent value. A male between the ages of twenty and sixty was valued at fifty shekels of silver, while a female between one month and five years was valued at three shekels of silver. Of course, we are not under the Old Testament law anymore, so these rules are not in place anymore, including tithing.

Again, the talk of tithing is absent in the New Testament so what should we do about giving money to the church? I don’t believe there is an exact calculation to follow so I am going to give you my opinion about what should happen. First, we do not need to follow Old Testament rules anymore, but I think we can learn about God and how he operates by looking at the rules in the Old Testament. Giving ten percent was a popular theme in the Old Testament. I think that is probably a good starting point for our giving today. If God liked using that percentage back then, I think it is likely He still thinks that is a good percentage today. However, don’t forget that there were other rules for giving that didn’t simply follow the ten percent rule, so it is probably a bit naïve to think that is exactly what we need to do today.

Yesterday we learned that all our money is God’s money, not our own. I think we need to consider that when deciding on how much to give to the church. Furthermore, some of God’s money should probably be given to areas outside of the church. For instance, your neighbor’s house burns down. God may let you know that it is a great idea to send some money their way to help them get back on their feet. Should that come out of the ten percent? That is a trick question. We should not be concerned about a particular percentage when 100% of the money we have is God’s. We need to figure out the best way to use that money by listening to God and trying to understand His desires for that money. I think He may want some to give twenty percent, fifty percent, or maybe even more to the church. Perhaps, someone is in a tough situation right now and five percent is the right amount.

I do think church is important, and I do think it is important to give money to the church to further God’s work. I would not want to be selfish in that regard and spend too much on myself and neglect the church. If you want to know what is important to yourself in life, just look at what you spend your money on and what you do with your time. If you don’t spend very much money and time on church, then church is not important to you. If church is important to you, you do not have to tithe to it, but I encourage you to make God’s day by giving an appropriate amount to His work.

-Rick McClain

While this week we are discussing a Christian perspective on money…you can still keep up with your Bible reading plan. Today’s Bible reading passages can be read or listened to at BibleGateway.com here – Isaiah 53-54 and 2 Timothy 2

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Set Apart – Together

Earlier this week we read about the importance of being set apart from the world as a follower of Christ. To be called out. Sometimes at work, I get “called out” of a meeting to talk to someone. Sometimes I help patients of mine by intentionally setting him/her apart from other distractions to complete a task. Since I work at a hospital, I frequently go to the waiting room to call out a name, asking that person to stand up and separate from the others to come with me. Depending on your contexts in life, being called out or set apart might bring that visual of being alone or isolated from others. Maybe sometimes that might sound nice? For sure at other times, that can sound scary and undesirable.

While we are asked to be set apart from the world in the spiritual sense, we are not created to live, love, worship, and serve in isolation. In fact, 2020 shed some light into the devastations that can be caused by being set apart….alone. That isn’t what Jesus was talking about. The Greek word most frequently translated as church in our Bible is “ekklesia” which means the idea of an assembly of called out people. The church is called to be set apart from the world. Since our English language often associates the word “church” with building and not the group of people, it is easy to overlook the meaning of the importance of our calling sometimes. In the New Testament we see a group of people called out from the world…..TO GOD. A group asked to be set apart together.

^{Ephesians 3:16-21:}

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

He calls us out to love one another. To be mindful of other’s needs and meet them. To edify one another. To be unified. To bring glory to God and Jesus in what we do as an ekklesia. To come together in prayer. To find strength and function as one member of a greater body.

As we navigate another season of viruses and news stories laden with fear and confusion, let us not do it alone. And let us also not find our church families looking and sounding just like the world. Instead, let us actively seek to be set apart from the world following Jesus in our own individual lives, to find the planks in our own eye, so we can best build up the ekklesia as we await the return of His son.

We are the church.

“For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.” Matthew 18:20

-Jennifer Hall

This week the devotions are on other passages reminding us of the importance of of being connected to God, Christ and the church, but if you are using the SeekGrowLove Bible reading plan keep enjoying the daily passages. They can be read or listened to here at BibleGateway – Job 13-14 and 2 Corinthians 8

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“The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear”

Daily reading: 1 Timothy 1-6

In the movie Elf, Buddy the Elf is taught the Code of the Elves, which the elves all recite and know by heart. Number three on the list is about spreading Christmas cheer, and by the end of the movie, Buddy has spread that message to lots of people.

In the book of 1 Timothy, Paul explicitly tells us his purpose when he says, “I am writing you these instructions so that…you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church.”

So, in essence, Paul’s giving us the Code of the Church. And what are some of the things in that code?

Remember you’re a big fat sinner (ie: Grace)

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. (1:15)

Before we say a word to anyone else, our perspective on ourself needs to be right.

Unfortunately, there seem to be an awful lot of believers out there who don’t seem to see themselves as Paul did. They might rephrase this verse to say, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—praise the Lord I’m not like them” or if we’re really honest, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—thankfully I’m not as bad as the worst of them.”

And although I don’t really believe most Christians would actually rephrase Paul’s writing in those ways, our attitudes do it for us. Brennan Manning, one of my favorite authors said, “Jesus came not only for those who skip morning mediations, but also for real sinners–thieves, adulterers and terrorists, for those caught up in squalid choices and failed dreams.”

The lyrics to the song, “Come to the Table” are a lovely picture of recognizing that we are all sinners redeemed, and that our unworthiness does not exempt us from a seat at the table of mercy.

Must sin be called out? Of course. With a heaping side of grace.

Grace first. Grace always.

In God’s Presence

Exodus 25-27

Exodus 25 8 NIV

Places of worship come in all different shapes and sizes. I have worshipped God in huge cathedrals with impressive pipe organs and altars overlaid with gold and stained glass windows. I have also worshipped God in open-air tabernacles with sawdust floors. I have worshipped God in a deer stand, at the beach, on a mountaintop and on a table undergoing radiation. I have worshipped God in loud and energetic services with guitars, drums, and electronic keyboards and I have worshipped him in places with no sound at all except the flickering flame of a single candle.

I believe God loves to be worshipped in lots of ways and in lots of places. Even in the Biblical stories God was worshipped on simple stone altars, in burning bushes, on mountain tops and down in valleys.

Israel was at a critical time in their formation and it was important for them to have a steady reminder of God’s presence. God made his presence visible to them as they journeyed with both a pillar of cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night. As they continued their journey across the wilderness, God chose to make his visible presence known to them in a portable house of worship. This place would provide structure in the midst of their community wherever they stopped to make camp. The tent of meeting or tabernacle would be an ongoing visible sign that God’s glory was in their midst. And God taught them how to be a holy nation. He used various symbols and rituals of sacrifice and worship as a way to drill home to them his holiness and the consequences of sin.

How God chose to do this is quite interesting. He could have simply built a temple Himself in the heavens and dropped it down fully formed on earth. However, God chose instead to invite His people to become active participants in creating this place of worship.

First, God began with their willing desire to give. “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather^. acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breast piece” (Exodus 25:2-7). This was not a mandatory tithe that was required; this was an offering to be willingly given and received.

Where did the people get all of these valuable commodities? If you will recall, as they were leaving Egypt they were given many valuable items by the Egyptian peoples – one might say this was payment to help compensate for years of slavery. They had these items in their possession already. Those who were willing could give them to help create the tent of meeting and the prescribed worship items inside of the temple, which included the Ark of the Covenant, the table, the lampstand as well as the material for the tabernacle itself, and the altar, courtyard and the oil to keep the lamps burning. All of the materials were freely donated. The people of God used their own skill to build the items from these donated materials – carpenters, weavers, stonemasons, goldsmiths and others each made their own contributions to the creation of this place of worship. In this way, everyone in the community that wished to participate had buy in to the tabernacle. It truly was a communal place of worship.

Once the nation finished their journey through the wilderness and took possession of the Promised Land, they would eventually transition from a portable tent of meeting to a permanent temple under the leadership of King Solomon. However, this tent of meeting served them well for 40 years in the wilderness and many more during the times of the judges, and king’s Saul and David.

For Christians, we do not worship God in a tabernacle or physical temple and we do not bring sacrifices of sheep or goats or bulls for an offering to God. For us, the Church itself is the temple of God. I am not talking about the building where the Church gathers to worship, I am talking about the actual people who gather to worship, and we are the Church. Jesus said whenever 2-3 gather in his name that he is there in their midst. There is no one single right way or place to worship God. It is wherever God’s people come together. Christian Worship does not have to follow follow a strict pattern. Worship is where we gather to read the word of God, pray, worship, encourage each other and exhort one another to good works, break bread and proclaim the resurrection of Jesus. Blood sacrifices are not necessary because Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and he entered into the holy of holies once and for all and gave his own body as the final sacrifice for all of our sins.

One thing remains unchanged from the time of Israel in the wilderness tent of meeting and the Church today. God still welcomes us to bring our offerings from the heart as a way to say thank you. We can still bring tangible offerings, and we can still offer our gifts and talents as ways of showing God our deep gratitude for all of his blessings to us. It is not all that important how we worship or where we worship, but it is very important that we worship and we bring our offerings freely to worship God.

Jeff Fletcher

Today’s Bible reading can be read or listened to at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus+25-27&version=NIV

Tomorrow’s reading will be Exodus 28-29 on the 2020 Chronological Bible Reading Plan

The Eternal Gospel

Revelation 14

Revelation 14 6 NIV

As we approach chapter fourteen together, John sees four, possibly five, more visions, all depicting the fates of those who are allegiant to the Lamb (Jesus) and those who aren’t. In our world today, people want you to just let people believe what they believe and not challenge their worldview. However, if we trust what Revelation is telling us, it would not be loving for us to allow people to continue living in sin and falsehood. We need to speak up into the lives of our loved ones, because according to chapter fourteen, their fates will not be good if they don’t join the Lamb’s army (the Church). Ultimately, the letter of Revelation is meant to call people to repent and follow the Lamb before time runs out, and we need to do the same.

John sees the same 144,000 from chapter 7 that have the “mark” of God on their foreheads, standing on top of Mount Zion, looking ready for a battle. These are those who have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb; in other words, these are Christians. We learn that their fate is sealed, and their future looks bright! However, John moves forward to describe what awaits everybody else…

An angel is seen, calling people to “fear God and give Him glory”, or repent of their ways (14:7). Another angel warns that “Babylon the great” has fallen, which will be described later on in chapters 17-19. This Babylon, in my interpretation, is a vivid description of Rome once again, as those are the only two nations to ever destroy the Jerusalem Temple. However, those that are within Babylon the great, or those that have worshiped the beast, they will drink the “wine of the wrath of God”, going through torment in fire and brimstone, just like Sodom and Gomorrah (see Genesis 19). These people will eventually be burned up with this fire, but it will be an extremely painful experience.

John then uses the illustration of a grape harvest, in which grapes are thrown into a winepress and squeezed out, causing blood to flow everywhere. It is a graphic image, but a powerful one nonetheless. Those who refuse to worship God and the Lamb will face His wrath, being destroyed completely when Jesus returns. Why would anyone choose to go through this? Unfortunately, many choose to do so.

This message should motivate us to speak up to our friends and family about what Jesus has done. He has saved us from this coming wrath, and now offers that same salvation to anyone who would come follow after him. Of course we love our friends and family and don’t want them to go through the terrifying judgment to come. So speak up! Live out your faith today! Share the good news with whomever you come across! Jesus is coming, and we don’t have much time left.

Talon Paul

Keep Running

FREE THEME

Hebrews 12 1 (2).png

At our house, fall Saturdays (and several summer Saturdays, too) are all about cross country. My son is a senior and has been running cross country since 6th grade. And this momma has grown to love watching the boys compete. I wonder how much more our Heavenly Father loves to watch, encourage and cheer on His children who are giving it their all out on the course.

Perhaps the writer of Hebrews was a runner himself, or had been to the games to cheer on his runner. He wrote, “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1). There are indeed so many parallels between the sweaty, tiring, exhilarating, physical sport of cross country racing and the spiritual race we are all in – for even when we are hunkered down, unmoving – the race is going on around us.

First off – it is most important to know that the race isn’t just what is done on Saturday morning on the course. It is all week long, all season long, all the training – effort – preparation – dedication – time – perseverance – discipline. Likewise, if your spiritual race consists solely of an hour or two at church on Sunday morning, it will not be a very impressive race. God desires more. The daily workouts – Bible reading. The high protein snack after a work-out – digging deeper into Scripture study. Hydrating daily throughout the week – prayer. Avoiding the ice cream, pizza and pop – staying away from negative and harmful influences, entertainment and activities. There are disciplines to follow to be a great runner – just as there are disciplines for being a follower of Jesus.

Paul also got some good mileage from the racing metaphor. He wrote to Timothy, “Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules.” (2 Timothy 2:5) On the cross country course it goes without saying that you actually have to run the assigned, mapped out race and follow the rules in order to compete. Yet, in our spiritual race so many times we try to create our own course or our own rules.

One thing I didn’t know about cross country 6 years ago was how much it is a team sport. Sure, every runner wants to compete their best, finishing the race in a shorter time than before. However, a team won’t win if they have just one or two top finishers. Their team score is compiled by what place their first 5 racers take – and the lowest score wins the meet. So, it is in the best interest of every member on the team to run the best race they can – while at the same time helping and encouraging and motivating their pack of runners to finish well. Similarly – the spiritual race is not an individual event. We are called to carry each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), not give up meeting together (Hebrews 10:25), look out for the interests of others (Philippians 2:4), build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11), gently restore one caught in sin (Galatians 6:1), and of course, love (lots and lots of verses, including John 13:34). How can you help a fellow runner better prepare for a strong race this week?

It’s God’s course – run it well according to His rules.

Jesus makes an awesome coach – he’s run the race and knows what you need to succeed on the course of life. Keep your eyes on him.

Be disciplined – daily. Your race requires dedication

Help your fellow runners.

Keep Running with Perseverance,

Marcia Railton

Tag: church

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