May God help us all as we each suffer
There are many words of Jesus that offer comfort to people. We sit and wonder how He could do that, knowing that the suffering people would have to endure would be so great, and yet, how could He not?
He endured much Himself and He did it through trusting in His Father.
Worrying is a great past time for many. For some it's a way of life. You wouldn't think so but worrying can give a person a sense of *doing something* when there is little they can do. We trouble our hearts all the time don't we? We worry about everything from whether our next meal will be appreciated, cooked satisfactorily, to whether or not we'll have money to pay for the bills, to our health and the health of our loved ones. People will tell you worrying never accomplished a thing, and others will say they wish they didn't have to worry. And then there are those who look at you if you're not worrying and can't believe that you aren't, especially when a situation arises that has them worrying.
Do you believe in God?
If we believe in God we have to believe in Jesus. Yes, I said have to. People may argue if they like that many believe in God but not Jesus and all I have to say about that is they're going to be in for a rude awakening when they realize that God sent Jesus into the world, the Messiah, their Savior, and they rejected Him.
Jesus doesn't want our hearts to be troubled. He knows how desperately we want to be with Him. We live in a world that throws constant reminders at us of how horrible life is and we long for the life that is promised.
Do you have anyone in your life right now that if they said to you, 'Don't worry, I'll take care of it.' no matter the situation, that you'd believe them and trust them enough to not worry?
Maybe it's your husband, your wife, your mother, your father, a trusted friend, a relative, or maybe there isn't a single person alive that you trust with such faith. Maybe even if they say those words, 'Don't worry, I'll take care of it.' you'd still worry until it was all resolved. It takes a great faith to be able to stop worrying on the word of someone else, doesn't it? Great faith.
We learn through life not to trust others when we face disappointment after disappointment. We start out trusting when someone says 'Don't worry.' and we end up not trusting when they do nothing to alleviate that worry because they don't take care of the problem. We gripe and moan and ask them why they didn't do as they said and excuses come along, good ones as well as bad, and in the end we learn to not trust that person and our faith to trust any others is a little more broken.
On the same token, if we have experienced the opposite and have trusted in someone on their word and they always come through for us then our faith is built. We learn to trust them more and more and in general trust more in people.
Do I daresay that more people experience disappointment than not? I have no facts to base that on, but it seems to me that placing our trust in people is bound to disappoint often, whether through fault of their own or not.
Satan likes to use that with God all the time. He throws scripture out there about being able to trust in God and how God will never fail us and then he points at situation after situation where God has seemingly failed us. A lot of atheists insist that the world itself declares there can be no God, that no God would let a world be such an utter failure, no God would allow such horrors that are in the world to exist. Satan does his job well when he gets people to believe that way. He goes after those that have little faith and tries to convince them that God has failed them time and time again even though He says to trust Him and He'll take care of you.
Troubled hearts, worry over life and the situations we exist in, worry over where our next paycheck will come from, where the money for the electric bill will turn up, how long before our water is shut off, when will they come to evict us, these are all real worries and telling someone to trust in God as they watch their belongings tossed to the street, or as they turn the water tap on only to get no water, or they open a cupboard to find food for their children and its bare, telling them to trust in God might make them want to laugh in our faces. Easy for us to say, right? We have food, water, a roof over our heads, our children's bellies aren't aching with hunger.
Yes, Satan has done His job well and continues to do it marvelously because trust is something rare. Trust is something that people are afraid to do because they're afraid that if they trust they'll only be hurt again.
What do we have to trust in when we trust in God? Is it that he'll care for our every need? Then why are God fearing, God loving people starving right now? Why are Godly people watching their children suffer? What is God's promise to us? Jesus said ...
Luke
{12:22} And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.
{12:23} The life is more than meat, and the body [is more] than raiment.
{12:24} Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
{12:25} And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?
{12:26} If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
{12:27} Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
{12:28} If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more [will he clothe] you, O ye of little faith?
{12:29} And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.
{12:30} For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
Take no thought for your life. Uhn? If we don't, who will?
Take no thought about what you will eat. Hold on, a person has to eat, we have to think about it and be concerned, don't we?
Take no thought about what you'll wear. Now that's just...wrong. We have to have clothes on don't we, if not they give us a free set of clothes in nice prison orange.
Sure, sure we can look at the birds, and no we can't had height to our bodies, and sure the flowers are beautiful, and yes, God takes care of nature and yet how can I trust God when I haven't a clue where the next bit of food will come from, or if that torn and mended over and over shirt will simple give way today and be irreparable?
Little faith.
Of course I have little faith! Why shouldn't I have little faith? My belly is aching, my kids are starving there are rags for clothes on our backs and all the faith in God will not bring a bite of food to us or magically give us new clothes. I had faith, and nothing came...I trusted and I've been left to die. Don't tell me my faith isn't enough! God knows what I need and...and...and...none of my needs are met!
Luke
{12:31} But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
{12:32} Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Seek what?
How when my children are crying for lack of food?
Seek the kingdom of God.
Will it give me food for my children?
Seek God.
The realization, however horrific, that this life we live now is temporary when it feels like it's all there is because the grief, the heartache, the pain and suffering of ourselves and our loved ones is so intense, is necessary if we want to truly call ourselves God's.
All this is temporary.
The pain is real but it is temporary even if it lasts fifty years.
The heartache is real but it is only temporary even if you live with it until you die.
The pain of existence is only temporary. For those in the worst imaginable scenarios in life, and in this day and age we can think of some pretty horrific scenarios, life here is still only temporary.
Jesus says...
John
{14:1} Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
{14:2} In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
{14:3} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
{14:4} And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Thomas says...
{14:5} Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Jesus says...
{14:6} Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man come unto the Father, but by me.
{14:7} If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Philip says...
{14:8} Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Jesus says...
{14:9} Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
{14:10} Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
{14:11} Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
{14:12} Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I
go unto my Father.
{14:13} And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
{14:14} If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
{14:15} If ye love me, keep my commandments.
{14:16} And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
{14:17} Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
{14:18} I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
{14:19} Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
{14:20} At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
{14:21} He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Judas, not Isacriot, says...
{14:22} Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
Jesus says...
{14:23} Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
{14:24} He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
{14:25} These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
{14:26} But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
{14:27} Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid.
{14:28} Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
{14:29} And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.
{14:30} Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
{14:31} But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, NOT as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be trouble, neither let it be afraid.
NOT as the world giveth.
Once we get over wanting this life of ours to be trouble free and peaceful in a worldly way, we can truly start to live for God.
Once we realize that we have no promise for a pain-free existence. We have no promise for a life of no heartache. We have no promise that we will be clothed with fancy raiment or fed until we can feed no more. The promise we have is that if we trust in God, if we Love God, that we will be in His kingdom one day and then and only then will be never have to worry, never have to be hungry, never have to watch a loved one suffer, never feel the pain of loneliness and heartache, never be ridiculed, belittled, abused, beaten, reviled. The world we live in now is pain-filled and trying to make it so that it's not, is hopeless. The only thing we can do is trust in God to see us through the pain of living here and now, and do that through the grace and mercy of our savior Jesus Christ our Lord, God's only Son. Hope in the kingdom to come and pray that God's will be done.
John
{16:33} These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world
Jesus is the way the truth and the life...only in Jesus is there peace. Only Jesus has overcome all the pain, suffering, and heartache through His Father.
John
{14:6} Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man come unto the Father, but by me.
In life we need a path, a destination and Jesus is that path. He is the way, He is the life.
May God help us all as we each suffer in our own ways, as we go through our tribulations and there will be many in this world, to look to God, to look to Jesus, to look beyond the temporary and to the eternal.
In the name of Jesus, by His Grace and Mercy forever!
Amen.
10/25/09
Daniel and the Revelation by Uriah Smith
Revelation Chapter 20
Verse 1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
The Key and the Chain.--
It cannot be supposed that the key and chain are literal; they are rather used merely as symbols of the power and authority with which this angel is clothed on this occasion for the accomplishment of his mission.
The Bottomless Pit.--
The original word signifies an abyss, bottomless, deep, profound. Its use seems to be such as to show that the word denotes any place of darkness, desolation, and death. Thus in Revelation 9: 1, 2, it is applied to the barren wastes of the Arabian desert, and in Romans 10: 7, to the grave. But the use which specially throws light upon the meaning of the word here is found in Genesis 1: 2, where we read that "darkness was upon the face of the deep." The word there rendered "deep" is the same word that is here rendered "bottomless pit," and the text might have been translated, "Darkness was upon the face of the abyss, or bottomless pit." We all know that the word "deep" as there used is applied to the earth in its chaotic state. Precisely this it must mean in this third verse of Revelation 20. Let it be borne in mind that at the time the angel does this work, the earth is a vast charnel house of desolation and death. The voice of God has shaken it to its foundations; the islands and mountains have been moved out of their places; the great earthquake has leveled to the earth the mightiest works of man; the seven last plagues have left their all-desolating trail over the earth; the burning glory attending the general desolation; the wicked have been given to the slaughter, and their putrefying flesh and bleaching bones lie unburied, ungathered, and unlamented from one end of the earth to the other.
Thus is the earth made empty and waste, and turned upside down. (Isaiah 24: 1.) Thus is it brought back again, partly at least, to its original state of confusion and chaos. (See Jeremiah 4: 19-26, especially verse 23.) What better term could be used to describe the earth thus rolling on in its course of darkness and desolation for a thousand years than that of abyss, or bottomless pit? Here Satan will be confined during this time, amid the ruins which indirectly his own hands have wrought, unable to flee from his habitation of woe, or to repair in the least degree its hideous ruin.
Binding of Satan.--
We well know that Satan, in order to work, must have subjects upon whom to work. Without these, he can do nothing. But during the thousand years of his confinement to this earth, all the saints are in heaven beyond the power of his temptations, and all the wicked are in their graves beyond his power to deceive. His sphere of action is circumscribed, and thus is he bound, being condemned throughout this period to a state of hopeless inactivity. To a mind that has been as busy as his has been for the past six thousand years in deceiving the inhabitants of the world from generation to generation, this must be a punishment of the most intense severity.
According to this exposition, the "binding" of Satan means simply placing beyond his reach the subjects upon whom he works. His being "loosed" means their being brought again by a resurrection to a position where he can again exercise his power upon them. On this exposition some say that we have mistaken the personnel, and have the wicked bound, instead of the devil. Yet how often do we hear, in the daily transactions of life, such expressions as these: My way was completely hedged up. My hands were completely tied. but when persons use such expressions, do we imagine that some insurmountable obstacle was literally thrown across the path they were traveling, or that their hands were literally confined with ropes and cords?--No; we understand that a combination of circumstances rendered it impossible for them to act. Even so here. Why will not people grant to the Bible the same liberty of speech that they give without question to their fellow men?
More than this, there is here a great limitation of Satan's power, which may well be called a "binding." He no longer has the power of traversing space and visiting other worlds, but like a man he is confined to this earth, which he nevermore leaves. The place of the ruin he has wrought now becomes his gloomy prison house until he is led out to execution at the end of the thousand years.
Verse 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
Exaltation of the Saints.--
From the devil in his gloomy confinement, John now directs our attention to the saints in victory and glory, the saints reigning with Christ. Their employment is to assign to the wicked dead the punishment due their evil deeds. From that general assembly John then selects two classes as worthy of especial attention: the martyrs who had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and those who had not worshiped the beast and his image. The latter class, those who refuse the mark of the beast and his image, are of course the ones who hear and obey the third angel's message of Revelation 14. But these are not the ones who are beheaded for the witness of Jesus, as some who claim that the last generation of saints are all to be slain, would have us believe. The word rendered "which," in the expression, "which had not worshiped the beast," shows that there is another class introduced. The word is the compound relative, {GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, hotis, "whoever," not merely the simple relative {GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, hos, "who," and is defined by Liddell and Scott, "Whosoever, whichsoever, any one who, anything which." As one class, John saw the martyrs, and as another he saw those who had not worshiped the beast and his image.
It is true that {GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, hostis, is sometimes used as a simple relative as in 2 Corinthians 3: 14; Ephesians 1: 23, but never in such construction as this, where it is preceded by the conjunction {GREEK CHARACTERS IN PRINTED TEXT}, kai, "and."
Lest anyone should say that if we render the passage "and whosoever had not worshiped the beast," we thereby include millions of heathen and sinners who have not worshiped the beast, and promise them a reign of a thousand years with Christ, we could call attention to the fact that the preceding chapter states that the wicked had all been slain, and the seal of death had been set upon them for a thousand years. John is here viewing only the righteous company who have part in the first resurrection.
To avoid the doctrine of two resurrections, some claim that the passage, "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished," is an interpolation, not found in the original, and hence not genuine. Even if this were so, it would not disprove the main proposition that the righteous dead are raised by themselves in a "first resurrection," and that there is a second resurrection a thousand years later, in which all the wicked are brought from their graves.
But the criticism is not true, for all scholarship is against it. The English Revised Version makes no reference to this text as being "not found" in ancient manuscripts. The American Revised Version does not give the slightest hint that a part of the text is omitted. Rotherham's translation, though noting elsewhere "doubtful" renderings, says nothing about this text being spurious. It is found in Tischendorf's eight editions of the Greek New Testament, and in the Greek text of Westcoot and Hort. The sentence occurs also in all the Greek New Testaments issued by the world-renowned critics. Griesbach, Wordsworth, Lachmann, Tregelles, and Alford. Three or four Greek manuscripts do not have this sentence; sixteen hundred and ninety-seven of them do contain it if they have the Revelation at all.
Two Resurrections.--
"The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." Whatever may be said to the contrary, no language could more plainly prove two resurrections. The first is a resurrection of the righteous at the beginning of the thousand years. The second is that of the wicked at the end of the millennium. On such as have part in the first resurrection, the second death will have no power. They can pass unharmed through the elements which destroy the wicked like chaff. They will be able to dwell with devouring fire and everlasting burnings. (Isaiah 33: 14, 15.) They will be able to go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against the Lord, as the quenchless fire and undying worm are preying upon them. (Isaiah 66: 24.) The difference between the righteous and the wicked in this respect is seen again in the fact that while God is to the latter a consuming fire, He is to His people both a sun and a shield.
Wicked Raised to Life.--
The wicked who are raised at the end of the thousand years actually live again as they have once lived on the earth. To deny this is to do violence to this scripture. In what physical condition they will be raised, we are not informed. It is usual to say on this point that what we have lost unconditionally in Adam, is restored unconditionally in Christ. With respect to physical condition, this should not perhaps be taken in an unlimited sense, for the race has lost greatly in stature and vital force, which need not be restored to the wicked. If they are brought back to the average mental and physical condition which they possessed during life or the period of their probation, that would certainly be sufficient to enable them to receive understandingly the last judgment due them for all their deeds done while living here upon this earth.
*******
So much is to take place and make no mistake about it, it will take place. Some may scoff and say it's all a fairy tale, stuff that only fools believe in, but time will prove them wrong. Time will march on until all is fulfilled just as God has told us it would be.
By the grace and mercy of God may we live as His through it all and be among those taken to meet Him in the air when He returns.
In Christ always, by His righteousness alone, in all truth.
Amen.
10/25/10
10/25/11