Bible Reading Challenge Blog

We know that there are various Psalms with very different emphases and we see that clearly here. Most of these psalms depict a God who will be protect and defend God’s people. Now, there tends to be a cause and effect in regards to God’s protection. If we obey, we hear, we will be defended and protected. If we obey, we hear, then God will provide all that we need. We can’t stand too close to that flame because the false doctrine of prosperity Gospel can rise up and bite you if you walk too closely to that line. We do not believe that God only rewards the good and punishes the bad. But, we do believe that our obedience often has a direct line influence on what our lives look like.

There is much to be said in these verses. Paul has consistently chastised the Corinthians church because they were not towing the line in the faith or in action. But here Paul tends to take a little bit of a softer approach, even commending them for their actions, and especially for their giving. I want to highlight chapter 9 where we find the verse that we often use which states: He who sows sparingly, will reap sparingly. But the converse is also true, he sows abundantly, will reap abundantly. This is not a lesson on prosperity, but rather on God meeting our needs. The key is to make sure that we understand what our needs are which often need to be delineated from our wants. God will meet our needs, but we will be in want if we want God to meet our desires that do not rise to the level of need.

There are a number of concepts in this Scripture that are important to view and which I had forgotten are included in these passages. The first is the ministry of reconciliation where we are commanded to not only be reconciled with God but also to be reconciled with each other. You can find that in II Corinthians 5 where we read that Christ was made to be sin who knew no sin, and that we are ambassadors for Christ. All of this terminology reminds us of the work that Christ has done for us, and so, as a result, the work that we ought to do for Christ.

We also have the concept of being willing to identify sin and bring people to repentance without shame or guilt. The part that we do the worst job at is to actually identify and declare sin as sin and then trying to bring people to repentance. We are very comfortable with allowing sin to live and fester without saying anything because we do not want to judge. That is a hard line to walk, but one that we almost exclusively walk on the side of not saying anything to anyone because it is hard and not something that we feel like we are called to do. But the presence of sin is real, and we have to deal with it somehow, but we don’t.

The most commonly used Scripture at the committal service, the part where the ashes or the body are buried, is found in Revelation 21 where we find the passage that there will be no more crying or weeping and, most importantly, death will be no more. This is what the people of John’s day needed to hear, and what has traction in our day and age of all times. We need to be consoled knowing that God will one day make all things new, that is also part of this Scripture. This is also the Scripture that reminds us that God is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. God provides the assurance that not only is God in control, but that there will be a new heaven and a new earth in the days to come. I also love the part of this Scripture that reminds us that one day will come when a temple will no longer be needed because God is our temple and just his presence in our midst is all we need. By the way, we are already in that time period. We no longer need a temple.

Who was and is and is to come, we find these words not only in this Scripture, but also in the song called Revelation song which I so enjoy. Maybe that is what I will leave you with today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HC08NgsPqA

There is a real difference between prophecy and prediction. People have always considered Revelation to be predictive, but it is actually prophetic, which means that it is telling the people how to act and how to respond to the promises of God in the midst of severe persecution and hardship. This is what the people of the first century were facing and so this is what the author is leaning into. Letting the people of God know that there were going to be woes and sufferings, but they would be protected by God, while those who do not know God will not be protected. I’m not sure that is the same message that we have in the rest of the Gospel.

I love the fact that the historical explosion of Vesuvius is present in Revelation 8:8 where we see the mountain of fire go into the sea. That is exactly what happened to Vesuvius and it would have happened right before this would have been written.

We begin the book of Revelation which is the most misunderstood book of the Bible. It was written, as we see in chapter 1, by the same John who wrote the Gospel of John. Make sure you don’t get him confused with John the baptist, who is someone altogether different. John is in exile on the island of Patmos and is given this vision by God and told to write down what God has told him. Keep in mind that this takes place probably in the latter part of the first century what is happening then is very opaque to us today. He uses terminology and metaphors that would have been known back then, but are not very clear to us today.

The primary message is do not compromise. There will be times that are difficult and where our faith will be tested, just do not compromise. That is a lasting message for us today as well.