Thoughts From the Bible

Read Revelation 14:14- 20 - Revelation is laden with imagery, but it is also full of scenes that will actually take place on earth.  For thousands of years, God has provided the world with His messages of how to live life and for at least two thousand years, we know we live in an age where we need to choose between believing in Jesus Christ or not.  God wants all to come to believe but He also knows there are those who will choose to stay far away from Him.  If so, at the end of the age, God will begin to end evil in the world. Verses 19 and 20 says, “So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.  And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia .”  

Read Revelation 14: 6-13- In this passage there are three angels with two different messages.  the first is a message of praise and worship to God. That is the way we should begin our lives.  Simple praise and worship to God.  Even in the distressing times being written about in Revelation, the first angel encouraged the people to worship.   The next two angels brought warnings for those who do not follow God.  The sinful of the age is exposed and the warnings are given to the people to not follow Satan. Then in verse 12 we read this, “ Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.” With all the grand and glorious things that are beginning to be seen throughout the wor ld with the return of Jesus, this angel tells us something we need to think about now.  The angel calls for the endurance of the saints and keeping God’s commandments and not losing sight of who Jesus Christ is.   That ...

Revelation 14:2- 5- “...and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders.  No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.  It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins.  It is these who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.  These have been redeemed from mankind as firsfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.” This passage talks of only positive things.  In a time of such upheaval and evil, Jesus has returned and the 144,000 with Him, singing a song that only they could sing.  This 144,000 have been specially redeemed and preserved by God in the Tribulation and now have special status with Jesus as they praise and worship Him.  They stayed true to the foundations of Christ in their lives and were obsessed, if you will, with Jesus and His principles and His ways even in the ...

Revelation 14: 1- Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads.” Take a minute to stop and imagine this site.  The world is in chaos.  People live in fear and are trying to make sense of their lives and then this happens.   This is something that has never, ever been seen before. God Almighty, Jesus Christ appears in the heavens with the ultimate multitude. He stands for all to se e on Mount Zion and His followers have His name on their foreheads, not 666. The media will not have time to freak out over this event.  They will be in shock just like everyone else in the world.   Once their human bodies have had a chance to really assimilate what is happening, they will realize their time is done and they will know the impact of their decisions to follow Satan, the Anti-Christ, and the False Prophet.   Jesus Christ’s day of ultimate victory will b...

Revelation 13:16- 18- “It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or se l l unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.   This calls for wisdom.  Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man .  That number is 666.” This is one of the most harrowing short passages in the Bible.  This whole idea of having some type of public facing identification in order to buy and sell anything causes most of us to pause and really wonder that would actually look like.  Many people are now having their bodies tattooed in very elaborate ways and some are not hesitant to put tattoos on their faces.  This shows us how easy it will be for many to accept yet another mark on their foreheads or on their hands. It could very well become a fashion statement.  That’s ...

Read Revelation 13:11- 15- During this time in the tribulation, people will be living in fear.  Satan will be counterfeiting the power of God but doing it through terror.   Revelation 13:15 says, “The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.” This is a lesson for Christians and for people who have not decided to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.  There is no time to wait.  No one wants to live through a time of such fear and u ltimate destruction.  We need to take the scriptures and read them thoroughly and know Jesus Christ offers people, those who He created, the only life of pea ce and joy.  We can see that now and know this period of humanity noted in this passage will be something Christians will not see.  

Read Revelation 13: 1- 10- Throughout our lives, we all have choices to make. So many of our choices shape the way we live our lives, and it also shapes what happens to our futures.  God has allowed us to have a personal will that allows us to make decisions when it comes to beli eving in Him or not.  That shapes our future as well as our present.   We see this playing out as Stan takes hold of the world th rough the Antichrist and his false prophet. God has shown us His love and protection through the last verses of this passage in verses 7 and 8 , “It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them.  And it was given authority over eve ry tribe, people, language and nation.  All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast; all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.” We need to understand the power of our decisions especially as it applies to our spir...