Image Is Everything - Conclusion

 

            What does this construction look like?  Consider the following quotations:

 

“We deplore efforts to… seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation.

 

“The time has come for widespread recognition of the radical changes in religious beliefs throughout the modern world. The time is past for mere revision of traditional attitudes. Science and economic change have disrupted the old beliefs. Religions the world over are under the necessity of coming to terms with new conditions created by a vastly increased knowledge and experience. In every field of human activity, the vital movement is now in the direction of candid and explicit humanism.

 

“Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values.

 

“It follows that there will be no uniquely religious emotions and attitudes of the kind hitherto associated with belief in the supernatural.

 

“Man will learn to face the crises of life in terms of his knowledge of their naturalness and probability. Reasonable and manly attitudes will be fostered by education and supported by custom. We assume that humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking.”

 

The above quotations are from the Humanist Manifesto, written in the 1930’s and signed and endorsed by many religious, political, philosophical, scientific and educational leaders.  In fact, one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto was John Dewey of Columbia University, whose educational beliefs permeate our public education system and of our universities.

 

          Who is at the center of the above quotations?  Man is.  We are the center of it all.  To those who scoff at the book of Genesis, can’t you read the writing on the wall?  Don’t you see that the above quotations from the Humanist Manifesto are exactly the line of thought presented by the serpent to Eve?  The idea that there can be true self-knowledge without God is not a product of the Enlightenment, it is not a product of what we might call “modern thinking,” it is a product of the dragon.

 

          Whose image do we worship?

 

          A true Lamb and a false lamb.  An image of God and an image of man.  A Lamb to be followed and a beast to be followed.

 

          If the patterns of our minds and hearts were placed on the overhead for us to see, what image would appear?  The image of man or the image of God?  The mark of the beast or the name of the Lamb and our Father God?  The worship of Jesus Christ or the worship of ourselves?

 

          We are called not to a religion but a relationship, a relationship with Jesus Christ that results in the restoration of the image of God within us.  Paul writes:

 

>RO 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

 

 The word that we translate “transformed” in this verse is the word we use for what happens when a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly, it is the word “metamorphous.”  When we follow the Lamb wherever He goes, when we are obedient to Jesus Christ, when we enter into a relationship with Him and live where He lives on Mt. Zion, we experience the restoration of the image of God within us and the patterns and images of this world begin to fall away in our hearts and minds and they are replaced by the image of God in Christ.

 

          As our minds are renewed we are metamorphosed, transformed, into the image of God, we are lifted out of the deep well with the slippery sides of self-absorption into a relationship where the name of the Lamb and of His Father are written on our minds.  Now in the Scriptures names speak to us of natures, and so the nature of God in Christ is restored to our hearts and minds. Paul writes to the Corinthians:

 

          2 Cor. 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

 

          And he further writes to the Ephesians:

 

          EPH 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

 

          What would our archeological study conclude?  That image worship and sacrifice ceased with modern man?  Or that modern man has simply internalized his image worship and his sacrifices?  That modern man still offers his fellow citizens, offers himself and offers his children on the altar of the god of self-exaltation, self-gratification, self-fulfillment and self-worship?  Would it conclude that man has taken the number 666 and written it on his mind, his heart, his religion, his education, his science, his philosophy, his economy, his government?

 

          But of course, the more important question, the most important question for us is, “Whose image do we bear?  The image of self or the image of God?” “Whose nature lives within us?  The nature of fractured and rebellious man or the nature of the Lamb?” “Who do we worship?  Do we worship self, and by extension the dragon and beast?  Or do we worship our Creator God and the Lamb who has borne our sins, given His life for us and who has conquered death?”

 

          Yes, image is everything.  Who have you given your life to?  Whose image do you bear?

 

          Whose image is transforming you this morning?   

                   

 

Image Is Everything - Part 2

 

    Now let me make a couple of interpretive comments before we get to the heart of the matter.  There are many approaches to the book of Revelation and to specific passages within Revelation, since this is not a classroom, I’m not going to take the time to talk about different approaches, but I do want to make some points.

 

           Mt. Zion in 14:1 speaks to us of where God dwells.  These 144,000 are living their lives where God is.  They aren’t putting off their obedience and fellowship with God until some pie – in – the – sky futuristic experience, but they are living with God in the present, in the eternal present.  That is an experience in Jesus Christ that we all can know.  That is one of many differences between having a religion and a relationship.

 

           The number 144,000 is a symbolic number that speaks to us of completeness.  That is, the Lamb is going to have a complete number of people follow Him and His work on earth won’t be finished until He is finished gathering His firstfruits.  In verse 4 we see this group called firstfruits. James 1:18 “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”  God’s people are spoken of as firstfruits in the Scriptures.

 

           The idea that this group hasn’t defiled itself with women isn’t talking about sexuality.  In fact, this group is made up of men and women, girls and boys.  Instead this image speaks to us of the fact that this group has remained faithful to the Lamb.  In the book of Revelation, the image of women is used to portray unfaithfulness to God and promiscuity with the dragon and the beast on the one hand, and on the other hand we have the woman who is the Bride of Christ, pure and spotless and faithful, with which the book of Revelation culminates.  The book of Revelation is an equal opportunity employer and there are many images of men in the book that are evil.

  

          We’ve got a contrast in chapters 13 and 14, a contrast between the beast and his followers and the Lamb and His followers; a contrast between the false lamb and the true Lamb; a contrast between the mark of the beast and the name of the Lamb. 

  

It is important to remind ourselves that chapter and verse divisions did not exist when the Old and New Testaments were written, they were added much later for ease of reference, and while chapters and verses can be useful they can also be harmful and this is a case in point.  If we simply stop reading at the end of chapter 13, we miss the author’s intent to see the contrast found in chapter 14.

 

          Two images.  The image of God and the image of the beast.  Two strains in the flow of history, in the flow of philosophy, in the flow of education, in religion, in science, in government…in all of life.  The image of God and the image of the beast.

  

          God makes us in His image.  The serpent, the enemy of God, the dragon comes alongside us and asks, “Did God really say these things?”  The serpent would have us believe that we can be greater than we are.  He would have us believe that we can attain to a greater image.  He offers us the intoxication of an independent autonomous life without God, in fact he seduces us with the idea that we can be like God.

  

          We are made in God’s image, and in that respect we bear His likeness, but we think we can do better and so we go our own way…and the image that we once bore we fractured…and in our descent from that image we have become like the man fallen into what seems like a bottomless well with smooth slimy sides, trying constantly to pull ourselves up only to slip further down.

  

          How many times in the past few weeks have I been asked if we’re living in the book of Revelation, if we’re living in the tribulation period?  How many times am I asked about the number 666?

  

          Last week I suggested we not look outside for the beast but inside, inside our hearts, inside our minds, inside these temples.  Yes, the flow of history will see the beast and work of the dragon personified in some form, but if I don’t recognize what’s going on inside of me, I’ll never recognize what occurs outside of me.

  

          Now the number 7 in Revelation often represents perfection or completeness.  It is associated with the perfection that we find only in God.  The number 6 is a less than perfect number, a number that falls short of perfection.  Man was created on the 6^th day.  When a number or word is repeated in the Bible it is done so for emphasis and to convey the fullness of an idea.  For example, heavenly beings in the Scriptures cry out to God, “Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty.”  The repeated word “holy” is showing that God is perfect in holiness or full of holiness.

  

          We have the number 666, meaning that the self-exaltation of man in his rebellion and imperfection has reached a crescendo.  Man’s worship of himself, a worship empowered by the dragon and the beast reaches a point where it can go no farther, man finally constructs his ultimate tower of Babel.

to be continued...

 

Image Is Everything - Part 1

 

Image is everything

This was preached the third Sunday after 9/11. Can you see that the previous message was a setup for this message? Can you see the linkage of the two messages?

 

 

September 30, 2001; Revelation 13:11 – 14:5.

Robert Withers, Becket, MA

 

          A few years ago, tennis star Andre Aggasi was in a television commercial for Nikon Cameras.  The commercial portrayed Agassi as the slick successful unconventional tennis pro that he is with the punch line spoken by Agassi “image is everything.”  Of course that was a double entendre in that “image is everything” was tied into Agassi’s public persona as a tennis player, which supposedly is translated into success on the tennis court, and of course, the issue when buying a camera is the quality of image that the product will produce.  So the phrase “image is everything” carried two meanings with it.

  

          There is a catalog company that also has retail outlets by the name of The Sharper Image.  It’s a place where you can purchase items for the person who has everything, like a $50 gold-plated toothpick.  The idea is that if you want to enhance your image all you need do is purchase something that is unique and different, something the average person wouldn’t own, and that owning and flaunting unusual items will give you a “sharper image” in the eyes of your peers.

  

          Few products seen on television are presented in terms of functionality but rather in terms of image.  About the only products that deal straight up with functionality are those miracle cleaning products that will take grape juice, mustard, and Kool Aid out of your carpet within 30 seconds, but wait, if you order within the next 10 minutes you’ll get a second order free and a special video on raising iguanas.

 

           Few, if any, automobile advertisements are based on the functionality of cars but rather the images they portray.  We have images of power, images of comfort, images of elegance, images of durability, images of cowboys, images of race car drivers, images of social and financial success, and of course, images of sexuality.  Somehow automobiles have been transformed from the basic Model T to personal statements that convey something about the owner. 

 

          Imagine that we are a team of archeologists from another planet.  We are sent here to research the role of images on earth.  We begin our research with ancient cultures.  We view the Babylonian, the Egyptian, the Aztec, the Mayan, and the Inca, to name but a few.  We uncover representations of gods in the form of statues, woodcarvings, mosaics, and monuments.  Since many of these representations are in population centers we conclude that they were a focal point of ancient life.  As we dig deeper, we discover that sacrifice played a part in ancient mankind’s relationship with these representations, these images.  Some of these sacrifices were of crops, some were of animals and others were of humans; of men, women and children.

  

          No doubt these sacrifices were meant to appease the ancient gods.  No doubt as we progress in our study of earth things will get better.  No doubt – we think - as civilization develops, mankind will move beyond the worship of images.

 

           Our passage this morning speaks of two images, two imprints.  The first is the image of the beast.  We touched on this last week.  We have two beasts and a dragon in chapter 13, and the second beast, which appears as a lamb, in other words it has the image of a lamb, causes men to make an image of the first beast, the antichrist.  Notice that the second beast, the false prophet, causes men to make this image.  We saw earlier in chapter 13 verse 4 that the world worships the beast.

  

          Then in chapter 14 we see another group, a group that is not a part of the common flow of humanity, a group that does not worship the beast.  This group does not carry the mark of the beast on or within themselves, but on the contrary have the name of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, and the name of His Father written on their foreheads – in their minds. As opposed to worshipping the beast, this group follows the Lamb wherever He goes.

to be continued...

 

Where's The Image? Conclusion

 

If you’ve read Daniel and Revelation, you’ll see that one pattern is the consolidation of power.  Mankind’s quest is to consolidate power.  This is at least as old as the Tower of Babel in the book of Genesis.  A time will come when this quest for power will be consummated, and this consummation will be energized by the dragon, Satan.  That’s a pretty basic pattern.  The thing is, even though the antichrist is characterized as a beast in this chapter, he won’t look like a beast to the world, in fact he’ll look like a savior, a person who has the solution to what ails us.

However, if we spend our time looking for an individual to place the tag “antichrist” upon the chances are that we’ll miss him, because the antichrist is more than an individual, it is a way of life, a way of looking at the world, a way of thinking.  And, assuming that the antichrist is one day personified in a person (which may or may not be the case), those who have already lived their lives immersed in a certain way of thinking will not likely recognize him as other than a savior, a wonderful human being.

 

“1JN 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”

 

   I think we can say that the spirit of antichrist was manifested in Cain when he murdered his brother Able and that it’s been with us ever since.  So the first place to look for it is in here, within us, then we can worry about it elsewhere.  That won’t sell books because we don’t like self-examination, but it is something that our spiritual forebearers recognized.

 

You might say that in Revelation 13 we have an unholy trinity, a counterpart to the Holy Trinity; the dragon, the antichrist and the false prophet. 

 

There is a beast in every generation, a false prophet in every generation, an image in every generation, and the number 666 in every generation.  You’ll probably need to give that some thought, but that’s all right. That won’t sell books either, but that’s a Biblical pattern.  However, a generation will come in which this unholy trinity is ultimately personified in one manifestation or in many.  That is, a generation will come in which the power and deception of the dragon finds its ultimate expression in humanity and in a representative (or representatives) of humanity who is opposed to God.

 

The great news is that God has a plan for His people, a plan for His people to be the light of the world, a plan for His people to come into the fullness of their inheritance in Jesus Christ, a plan for His people to bear the image of God no matter how dark the darkness may be.  You see, the encroachment of the powers of evil does not mean that the people of God retreat and hide in holes, but rather that they become the bearers of the Good News of Jesus to a world that so desperately needs to hear and see Him living in and through His people.

 

This is why it is imperative that we live as Christ in this generation.  It is imperative that we bring the light and life of Christ to others, because without us they aren’t going see Jesus.

 

I once had a conversation with someone who does not live in the area, the person has no connection whatsoever with this church.  The person worked in a hospice program at the time, she is a believer in Jesus Christ, and she said to me, “Well, I don’t tell people about Jesus because that’s against policy.”  My friends, if we don’t tell dying people about Jesus then who are we going to tell?

 

We are living in mental and spiritual prisons. We are locked up in our thinking and are living in mental processes that are frankly absurd.  Do we really think on the day when we stand before our Lord Jesus that we can say, “Well Lord, I would have told my coworkers about you but it was against policy”?  Do we seriously think that God Almighty is going to accept those words?

 

How many Christians perished in the World Trade Center alongside fellow workers with whom they had never shared the wonderful news of Jesus Christ?  This is not a game; this is eternal reality.  And all the pluralistic songs and prayer services and sweet cotton candy accolades and singing “God Bless America” will not change the fact that men and women went into eternity on September 11, 2001 not knowing light and life in Jesus Christ.

 

  I do not say this to minimize the tragedy, the human suffering, the incomprehensible loss…I grieve for all of those affected…I grieve for our nation.

 

But I say this to give us a wakeup call to consider the prison our minds are in and to ask us whether we ourselves have bought into a civil religion…are we worshipping the Emperor, have we become members of the Imperial Cult, when we make no distinction between Jesus Christ and other gods?

 

People who are worried about some physical image of a beast being set up somewhere in the Middle East or wherever ought to forget about looking outward and ask God to give them an inner reality check, because the image of the beast to be concerned about is not out there, it is in here, in my heart, in my mind, in my soul…because I’ll never be what God would have me to be if that beast has a safe harbor inside of me…and if he does…then whatever occurs outside of me is really a non-issue because I’ve already internalized the image within me.

 

Well, God has got better things for us, in fact He’s got the very best for us, and we’ll continue this next week.

 

In the meantime, what images are living within our hearts and minds and souls?

Where's The Image? Part 2

 

“DA 9:1 In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom-- 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.”

 

          Seventy years before this passage was written the kingdom of Judah along with its capital city, Jerusalem, had been conquered by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar.  As was the military and political custom of that time, many of the people of the kingdom of Judah were removed from the land and relocated elsewhere. This was in accordance with the prophecies of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah also prophesied that after 70 years the people of Judah would be allowed to return to their land.

 

          In Daniel chapter 9 Daniel tells us that a time came when he understood it was time for Jeremiah’s prophecy to be fulfilled.

 

          Now the question for us is, “How did Daniel respond to this understanding?”  What did he do and what didn’t he do?  And let’s remember, this is a man who has had unusual encounters with God, a man who has been given dreams and visions about the future, the flow of history, right up to the consummation of history.  So how did this man respond?

 

          He didn’t produce a chart with every detail of how the people of Judah were going to return to their land.  He didn’t make a public proclamation of his newfound knowledge.  He didn’t write a series of books. He didn’t hold conventions on prophecy. He didn’t make himself the center of attention. He didn’t seek to financially profit from his understanding.

 

In fact, the only thing we know that he did was what?  He prayed.  He engaged in intercessory prayer for his people, confessing their sins, and while we aren’t going to read this entire chapter, toward the end of the chapter, as a result of his humble praying which was focused on God and others, Daniel received even more understanding about God’s purposes in the flow of history.

 

          Had Daniel been presumptuous, with a “know it all” attitude, I seriously doubt he would have received anything else from God.

 

          If Daniel’s attitude and response was one of humility and prayer, then I think we ought to take our presumptuous charts off the wall and follow his example.

 

 

          What are the prophetic patterns we see in Scripture?  There are many, many patterns, some are hopeful and upbeat and some are on the downside of history.  God has a purpose and His purpose will not be defeated, it will not be stopped, it will not be delayed.  Next week we’ll look at the upside of His purpose, we’ll look at His plan for you, His destiny for you, because He has things for us and a destiny for us that most of us have never even thought about, never even heard about.  Most of His people on this earth are living on spiritual welfare when God has given them the riches of His glory.

 

          Back to Revelation chapter 13.  We’ve got a beast, a dragon, another beast who looks like a lamb but which is a false prophet, we’ve got an image of the beast and we’ve also got the number 666, a number which has generated much speculation for the past 2,000 years.

 

          We’re going to take a quick look at this chapter and if you haven’t read the entire book of Revelation you’ll need to do so in order to put this chapter in its context.  The characters in this chapter are seen elsewhere in Revelation, and the dragon and the first beast are seen throughout Scripture. Look for the patterns, always look for the patterns and images and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you through them.

 

What are the patterns represented in this chapter?  Now to some of you this is old stuff and so you’ll just have to be patient, and you can be like Daniel and pray while we go through this.

 

Verses 1 & 2.  The heads, the horns, and the crowns are images that represent heads of state, governments and power.  If you’ve read the book of Daniel you’ll know that animal images such as the leopard, the bear and the lion represent characteristics of governments and rulers.

The dragon represents Satan, this is interpreted for us in Revelation 12:9 and elsewhere.

 

We see in verse 2 that the dragon gives the beast his authority and power.  In other words, the beast is energized and motivated by Satan.

 

People worship the beast and in verses 6 – 10 we see that the beast is opposed to God and that he makes war on the saints.

 

In verse 11 we see another beast who looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon and it is his job to cause the world to worship the first beast.

 

This second beast, we’ll call him the False Prophet, for this is his designation elsewhere in the Book of Revelation, causes mankind to make an image of the first beast, who we’ll call the Antichrist, and he gives life to this image; if people don’t worship this image they are killed.  If you’ve read Daniel this will remind you of the image Nebuchadnezzar made and of Daniel’s three friends refusing to worship that image and the fiery furnace they were placed in.

 

Then in verse 16 we see the mark of the beast and in verse 17 we see that if you don’t have the mark you can’t engage in commerce and then in verse 18 we have the number 666.

 

Now we know that there were times in the Roman Empire in which people were required to offer sacrifice to the Emperor.  The Emperor was considered a god, and to demonstrate your loyalty to the Emperor you appeared before an official and offered a sacrifice or incense, affirming that you indeed worshiped the Emperor.

 

Without this affirmation you could not engage in commerce, you could not buy or sell.  So while there indeed may be a future and more comprehensive fulfillment of this element concerning buying and selling in Revelation 13, we do have historical examples of it.

 

(We can find many examples of this throughout history – it takes many forms. If you do not conform to the system you are in, the system can be unmerciful and shut you out, making economic survival difficult or impossible.)

 

Christians were not so much persecuted by the Roman Empire because they worshipped Jesus.  Let me repeat that, Christians were not so much persecuted by the Roman Empire because they worshipped Jesus.  They were persecuted because they worshipped Jesus only.

 

Roman society was both and syncretistic and polytheistic.  You could worship 80 or 800 gods and have no problems, as long as you also worshipped the Emperor.  But Christians worshipped Jesus ONLY.  My dear dear friends, we can worship Jesus all we want, as long as we don’t consider Him to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and people will leave us alone. This is, in fact, why they do indeed generally leave us alone – because we worship the gods of the world alongside Jesus.

 

What are the patterns?

to be continued...

Where's The Image? Part 1

 Where’s the image?

 

This was our second Sunday morning after 9/11. The first Sunday I had a handout for the congregation that listed Bible passages and bullet points, I didn’t preach a sermon that first Sunday because it was more a time of reflection for us than anything else. How does a person or a people process and respond to such a tragedy? I wanted to guide our dear people to Jesus and away from the reactions of the world, as well as away from cheap popular Christian thinking. I wanted our people to see themselves as “citizens of heaven” (Phil. 3:20) before anything else – our calling was to display Jesus and bring others to Him.

A companion passage, which I do not refer to in this message, is 2 Thessalonians 2:1 - 12. If we grasp the essence of this passage we will "see" that self-exaltation, both individual and collective, is a hallmark of Satan; and rather than embrace it and justify it, we will flee from it and from all who propagate it. The "man of lawlessness" exalts himself and works to pull us into drinking the poison of that cup...woe to us that we see and flee from this evil.  

 

Can you see what I was doing in this message?

This is lightly edited.

 

 September 23, 2001; Revelation 13

Becket, MA  

Bob Withers

 

            When I was in property management, a lady worked for me who was the manager of a cooperative community of 400 families just outside Washington, D.C.  One year I sent her to a conference in San Antonio, Texas, thinking that it would be a great experience for her and help advance her career.  When she returned, she walked into my office and cursed me up one side and down the other, she was really upset.

 

          She was upset because I’d sent her into unfamiliar territory, unfamiliar people, and unfamiliar subject matter.  She was frustrated, highly frustrated.  Though, all in all, she came out just fine.

 

          A number of people who worked for me over the years had that same experience to varying degrees, that experience of frustration, because I would not dumb down for them, I wanted to bring them up, not allow them to remain where they were.

 

          And so, my dear friends, you have lots of company, your frustration has been shared by many over the years, I love you too much to dumb down.

 

          Last week we looked briefly at a number of questions that have been raised as a result of the attacks in New York and Washington and the tragedy in Pennsylvania.  Among the Biblical references on last week’s handout were the books of Daniel and Revelation, and in reading them I suggested that you ask yourself the question, “What patterns do I see in these passages?”

 

          God communicates to us through patterns and images.  Yes, He also gives us commandments and principles to live by, but much of His communication is through images and patterns.  Sometimes we’re apt to think that the idea that we’re a visual people only came about with the advent of movies and television, but we’ve been visual from the beginning of our existence.  In fact, in the beginning we were God’s visualization of Himself to the universe in that He created us in His image; now He is about the restoration of that image through and in Jesus Christ.

 

          We are told that Jesus Christ is the perfect image of God.  Yes, Jesus taught many things, but He first and foremost lived among us and, as the apostle John writes, “He is full of grace and truth.”  This is why Jesus could say, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me…He who has seen Me has seen the Father” This is why the primary issue with Jesus is not His teachings, but His Person, Himself.  He is God, God manifested in the flesh, God’s perfect representation, His perfect image.

 

          The other day as I was channel surfing, I happened upon one of the religious channels on which the preacher was talking about Biblical prophecy.  Behind him on the platform was a massive chart that took up most of the wall.  The chart showed this preacher’s conception of history from the dawn of time through the last chapter of Revelation.  I’ve seen charts like this since I came to Christ as a teenager.  Those charts used to fascinate me with all their knowledge and detail and Biblical references, I was intrigued by them.  After all, for many of us, knowing the future and having the answers is important, it’s a natural tendency within many of us.

 

          A few weeks ago, I was at a house party when the hostess walked up to me with another woman and said, “Bob, do you know Mary Scammon?”  And I replied, “Of course I know Mary, but Mary, I didn’t recognize you.”  And the fact was that I hadn’t recognized this woman who’ve I’ve seen and talked to on a number of occasions.  In spite of the fact that she had a wide brimmed summer hat on, and that I don’t recall her ever wearing a hat before, I still think I should have recognized her.  But why didn’t I know who she was when I first saw her?  Why did someone have to remind me who she was?  Because I saw her out of context. 

 

Has this ever happened to you?  You’re accustomed to seeing someone in a particular context, perhaps work, or church, or school, and then you see them in an aisle at Walmart, and you draw an embarrassing blank and don’t know what to say?  I was accustomed to seeing Mary Scammon in the context of my relationship with her husband, pastor Warren Scammon.  Since the function we were both at had nothing to do with church ministry, I didn’t recognize Mary.

 

          By the same token, when people draw elaborate charts about Biblical prophecy and insist that the future is going to follow the detailed path they have laid out, they leave themselves and their students open to the almost inevitable experience of not understanding what is actually occurring because they can’t recognize events outside of their pre-determined context.

          If we’ll study and understand the patterns and images of Scripture, then we’ll have the tools that the Holy Spirit can use to help us understand events, otherwise we’ll be like the baseball player at the plate who is looking for a particular pitch, maybe a 95 mph fast ball but he gets a 70 mph change –up and swings long before the ball reaches the plate. 

 

             If you’ve read the book of Daniel, you’ll know that God showed Daniel a number of visions concerning the prophetic flow of history.  Daniel saw some pretty weird images and patterns, in fact, some were quite frightening.  Therefore, we might rightly think that if we could discover how Daniel responded to the contemporary flow of events in his own life, especially if he thought the events were in accordance with Biblical prophecy, that then we might have a pattern to follow in our lives and in our time.

 

          Well, we do have an outstanding example of this and it is found in Daniel chapter 9, so

let’s turn to it briefly, Daniel chapter 9, which will be page 788 in most of the pew Bibles.

to be continued...

The Invitation – testimony

 

The Invitation – testimony

LeAnna

 

I received this email in response to the message, The Invitation; it is from LeAnna. Since testimonies ought to be shared, I thought I’d pass this along. O dear friends, we must always be on mission for Jesus, always for Jesus. How we are distracted about many things, when people around us…and in our pews…truly need Jesus.

 

A worldview doesn’t save people, an economic system doesn’t save people, a political system doesn’t save people – only Jesus saves people, only Jesus brings light and life – and our lives are to belong only to Him…only to Him.

 

Let us be devoted to, and in love with, Jesus.

 

Much love,

 

Bob

 

Thanks for this. Surely I would never forget... I had been attending church that year since February 2001 my ears and heart were being opened...

9/11 was the catalyst for me to dig deeper... and that revival weekend I clearly remember saying to myself "well let me go to church for Friday night instead of partying for the first time."

I met Jesus that weekend

 the veil was taken away

you prayed for me after the service because I told you I wanted to go up to the alter call but was reluctant to be the only one,

 you simply prayed for me and  when I went home I said let me read the Bible for myself; and said well I might as well start where we were reading tonight the book of Revelation and finished it.

 i didn't have any idea what was coming

I was so eager to talk to you the next morning.

9/11 for me was the catalyst to dig in for the gold.

My experience for 9/11 was life-changing and you were an assigned helper on my path at that time in those days.

I’m forever grateful.

Stay blessed and favored.

Love to you both.

I know for sure the message that is/was relentlessly resounding in my being is "come, now is the time to awaken, let The Bride arise, let the bride start moving like the bride" where is the Bride of Christ? It is time.