The Seventh Seal is opened, and it is the prelude to the seven trumpets. Man will have faced the repercussions of his sin, and now God will start responding to the earth, with the start of the tribulation.

When the 7th seal is opened, an angel comes out and is carrying a golden censer, standing before the altar, and offers it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar.

The smoke of the incense and the prayers of the saints ascend before God.

Then the angel takes the censer and fills it with fire from the altar and throws it to earth, and there are noises, lightning and thunderings and an earthquake.

An aside, did you ever notice how the book of Joshua seems to parallel Revelation? I will share a few points to get you started, but there are many comparisons. That is what I love about the Bible, you find picture illustrations in the Old Testament of the New Testament principles.

7 Trumpets in Revelation – Joshua marched 7 days around Jericho then blew the trumpets.

Joshua means Jesus.

Joshua leads the people into a land where there were battles to be fought to rout out the usurpers. Jesus will lead the army in Revelation into the promised land to rout out the usurpers.

How many usurpers were there in the promised land in Joshua? According to Genesis 15, there were 10, the 10 nations mentioned in Daniel 7 and 10. Remember the horns coming out of the beast and the 10 toes of Daniel.

God’s people were in Egypt for 400 years. The Jews were dispersed until the 1940′s after the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D.

2 spies are sent in to scope out the land, and in Revelation, two witnesses come to share God’s word.

In Revelation 7, before the trumpets are sounded the remnant 144,000 are marked, and before Joshua moved his army they too were marked by circumcision.

In Joshua the sun stands still, and in Revelation there are signs in the sun, moon and stars.

And in Joshua, even though he fought, more were killed by God than by the sword, and the same will be true in Revelation when Jesus comes forth with His Word.

This is just a few ideas kicking around in my head, but there are many others. I have often prayed that I would one day be a person who could have a relationship with God like Joshua son of Nun.

Back to Revelation Chapter 8: verse 1. When the seal is opened there will be silence in heaven for 1/2 hour. This will be most unusual for what we have seen in Revelation 4 & 5 is a continual worshipping and praise of God, that silence will have such an ominous lack of sound. Perhaps it is God listening, but after that silence will come such a tremendous amount of suffering as God begins cleansing the earth.

And yet, in the midst of all the terror there is still the hope that some will repent and be saved. Sometimes (at least in my life) we need a wake-up call to realize that we do need God. I had to get to a pretty low point in my life before I reached out to God, and I am certain that with His great love for us, that He too hopes that people will wake up. You will see angels making announcements in heaven, the two witnesses being sent, the 144,000. God is really trying to reach man. We are fortunate for we are there with God at this time of tribulation, for God did not appoint us to wrath. (again, I know there are differing beliefs about this, but I am believing what God has promised, and truth be told, it will work out just as God ordains). My goal is just to show God’s love to as many as possible so that they come to know the incredible love of Jesus and accept Jesus into their lives, and the denominational beliefs are secondary to that.

I will share more about how I came to the belief that we are in heaven during this through Bible passages that seem to indicate that. But, that has to be at a later time.

Hope you have a blessed day!

Heather

Boy, when it rains it pours, today I received a devotional that speaks so strongly to me. It has to do with those who try to hurry up our healing. I had once asked Pastor Don why my healing takes so long and he told me so that I would have patience when I worked with others as they take time for healing.

I also asked him why God did not speak so forcibly in my life and he told me that because of the abuse I had received that God is very gentle, not wanting to hurt or push too hard or force Himself on me, rather He would wait until I could take a step at a time towards Him. This devotional speaks to that and I thought I would share it with you.

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NACR Daily Meditation for Monday, Feb 27, 2006

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He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised
reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.Isaiah 42:2-3


Cheer up! Snap out of it! I thought you would be better by now! What’s your
problem?!


When we have been badly bruised, we have an increased sensitivity to noise.
Comments like these – which many of us have heard even from people who genuinely
love and care for us – are a kind of ‘noise’ during recovery. Because we
have been bruised, these comments often feel like ‘shouts’ or ‘raised voices
in the street.’ They are a kind of public shaming because of our inadequacies
and neediness. And this feels like it will do us in – like the tiny recovery
candle that we have just managed to light is being snuffed out by the wind
of the shout.


And so when God responds with gentleness we are surprised. No shouting.
No yelling. No hurrying to get better. Instead, we find compassion and tenderness.
Our Healer sees that we are like a bruised reed. God will not break us. God
will patiently restore us. God sees we are like a smoldering wick, ready
to go out. Others might give up on us. But God will work with us until we
burn brightly again.


Gentleness. Patience. Persistence. We need all three. These are the gifts
offered to us by our healing God.


I am bruised, Lord.
I am smoldering.
And, I am so accustomed to shouting.
It’s so noisy that I don’t always hear your voice.
I don’t expect your gentle ways.
I expect you to yell, to be impatient.
I expect you to give up on me.
But you do not yell.
You are not impatient.
You do not give up.
Thank you.
Gentle Healer, teach me to be gentle.
Teach me to be compassionate with myself and with others.
Amen.


Copyright 1991 Dale and Juanita Ryan
 
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ROOTED IN GOD’S LOVE (the book from which these meditations are taken, is back in print! To order call our office at 714-529-6227 ext 111 or order online at

http://www.nacronline.com/dox/store/nacrbooks.shtml

My sister-in-law sent me this, I never knew it, but it may be helpful to some. I will try to put some Revelation studies up later today after kids go to bed.

seems like Blessed by God is the 15,000 person. Thank you so much.

I have been sharing entries with my pastor, especially the ones with notes from his Bible studies, he is amazed at the webblog phenomena. A year or so ago when I started this, it was just to be able to post to one of the people whose devotionals I subscribe too. Never did I realize that I would make so many good friends, learn so much from other’s sites. This is an incredible tool. I have been so blessed.

Heather

My sister-in-law sent me this link. I have to tell you that I could see this happening some day. We are giving up more and more of our privacy.

http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf

By the way, remember that if you are 15,000 please let me know. And thank you for being such good friends.

Heather

I just noticed I am at 14,966 on my counter, 15,000 isn’t far away. If you happen to notice that you are the 15,000′th person please let me know, I would love to know who it is. God has blessed me with wonderful people coming here and I am honored to call you friends.

Heather

The sixth seal is one of the reasons that I feel that the events in Revelation have not occurred yet. In Chapter 6:12-17 there is a great earthquake, the sun becomes black as sackcloth of hair and the moon becomes like blood. The stars of heaven fall to the earth, and the sky exceeds like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.

The kings of the earth, great and rich men, commanders, mighty men, slaves and freemen will hide themselves in caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and say to the mountains, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand.

Oh there is so much in this. Yes we have had earthquakes and serious storms, but nothing that has moved the mountains and islands out of their places. The only think that came close was the Tsunami and that tilted our earth’s axis a bit. Never has the moon been like blood.

Some point to this passage and then point to Revelation 15 and the bowl judgements where the wrath of God is complete. In the 7th bowl the islands flee away and the mountains are not found, and an angel announces that it is done meaning the great day of God’s wrath is done.

Some might ask how can there be two days of God’s wrath, and I suggest that you consider the source of the pronouncement. In the seal judgement the men on earth are announcing that this is the great day of God’s wrath, but in the bowl judgements the pronouncement comes from heaven. I do not believe that the seal judgements are God’s wrath, although he did start intervening here with the signs and wonders in the sky.

So often today people speak of wicked weather, God’s judgement being part of natural disasters, but these disasters are not of God, but of man, his ways, and satan. With the seal judgements, these are judgements that are the repercussions of what man did with earth, and Jesus was reclaiming the title deed of earth (see the scroll study), and while the repercussions of what happens is severe, you will see that they will escalate through the trumpets and the bowls,

Luke 23:28-31 Jesus talks about the last days, and tells the daughters of Jerusalem, the Israelites not to weep for Him, but to weep for them and their children, for in v. 30 “Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”

This same statement is made in Hosea 10:8 in regards to Samaria, about the high places, and the sin of Israel shall be destroyed, and they will say to the mountains “Cover us!”..

And yet, God will save a remnant of Israel. Yes, I know this is a bone of contention among the Revelation theorists, some say Israel lost her chance when she rejected Christ, but all the studies I have done point to Israel being saved, at least some of them who get their eyes opened. God will not desert his children.

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And now for a completely different note, I heard a teaching on the radio that I want to check out, but it is so interesting to me, I was wondering if any of you had heard it.

When Adam and Eve left the garden, they traveled eastward, and all the major cities were to points east. It wasn’t until Abraham and his covenant, that Abraham started moving west per God’s instructions, and that was when God could bless his obedience.

Have you heard this? I have to do my homework and pull out a map and plot some of these moves to see if this is so.

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Also, thanks for your prayers. Things have calmed down somewhat. My daughter is going to science olympiad tomorrow, so it is early to rise. Then we have to travel 1 1/2 hours to pick her up to meet an evening comittment, but at least she will not have to let her teammates down by not being their for the science projects she worked so hard on.

Please keep me in prayer, as I seem to be sorting out a few issues, not sleeping well, and struggling to try and stay on diet. Depression is an issue that I have to keep speaking out about.

Today we had an interesting Discipleship Bible study that I may share some notes about with you tomorrow. It was an intense study.

Have a blessed weekend, I want to touch base with your sites over the next few days.

Heather

Sorry for not writing for a few days, but craziness seems to be the order of the days, so that is when I need to relax with a simple math problem, and this is about my speed right now (she says smiling).

The fifth seal has to do with the martyrs,

When this seal is broken, John saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.

The word testimony in Greek is marturia (which is the same root that we get the word martyr from). They will cry out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

They will be given a white robe and told to rest a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brother, who would be killed was completed.

So, at this time not all who would be martyred have been. This makes sense for there will be many killed who will refuse to take the mark of the beast or worship the idol. There will be many converted by the events taking place on the earth and by the testimony of the two witnesses and the 144,000.

Regarding white robes, there are many in heaven who will wear them. The church at Sardis (the one which was dead) if they hold fast and repent, not defiling their garments, they will walk with Jesus in white. and not have their name blotted from the book of life.

Also those who accompany Jesus on his second coming will be wearing white,

There are many ways that people interpret Revelation. Each has their rationale, and this is not to cause division, for no matter what we believe, what God has prophesied will come to pass, and the end is the same for all of the beliefs.

One school of interpretation for Revelation is Preterism, this states that many of the events have already come to pass, and there are three categories in this, mild, moderate, and extreme. The moderate state that the Millennium is the kingdom which Jesus established with his first coming, and Christians are now reigning as kings on the earth. Some have an early date for the writing of Revelation, before the destruction of Jerusalem in ad 70. and the temple in Revelation is believed to be the one destroyed in AD 70, with the 7 kings being the Roman Emperors.

The next school of interpretation is Historicism – and this states that the current church age is the tribulation or Daniel’s 70th week. it is based on a day-by-day theory so that the 1260 days of Daniel and Revelation are literal years, rather than days. The goal of the historist is to figure out when the antichrist (usually believed to be the Roman Church and Papacy) came into power and then add 1260 years to discern when Jesus will return.  They try to correlate events of this current age with the prophesies in Revelation.  They take a more spiritualistic approach to the Word of God.

Futurism holds to the view  of predictive prophesy as future to the current church age, and would believe that the events of Revelation 6-20 have yet to be fulfilled and will correlate the time of Daniel’s 70th week to the day of the Lord with a literal 1000 year reign of the Christ on the earth. They hold to a literal interpretation of the Word that allows for figures of speech and symbolic language.

Idealism holds that they cannot interpret the passages in Revelation literally for they don’t believe that the timing is important or knowable. They look for the principles  or lessons that they can glean for their lives through the prophetic passages.

I guess by now you can assume that the viewpoint that I have is that of FUTURISM, for when, through the Kay Arthur studies, I have listed out the events mentioned in Revelation, many haven’t taken place yet on earth, so rather than trying to squeeze into Revelation events, I have chosen to take Revelation at it’s word. My rationale is that this is a book of prophesy, and that the past prophesies in the Bible have come to pass, or are confirmed by the prophesies in Revelation, so I am trusting that these prophesies in Revelation will come to pass just as God has spelled out.

But please know that we, as the body of Christ, do not need division among us. We need to grow together and trust that God will reveal truth to us as we study the Word, and not argue among ourselves, but just love.

Heather

The Fourth Seal in Revelation will cause widespread Death on Earth, a pale horse, and on the horse sits Death and Hades follows with Him. Power will be given to them over 1/4 of the Earth, and they will kill with sword, hunger, death, and beasts.

Remember the beasts do not have to be particularly large beasts, they could be viruses and bacteria. Imagine 1/4 of the earth killed. I am going to be keeping a running count so that you can see the depth of the pain and suffering for those remaining on the earth. So we are going to use a simple figure of 100, so that  if 1/4 of the earth was killed, that would leave 75 left.

We are going to see as the various judgements come down a significant decrease in the population on the Earth, of the things growing on the earth and in the sea. The trumpet judgements will be worse than the seals, and the bowls will be even more intense.

Praise God that we have been given such advance warning of this, and I am praying that as God wishes, none would be lost. We must make sure that as many as possible get to know and accept Jesus into their hearts.

One other thing to keep in mind is that the Book of Revelation comes with a blessing. Chapter 22:7 Jesus says, “Behold I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophesy of this book.”

Hoping you have a blessed night, I have to go and cook dinner.

Heather