Well, Katherine thoroughly enjoyed the surprise birthday party, and although she claims she wasn’t surprised, the expression on her face belies that fact. Guess it isn’t too cool at 14 to claim surprise.

Back to Revelation.

Revelation 9: 13-21

The judgements are escalating in severity. With the sixth trumpet we begin to see the condition of those left on the earth.

When the sixth trumpet is sounded there is a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God (that would be the Temple of Incense in the earthly temple).  And it says to “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” Remember in Revelation 7, God held those angels in check until the 144,000 were sealed.  They were not to harm the earth, the sea, or the trees til the servants of God were sealed on their foreheads. Rev. 7:3

Now the 144,000 have been sealed, they have escaped the fifth trumpet judgement of the demonic locusts.

I find Rev. 9:15 such a profound verse: So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.”

I am certain God released these with a heavy heart, knowing that He wanted all possible to be saved and that He gave ample opportunity. Those left on earth (not that many after the other judgements) have no desire for God, and unfortunately 1/3 of them will perish- at this time about 1/2 of all the inhabitants of earth have perished in the judgements. But God also had the hour, day, month, and year planned out. Those who remain are those who really will not worship God and Jesus. Yet God still has the 144,000 speaking to them, and later he will send the aircorps (three angels announcing the gospel and warnings to the people – even at this time God wants people to turn to Him. When the final judgement occurs no one will be able to say ‘I never knew.’ God is making things abundantly clear to people).

The creatures that will cause these plagues to be executed look like riders on horses, with breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow: the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. It is by these three plagues, fire, smoke and brimstone that 1/3 of mankind were killed. The power of them was in their mouths and in their tails, the tails were like serpents having heads and they do harm with their tails.

What is particularly sad is that in verse 20 it says that the rest of mankind not killed by the plagues would not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

In other words, these people have set themselves on a course so opposed to God, and hardened their hearts to repentance. 1 John 5 tells believers to keep themselves from idols. It may do us well to ask ourselves when we are hurting, what do we turn to. Do we turn to God or to someone else, some thing else, or what.

Joel 3:14 speaks of this judgement Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength for the children of Israel.

Oh pray for those who are not saved.Hear God’s heart for His people. He really wants no one to go where satan and his minions are going. That place was not prepared for men, but satan would love to pull people down with him. Not only would it hurt God, but misery loves company. I know I persisted in my defiance of God for far too long, and I just pray that others will not follow that same path.

I am certain that some reading this are saying in their hearts that if these events occur, then they will believe. They want to see signs and wonders. But I want those to think about if they cannot stand up for Jesus in this day and age, where would they get the idea that they could stand up for Him during the tribulation. Not only will the earth be in distress, but the antichrist and his followers will be bent on destroying, and killing believers. It will be far harder to stand up for Jesus in those times than any trials we may see now.

Please do not wait too long to come to know Jesus. He loves you so much.

Heather

This came in today. I have seen it before and enjoyed it tremendously. Remember the animals could have been babies too especially the dinosaurs. I actually once took a sixth grade Sunday School class outside in the parking lot with a tape measure and had them measure out the dimensions of the ark. We only were able to come up with 1/2 of the size of the ark, and the kids were suitably impressed. Sure drove home to them how incredible Noah’s story is.

Heather.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE:
This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.  Genesis 6:15 (NIV)

TODAY’S TOUGH QUESTION:
How did Noah fit all of those animals on the ark?

Based on the size the Bible says the ark was, and on the number of species of animals, this really was not a problem. On the basis of volume, the ark was roughly equivalent to 522 railroad stock cars.  A standard railroad stock car can carry 240 sheep.  This means the ark could have carried 125,000 sheep. The average dry land animal is considerably smaller than a sheep, as there are only a few large animals.
The ark was constructed in three stories and each fitted with rooms or nests (see Genesis 6:14). So how many animals needed to fit on the ark?  There are not very many species of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles.  Ernst Mayr, the leading systematic biologist gives the number as 17,600. Allowing for two of each, we are only at 35,200. Lets assume we are off a bit and two of each actually comes to 50,000.  This is still far less than the 125,000 that could have easily been carried, so there was ample room for food storage and living space for Noah and his family. God knew how much space would be needed, and He provided.

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Revelation 9:1-12 The fifth trumpet. I am praying that all who are on the earth are up in Heaven before this time, because now the judgements are intensifying.

When the fifth angel sounds, John sees a star that has fallen from heaven to the earth, and he (the star) is given a key to the bottomless pit. Who is this star? It is lucifer – known as the day star and the shining one. We can read about his fall in Isaiah 14:12-17 where it talks about the fall of lucifer, who weakened the nations. Lucifer said in his heart that he would exalt his throne above God, and be like the Most High. But he will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.

Ezekiel 28 gives further information from verse 11-19 It talks about the perfection of his (lucifer’s) body, the timbrels and pipes prepared from the day lucifer was created. He was an anointed cherub and was on the holy mountain of God. He was perfect until iniquity found him out. He became filled with violence, sinned, and was cast out.  his heart was lifted up because of his beauty, so he was cast down to the ground. And now defiles sanctuaries. And God will turn him into ashes, and all who knew them would be astonished. This is a lamentation for the king of Tyre, but also speaks of Lucifer.

Now lucifer is given the key to the bottomless pit the abuso (abyss) and when it is opened smoke comes out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. The sun and air are darkened, and locusts come on the earth. These are not ordinary locusts, for they have the power of scorpions, they do not harm the grass or any green thing like earthly locusts do. They are also not allowed to harm those who have the seal of God on their foreheads (that is the 144,000 who were marked in Chapter 7). These supernatural locusts could not kill men, they were to torment them for five months, and it would be a torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.

This torment will be so horrific that men will seek death but will not be able to find it.

Listen to their description: Verses 7-11The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lion’s teeth. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

At some point we will talk about the day of the Lord, in which God’s Spirit is poured out on a sin-filled earth. Some of the signs of the day of the Lord include blood and fire, pillars of smoke. The moon turned into blood. This is mentioned in the later half of Joel 2. We have seen the moon turn into blood with the sixth seal, fire has come down from heaven. Now we see smoke filling the air when the bottomless pit is opened. These are indicative of the Day of the Lord. God also talks about restoring what the locusts ate in Verses 25-27 of Joel 2, where God ends with “Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel; I am the Lord your God and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and also on My menservants and on my Maidservants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (This has not happened to Israel yet – remember that the believers who had the Holy Spirit are now in Heaven since Chapters 4 & 5 of Revelation)

One aside – here is a verse that must give grief to those who feel that females have no place in the ministry. For here the women will prophesy and God will pour his spirit not only on men but also on women.

But God will move in a dramatic way in these last days. His hope with the judgements is not cruelty, but a wake-up call that is unmistakable. Remember these are words of prophesy and this book (The Bible) is in print. Anyone who is willing to read honestly these words will be able to figure out what is happening, and the choice that they have to make. I heard that one person has put into Petra Bibles in Hebrew so that when people flee there they will be able to read exactly what is happening, and hopefully they will turn to Christ. (It is speculated that the Israelites may flee to Petra, I will share more of that later)

In Luke 8 when Jesus healed the demon possessed man verse 31: And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. If demons do not want to go there it must be a horrific place to be, and it is from this abyss that these unnatural locusts emerge.

Another verse about this place that the locusts come from.

2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgement.. 

Remember one of the Plagues of Moses was locusts on the land, and these locusts did not touch the crops of the Israelites, just those of Pharaoh. Here the locusts do not touch the crop of God (the 144,000), just those who are on the earth. No one except the 144,000 are free from the pain that these locusts inflict.

The locusts are not natural, locusts eat grass, and here they do not. Just their appearance is frightening, The hair of a woman, seductive, the lion is insatiable, their hearts are covered with iron breastplates – cold hearts.

Proverbs 30 speaks of the locust in verse 27 – when they talk about four things which are little on the earth. Locusts have no king, yet they all advance in ranks.”

Yet, these locusts do have a king – Abaddon, Apollyon. Abaddon means to perish. This name occurs six times in the Hebrew Bible. King James and NIV translate Abaddon as destruction. It often appears parallel with Sheol and Death. (Holman Bible Dictionary)

God does not want anyone to perish. The purpose of the locusts is to draw people to repentance. And in this case the people want to die but they cannot. God will not give them a release from this torment, not wanting any to perish. The people think they have control over their lives and death, and here they will find out that they cannot cause themselves to die.

They will (speculation) probably wonder why the 144,000 are not being harmed by the locusts, and I would assume that the 144,000 will be preaching about repentance.

Notice that the angel after the 4th trumpet spoke of Woe, Woe, Woe, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpets.

This is the first woe, and after the five months of the locusts the first woe is past and two more woes are coming AFTER THESE THINGS (another time phrase that indicates the sequential nature of these judgements).

I pray that we reach many with Jesus’ Gospel so that there are not many on earth who have to undergo these judgements.

Please have a blessed Saturday.

Heather

 

Here are a  few Irish jokes for you.

Q: Why do people wear shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day?
A: Real rocks are too heavy.

Q: Why can’t you borrow money from a leprechaun?
A: Because they’re always a little short.

Q: How can you tell if an Irishman is having a good time?
A: He’s Dublin over with laughter!

Q: What’s Irish and stays out all night?
A: Patty O’furniture!

Q: How did the Irish Jig get started?
A: Too much to drink and not enough restrooms!

Q: Are people jealous of the Irish?
A: Sure, they’re green with envy!

Q: What would you get if you crossed Quasimodo with an Irish football player?
A: The Halfback of Notre Dame!

“I married an Irishman on St. Patrick’s Day.”
“Oh, really”? No, O’Reilly.

Today is my daughter’s 14th Birthday. Soon we take her out to dinner then home to a specially made ice cream cake. It has been a day devoted to fun stuff with kids because they are off from school – staff development day for the teachers. And she doesn’t know it, but tomorrow her friends are giving her a surprise birthday party. Now that would be fun, no one ever gave me a surprise party. I told her that tomorrow we are going out, she had to go where I brought her, no questions asked. For the past week and a half she has been trying to figure it out. Love to torture her that way, and since no one else in the family knows of these plans, they can’t spoil it for her.

Here’s a picture of her, not current. Until we get the current picture.

Heather

Crazy day, but a good one. My niece sent me this saying and it has grown on me:

Pessimism is a misuse of the imagination.

 

Boy do I misuse my imagination way too often.

Hope you have a blessed day.

Heather

Back to Revelation: Now the Judgements intensify with the trumpet judgements.  (Speculation – Trumpets 1-4 could be aftereffects of a nuclear explosion, but only God knows how these judgements will be administered).

These are not simultaneous, for if you look at how they are described starting in Chapter 8 which is trumpets 1-4 it uses the time phrase THEN, which implies first one thing THEN another, in order. We don’t know how close the trumpet judgements come in time, the only thing that we do know is that the tribulation from seals to Jesus’ coming is 7 years.

Trumpet 1  brings hail and fire mingled with blood, and it was thrown down to earth, and 1/3 of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned. (from a purely physical point of view that would make it impossible to feed livestock, and we need the trees to produce oxygen).

Trumpet 2 – second angel sounds and something LIKE a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and 1/3 of the sea became blood. And 1/3 of the living creatures in the sea died, and 1/3 of the ships were destroyed. (to gain a perspective of this, the Atlantic Ocean is about 1/3 of all the oceans on the earth). I wonder what John saw, for he described something that he must never have seen before (it could easily describe a comet or a bomb). The trumpet judgements seem to parallel the plagues that happened to Egypt in Moses’ time.

Trumpet 3 – the third angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch and it fell on 1/3 of all the rivers and springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. 1/3 of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water because it was made bitter.

Wormwood is part of the mugwort family, and the Russian name for mugwort is Chernobyl. Remember in Exodus the water was bitter, and Moses had to cut a tree and put it in the water, to sweeten it. The only way to sweeten the bitterness of these trumpet Judgements is Jesus who died on a tree (cross) for our salvation.

Trumpet 4 – Fourth angel sounded: and 1/3 of the sun was struck, 1/3 of the moon and 1/3 of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.

What is so amazing to me is that when these judgements come many on earth do not repent or ask God’s forgiveness. Never before on earth have these events taken place in this magnitude, which leads me to believe that we have not yet reached the period of tribulation, for clearly these events would be noticed. To lose that much of the stars, sun and moon would be shocking.

And then I heard an angel flying through the midst of the heaven, saying with a loud voice “Woe, Woe, Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound. (Notice the time phrase – about to sound).

Personally I think the above judgements are very severe, and if an angel is saying Woe to the remaining three trumpet judgements, it is very severe and intense.

The next trumpets will be dealing with the demonic.

I pray to God that those on earth today are reached and given a chance to learn about and accept Jesus into their lives. God does not want anyone destined for wrath, and these judgements are so devastating that God would rather we be up with Him in heaven at the Marriage feast of the Lamb. One point of interest is that the judgements take 7 years, and in a marriage feast the bride and groom are together alone for 7 days, before resuming normal activities. I suspect that while we are with Jesus at the wedding feast, all these judgements are taking place.

What amazes me the most about God is that time after time after time he keeps spreading the Gospel, hoping that some will be saved from the judgements. Right now it is the 144,000. When they are no longer on earth it is the 2 witnesses, and after that, a flying angel sharing the truth. People will not be able to say, you never told me.

I am hoping you have a great day.

Heather

Thank you so much for your prayers. The Bible study went well and Pastor Don said that I did good. The people seemed grateful for the topic as it is one we all wrestle with.

My sister in law sent me these cartoons and I was chuckling, hope you enjoy them.

 

 

 

 

 

Someone asked what I was going to talk on, I revised a previous Bible study I wrote as follows:

satan’s Game plan

This is a topic that I still work with in my life, and I assume that we all face the wiles of satan at some point in our daily walk.

Football & professional sports teams have a game book that lists plans for dealing with their opponent. 100′s of moves that they practice so that each player knows where to move, what to do. If a team only had three basic game plans like pass to the right, sweep around the left and run up the middle the opposing team would soon figure out the limited gameplans and counter them. No team with only three plays in their game book would ever make the playoffs.

Yet, our enemy, satan has three basic plans in his playbook.

Turn to 1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the wrold—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God. abides forever.

The three plays of satan are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

From the beginning of time he has used these same three plays to affect the lives of those on the earth.

Genesis 3:1-6 “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”(Did God really say that, no the woman elaborated on what God said – See Genesis 2:17 -“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”-God did not say anything about touching it, that was the woman’s add-on) Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”

In this interaction we see the three game plans of satan:

Eve SAW the tree was good for food – Lust of the eyes
She ATE the fruit – Lust of the Flesh
She wanted to be like God and know good from evil – Pride of life.

Every person in the Bible when tempted to sin succumbed to one of these plays of satan.
Examples: David and Bathsheba – eyes, flesh and pride, Cain, pride over the sacrifice, Samson, lust, eyes, and pride.

Only when the second Adam came, Jesus, did satan’s game plan get resisted. Jesus was fully God, but also he was the Son of Man, and in the flesh He resisted satan.

Hebrews 4:15 says, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Because Jesus could overcome the wiles of satan, we know that it is not impossible to resist satan. And Jesus helped us to see how.

Lets look at Jesus’s temptation to see how he resisted. Luke 4:1-13

Then Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness being tempted for forty days by the devil (Satan tempted Jesus for 40 days, but the Gospels focus on three of the temptations). And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” (Lust of the Flesh) But Jesus answered him saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” (Jesus defeated this ploy by using the word of God). Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world is in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory’ for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if you will worship before me, all will be Yours,” (Lust of the eyes – Jesus was shown all of the kingdoms. Did satan have the right to Give Jesus the kingdoms, yes, for he was given the earth by Adam and Eve’s disobedience. He wanted Jesus to take the easy way out and not go to the crucifixion, but that would have meant then that we would have had no hope. Jesus was not taken in by the apparently easy way to do things.) And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.” Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. “For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you’ and “In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” (This is from the 91st Psalm and this Psalm talks about trusting God and abiding in the shadow of His wings, not challenging God to protect us – satan quoted this out of context- It is important to remember that satan was at one point God’s praise and worship leader, he knows the scripture, he has had thousands of years to study the word of God, and he will use the word of God out of context, making things sound spiritual to trick us, That is why we must keep studying and learning the scripture). And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. (One last comment, notice that satan did not give up after Jesus resisted, satan went and waited for an opportune time – when he tempts us he waits until we have a moment of weakness or let down our gurad, for it is then that we are more vulnerable. Jesus stayed praying, fasting and in the Word of God, which helped Him to resist satan, we need to do likewise).

So, now that we know what satan uses to mis-direct us, how can we counter it?

God has given us wonderful tools, and the most powerful one is in our hands right now, The Bible, which is God’s playbook. By studying the actions of those who succeeded and those who failed we gain an understanding that can be applied to our life.

He also gave us a suit of armor to resist satan. Look at Ephesians 6:14-17

“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth (Remember that truth is our strongest resource, for when we know God’s truth we will not accept a lie. Hold our circumstances up to the world of God and believe God’s truth over appearances), having put on the breastplate of righteousness,(Remember we do not create our righteousness, it is a gift given to us by the grace and power of God, it is a righteousness that is give because of Jesus’s sacrifice for us, we do not earn it, we have it IN JESUS) and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace  (We do not want to walk barefoot on the rough ground of our lives, we need the gospel to give us our shield and armor) ; above all, taking the shield of faith (Faith is not what our circumstances seem to be telling us, it is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen as Hebrews 11:1 says, and it means that no matter what we see in our life, we have to hold with faith onto the truth of God). with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.(note, satan is sending fiery darts – not atom bombs. Sometimes lots of tiny darts are far more annoying than a big ploy. Also tiny darts will get through chinks in our armor much easier, for we don’t notice the little darts, but a massive attack would put us on guard.). And take the helmet of salvation (One Bible teacher says that many Christians enter the world wearing only the helmet of salvation and forgetting the rest of their armor)  and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Pastor Don once pointed out that this armor covers our front and Jesus covers our back. It is only effective if we Stand (as the first word of this passage says) STAND, if we turn and run we leave our back exposed for the fiery darts.

Now satan is called the roaring lion. A roaring lion in a pride of lions is the older lion who can no longer run, capture prey and kill them, so they station the lion in the brush to roar when food comes near. This freaks the food and they run in the opposite direction from the roar, right into the jaws of the hunters. When satan roars in our lives we have to remember he is a defeated foe, Jesus defeated him on the cross, so we need to stand in our faith, not panic, run. We need to ACT not REACT.

Now, these things sound easy to do on the surface, but I can assure you that I have failed often in my walk in life to do these things as set out in the Bible. So when we fail it is also important to remember that God has that covered too. Remember Peter, God allowed satan to sift him like wheat – and when Peter came through those trying times his spiritual muscles were much stronger and he was able to do what God wanted him to do.

God will take what satan means for our harm and turn it for our good, our growth, our spiritual development. We have to be honest about our weaknesses. Satan is not going to attack us on our strong points, he is going to focus on our weakest points. When we fail we need to go to God in prayer, fasting, standing fast. And if the situation is tough reach out to another brother or sister in Christ, ask for help. So often we feel that we cannot share our weaknesses with one another, and that leaves us open for more hurt. Of course, be careful whom you share with, make sure they are going to build you up, really help you, not gossip or use the information to tear you down.

We also have to remember that come Revelation 20 our foe, satan will be cast forever into the Lake of Fire, and will no longer affect us. He knows his time is short on the earth, and he is looking to take down as many as he can with him. He is going to make the temptations tempting – no one is going to be tempted by an unattractive temptation. When we make steps in our life it is important to know the Word of Truth and make sure that our choices line up with that.

Knowledge brings power, and now we have the knowledge of satan’s tactics. We can use that knowledge to defeat our enemy with Jesus’ help.

Let’s pray.

****

Well, that is pretty much what I plan to say, but often things are changed in the delivering of the topic. I have to give two half hour Bible studies, one for the morning and the afternoon service. Please pray, pray, pray.

Heather

It is early I know, I had to get up at 5 to drive my son to school for the state National Science Olympiad. This devotional from lifeway was in my email and I found a phrase that made me chuckle, our universe was not created by a BIG BANG but by a BIG BEING. (sorry, can’t get the advertisements out of the passage, sigh) I love it!!!!! Have a blessed day. I have been practicing my talk, and have it down to under 30 minutes as instructed, but I still need your prayers BIG TIME.

Heather

About the Holman CSB Every Day With Jesus Bible The Holman CSB Every Day With Jesus Bible takes you through God’s Word in one year with daily devotions and Bible readings.  Learn more or purchase online now at EveryDayWithJesusBible.com… “Not From Me!” The heavens were made by the word of the LORD, and all the stars, by the breath of His mouth. – PSALM 33:6 Many modern astronomers probing into outer space with their gigantic telescopes favor two theories as to the origin of the universe. One is the so-called Big Bang Theory, according to which “the cosmos started with a titanic explosion, and as a consequence has been expanding ever since.” The other is the Continuous Creation Theory, which maintains that “the universe is self-creating and is constantly making itself out of nothing and falling back into nothingness again.” What many scientists are not prepared to admit is that the ultimate energy behind the universe is not a Big Bang, but a Big Being – an intelligent Being of indescribable majesty and power who is able to do whatever He chooses. And because what He chooses is always good, He can be trusted to have the best interest of His creation at heart. When Joseph Haydn, the famous Austrian composer, had finished his great oratorio The Creation, he is said to have cried: “Not from me! Not from me! From above it has all come!” Our text for today reminds us that by God’s Word were the heavens made and by His breath the stars were formed. I once heard my father describe the creation in this way: “It was no harder for God to create a world than it is for my son to blow soap bubbles into the air out of his clay pipe.” I often go back to that lovely image. I find that when contemplating this awesome, mighty, all-powerful God, my soul instinctively cries: “How great Thou art.” I hope yours does too! Daily Prayer Yes Father, as I contemplate Your majesty and Your power, my soul cries out: “How great Thou art.” It can do nothing else, for contemplation of You inevitably leads to adoration of You. Amen.   Top 10 Issues Facing Today’s Family Celebrate the Ministry of America’s Pastor The Quickest Way to Access Scripture Online – EZ Word! Praise Posters and Magnets