DAY 804 - Where Are You Going to Stand When That Day Comes? (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

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                               Today's Reading: Revelation 6:9-17

** If you would like to learn a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please read my “Count Down 5” from my Devotion on Fire blog:

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Please click this link to read Revelation 6:9-17

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation 6&version=ESV

Chinese:https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=启 示 录 6&version=CUV 

Bible Study

     After the opening of the first four seals about the horrible works of the four horsemen, here comes the opening of the fifth and the sixth seal. The opening of the first fours seals causes many Christians to become martyrs. And, the fifth seal reveals the pictures of those martyrs crying for justice. The reply from God is "wait" and "patience", until God's time for  just judgement. Then, comes the opening of the sixth seal of seemingly a picture of the end of the world. Judgment Day! Is that really so? 

Let's take a look at what Bishop N.T. Wright says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :

     God will not judge them until they are fully and thoroughly deserving of it.  Here, it seems, two things go together.  First, the evil represented by the four horsemen must reach its height with the martyrdom of yet more believers.  Second, though, that martyrdom will itself be part of the means of God's just judgment. As we shall see, this is how the lamb's victory is worked out in practice...
      In case we might think that the taking off of the seals is simply more bad news for God's people, the sixth seal (verses 12-17) shows a different side to the picture.  Once again we must be careful about the symbolism.  It is true that many in the ancient world saw eclipses, earthquakes, shooting stars and the like as signs and portents.  John may be happy for people to hear those echoes.  But in the Old Testament, language about the sun turning black and the moon becoming like blood, the stars falling from heaven, and so on, was regularly employed as a way of speaking about what we would call 'earth-shattering events'  - not at all meaning actual earthquakes, but rather tumultuous events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall or the smashing of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001: events for which it is hard to find appropriate language except through vivid symbol and metaphor. 

N.T. Wright. Revelation for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.66-67.

      So, how do you understand the symbolic meaning of these two seals?  What has that to do with you?    

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

Spiritual Journal

    The title I heard from Jesus today is: Where are you going to stand when that day comes?

    What I got from Jesus today is an answer to the question many Christians asked for centuries: Why do you allow the bad guys to prosper? When will Judgment Day comes that they cannot hide?

    That's the question asked by millions and millions of martyrs who are in heaven according to what John tells us in today's passage (verse 9-10). Have you asked this question before? Or, are you still asking that question in pain?

    We like to sit in God's Judgment Seat judging all kinds of people and things. But, the reality is, we are not God! That time will come without our knowing. No one can stand when that time comes. According to Bishop N.T. Wright, it is not even talking about the end of the world. It is talking about when big crisis comes in to your life, can you stand? No one can stand except those who have a relationship with Jesus as Saviour, Lord and King. We might be bad-mouthed, cursed, persecuted and killed, but God will surely save us and protect us in His own way as is described in the next passage. 

    So, the question for you today from Jesus may be this:
Where are you going to stand when that day comes? 

    Are you able to stand besides Jesus when that day comes? 
     
Dear Lord Jesus,
Prepare us to stand by you each day that when that day and time comes we can be in your arms and in peace. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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You may choose to follow my other daily blog: 

Daily Devotion on Fire 2(2 years plan -One year New Testament, one year Old Testament): 

http://bishopsilas2.blogspot.ca/

Daily Devotion on Fire (3 years and 3 months plan, one chapter a day to finish reading the whole Bible): 

http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/

Break.Build (40 days daily devotion- For Renewal or First Step for new Christians): http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Emmanuel330 (40 weeks First Step Bible Study): 

http://emmanuel330.blogspot.ca/

This blog:
Discipler 123 (Daily devotion using N.T. Wright's NT for Everyone as source)

http://discipler123.blogspot.ca/


Rev. Nicky Gumbel's daily devotion: Bible in One Year
http://www.htb.org.uk/bioy