Yay! I just finished reading through Revelation, and get to start on the Old Testament now. Lots of reading ahead, but I have much more interest in history these days than I ever used to so it should be pretty fun.
I’ve decided to hold the rest of my thoughts on Revelation for later, as it’s way too involved to skim past.
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Genesis 39-50
I read the end of Genesis today, starting where Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery.
It probably wasn’t the wisest thing to brag about his dreams to his brothers, but all in all, Joseph was a pretty wise man. He was obviously hurt and upset over everything that happened to him becuase of his brothers selling him into slavery. He made this clear, and made them jump through hoops before even letting them know he was alive, but he had the power to enact vengeance and chose not to, instead leaving that to God, saying, “Fear not: for am I in the place of God?” (50:19).
He recognized that God had worked all things together (even the bad things which He did not cause) in his life, for the good of all, and even if his brothers hadn’t lied to tryto protect themselves, I don’t believe he would have harmed them.
As for Isreal, even in his old age — as he was about to die — and even though he was nearly blind, he was clear enough in mind and spirit to bless his grandsons according to their future rather than according to their age. He was also clear enough to remember and bless each of his sons accordingly… even when that meant being brutally honest.
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I read about 14 chapters of Genesis yesterday, and fell asleep when I went to blog about it. I didn’t really come across much that I felt like blogging about, so I’ll just mention some of the small things I noticed…
I’ll be having company for the next few days, and will probably not find much time to blog, but if I get a chance I will.
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Ok I’m really tired, I’ve had less than 5 hours of sleep a night for 3 nights running, and about 3 hours sleep last night. I’m on my way to bed, but wanted to drop a quick entry before I go.
I read Genesis 14-19 today, and in my tired state, the one thing that stuck out was the passage in Genesis 18:23-33 where Abraham kept questioning God regarding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God had said that if he found 50 righteous, he would not destroy the place, and Abraham felt the need to keep whittling away at the number. But what about 45? But what about 40? But what about 30? But what about 20? But what about 10?
It reminds me of a 5 year old with a case of the “but why”‘s. Abraham already knew that God would do the right thing, but he was scared for Lot and kept quizzing God about it anyway. It’s even more amusing given the fact that it’s written out so tediously.
I remember talking about this scripture with a friend a while back and coming to the conclusion that in this case, God deemed Sodom and Gomorrah too far gone to spare — He didn’t find even the ten — but he did find a few, and took special care to go in and pull them out before inflicting his judgment — and this is precisely what He is doing for us now.
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Wow, what a service tonight!
Our church is having revival this weekend, which basically means church every evening from Thursday through Saturday and twice on Sunday with a guest evangelist. It’s the church’s 15th anniversary, apparently, and they always have the same preacher back for their anniversary revival.
Thursday’s service was good — one of the ladies in the church who has heart problems got up in the middle of the service and several of us went to check on her and pray with her. When we came back to the service the evangelist started preaching the same thing we’d been telling her, almost word for word, without having a clue what we’d said.
Friday’s service was powerful, there was a lot of singing and shouting and hollering (as is known to happen from time to time in a pentecostal service :)… a lot of people got touched in the service and the Spirit was there in force.
Tonight’s service was different. I had written out a song I wrote a while back and was thinking about singing Thursday and didn’t get the chance. Friday was not the night to sing it, and I had all but convinced myself I was going to forget about it. About an hour before church though, God laid it on my heart to go ahead and write out a testimony to go along with the song, just in case He decided to have me sing it.
So I did, it ate up all the time I was going to use for something else, and I left here just in time to pull into church right before the service started. By the time I got there I’d just about decided to sing something else instead, but when they asked for testimonies the first person that got up to testify was someone that generally goes on forever. She kept it short and sweet, and I don’t remember what she said exactly, but I knew I had to go through with it.
In any case, I went ahead and got up there and gave a testimony for the first time ever in front of people like that. I peppered it between the verses of the song I’d written, which I’d never sung for anyone before either. Somehow, miraculously, I didn’t screw it up. I felt like I was dying of thirst but I was able to sing it all out without my voice wavering anyway, and people appeared to be genuinely blessed by it. The song leader even made me hug her before she let me go back to my seat.
After that someone else got up to sing a song with the same basic message, after looking me straight in the eye and testifying that I had been an inspiration to her, whether I realized it or not (whoa…!). Then the song leader sang a powerful song she’d written, that also had the same message.
THEN the visiting evangelist got up and preached a sermon on the exact same thing! I love services like that. The mood was different than it had been Thursday or Friday. We were all more subdued and quiet, but the Spirit was still there, just moving in a different way. The evangelist kept saying that He didn’t know why it was going that way, but he figured there was a reason. He also kept saying that he didn’t know who it was for, but he figured it was for someone.
It was for me.
I’m not used to pentecostal services yet, and I was a little concerned about some of the carrying’s on of Friday’s service (I wasn’t quite sure about some of that ‘slain in the Spirit’ stuff). The other testimonies tonight put my mind at ease over what had happened yesterday, and the general mood of the service made it much easier for me to go forward and get the prayer I needed tonight.
For the first time in a few weeks I left a service knowing that I had done everything the Lord had asked me to do — and I left with a peace I haven’t felt in ages.
Praise the Lord!
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A question from a friend prompted me to revisit a few questions about different beliefs involving the charismatic movement, pentecostal movement, etc., and in the course of looking into that I came across a scripture that hadn’t quite sunk in before.
The church I grew up in believes in the Holy Spirit, but doesn’t encourage the practice of most of the gifts of the Spirit, and often seems to almost believe the gifts are no longer applicable. They would never say that, but at the same time they would probably freak out if someone actually gave a message in tongues during a service. To make up for the lack of power in the churches as a result, they have started ‘stretching’ the gifts, so to speak, so that they are considering simple talents, like the ability to teach, etc, “gifts of the Spirit”.
That non-denominational denomination also tends to hold the belief that one always receives the baptism of the Holy Spirit at their point of salvation, which also always happens to coincide with water baptism.
I have spent a great deal of time in the past few years around pentecostals, and in various pentecostal churches since then, though. I was almost convinced that the baptism of the Spirit was sometimes separate, but I was still holding on to the idea that, perhaps, in the cases where one did not receive the baptism of the Spirit at the same time as their water baptism, perhaps they weren’t saved, or had been and somehow didn’t know it.
I came across Acts 8:12-17 yesterday, though, which settles the issue very clearly for me. It’s very clearly laid out here, that these people believed, were saved, and were baptized, but did not receive the filling of the Holy Spirit until later.
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I read about 12 chapters of Genesis today, and then called a friend who knows hebrew to drill him on a few points. After talking about Genesis for at least an hour and a half, I find myself with little I actually want to write about right now…
Genesis 9:20-27 did strike me — I guess this is the first time I noticed that Noah actually cursed a son for the sins of his father.
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In Matthew 24:29 (NASB), Christ says “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”
The sequence of events in Revelation (starting in chapter 6), goes like this…
This is the sequence of events after the Lamb breaks the sixth seal …
After all of this, the seventh seal is broken, followed by a half hour of silence, then the blowing of the trumpets, then the wrath of God.
The popular view seems to be that the rapture will come before the tribulation. I’ve done a great deal of bible study into the endtimes scriptures and I have to say that I see no biblical basis for this view. Christ’s own words in Matthew 24 make it very clear that Christians will be around for at least the beginning of the tribulation.
He says that those days will be cut short for the sake of the elect, and the signs and markers that Christ give tie in with the precursors to the appearance of the multitude at the throne.
I’ll have to lay out a full study of this after I’ve gone back through Daniel and a few other books, but the more times I read this stuff the more sure I am that those who are still alive will have to endure at least part of the tribulation.
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This one is more of a personal entry than anything else, but someone shared this article somewhere today and I found it really well written. If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to live with a disability that causes pain and fatigue, this is a good read…
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/the_spoon_theory/
I finally got to a dr today for the first time in a while and was pleasantly surprised to actually have a decent visit. I was really stressing out about it, but it sounds like I finally found a gp that knows what he can and cannot deal with, and seems perfectly happy to take the time to help me find a neurologist. He was also ok perscribing the meds I usually take without forcing me to go through more tests (that’s a first!).
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Okay since I didn’t sleep last night for working on code, and I didn’t sleep today for lack of common sense, I’m too tired to do any reading today. However, I never really did a real entry for yesterday, and I did read yesterday.
In my sleep-deprived state, the one thing I clearly remember from my reading yesterday was Revelation 1:17 — the first half of the verse in another version (NASB) reads: “When I saw Him I fell at His feet like a dead man.”
If memory serves me, the Greek actually says “fell dead at his feet” or something like that, so one take on the verse I heard was that the sheer glory of the Lord caused his heart to stop. I don’t doubt that that could happen, and could be what happened here, but I always like to think of it slightly differently.
People in Biblical times had a much healthier fear and respect for the Lord. It’s quite possible that, realizing he’d just seen God, his natural reaction was to fall down in worship.
I bring this up becuase I honestly can’t imagine that happening today. I don’t remember the last time met anyone with a healthy respect for authority, let alone that kind of respect for God. I find myself wondering if any of us would even think to bow. It’s kind of sad, really.
I’m looking for comments on this one… do you think you would bow in the presence of God out of reflex?
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