December 30 - Revelation 12-18: The Dragon and the Beasts Mimic God with Disastrous Results

Today’s Reading: Revelation 12-18

The Message

English Standard Version

ONE DAY MORE!

Thought to Guide Your Reading

God's Enemy mimics God, gains a huge following, and is defeated handily.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

A Dragon attempted to kill a Woman giving birth to a Child. The Dragon was thrown to Earth and chased the Woman.
Two Beasts appeared and gave their followers a mark: 666.
The Lamb appeared for His Hour of Judgment between God's and the Beasts' followers.
Seven disasters would finish God's Wrath. God's Faithful Followers sang praises.
The Beasts' followers refused to honor God.
God's enemies were defeated in an instant at Armageddon.
I, John, learned the meaning of the visions. People will wage war against God's Chosen People but be defeated.
Babylon and all her followers will be defeated!

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

The Dragon and the Beasts mimic God.

The Dragon knocked stars out of the heavens. The Beasts had heads which were brought back from the dead. They all mimic the Lamb of God and the Angels of God. They perform magic tricks which lure their followers in. They try to look like God though they speak against Him in every way possible.
This vision shows an important way God's Enemy tries to defeat the world. If God's Enemy can appear to be like Him, He can take unsuspecting and ignorant followers into whoring and other terrible acts. It presents a difficult problem for us—how can we tell the difference in God's Messengers and the Beasts'? Those who are willing to publicly confess that Jesus is resurrected are God's Messengers. To John's readers, the designation is clear—Nero(n) Caesar is God's Enemy, the Antichrist. To us it is less clear but easily testable.

The Dragon and the Beasts amassed a large harem.

Since these people do not want to honor God, God's Enemy becomes very popular. So popular, in fact, that he can control the economy and blacklist people unwilling to get his mark. Many people will flock to join God's Enemy.

God defeats our Accuser.

What makes God's Enemy's defeat wonderful for God's Chosen People is that he is also our enemy. He stands before God telling how we do not set things right. God doesn't defeat him to squash a mosquito. God defeats His Enemy, the Accuser, to set our relationship right!

The Beasts' followers never wish to honor God.

Before we feel sympathy for the people who suffer the seven plagues, remember that each plague is meant to lead them to change and return to God. God does not want to punish them but they give Him no choice. He must have things set right and anyone against that will be punished.

How would it feel knowing you have no prosecuting attorney against you?

December 10 - Romans 11-13: The Gentile and the Jew-Man Should be Friends

Today’s Reading: Romans 11-13

The Message

English Standard Version

Thought to Guide Your Reading

God accepted the Gentiles in order to make the Jews jealous so they would be with Him, too.

Summary in 100 Words or Less

Has God irrevocably rejected Israel? No. God will never irrevocably reject Israel. When they rejected God they opened the door for the Gentiles.
Gentiles, remember that God grafts in and cuts off. God added you, not the other way around. The Jews remain God's Oldest Friends. God wants a people who understand why they are with Him. How awesome is our God!
Be a living sacrifice for God, unified as a body. Set things right. Be an upstanding citizen because God gives the state power to punish. Love others as you love yourself.
Don't waste time, it's a precious resource.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

God did not permanently remove the Jews from being His Chosen People.

This section of Scripture is one of the most complicated and misused concepts in the entire Bible. Paul is trying to help mediate a feud between the Jews and the Gentiles, caused when the Jews were kicked out of Rome but let back in later. In the previous reading Paul wrote how God wanted the Jews to obey Him but they would not. Therefore, He called the Gentiles to be His Chosen People. The reason is multifaceted, but the effect was that the Gentiles were added to God's Chosen People and Paul hoped Israel would become jealous and claim God as their god instead of their cultural symbol. God had not rejected Israel for good but to set things right. The Gentiles may have joined the Jews as God's Chosen People but they had to set things right to keep their place. God wants people who understand why they are His Chosen People to be His Chosen People.
In viewing the Jew/Gentile debate in Romans in the 21^st Century, I have put forward the idea that churched and unchurched people are the Jews and Gentiles from the first century. Many churches today are dying. We can trace their deaths to several things all stemming from one major issue—not realizing why God chose them in the first place. God wants us to be His Ambassadors to the world. Many Christians want to be the rulers of the world. So God now calls those who are outside the church to set things right. This is why many people see outsiders as better givers, better philanthropists, and better humanitarians than Christians. Christians must see that these things are happening not because God no longer wants us but because God wants to make us jealous so we will return to Him and set things right. What about unchurched people? They have their relationships set right with God. Everyone wins!

The Gentiles and the Jews should work together to set things right.

Before the Gentiles look with distain at these Jews who rejected God, Paul reminds them that God could just as easily remove them from the tree. The Gentiles had nothing to boast over because they were there because of God's Grace and Mercy, too.
This is Paul's message to unchurched people today. Don't hate the church. See it as the Gentiles saw the Jews—God's Old Friend. We can challenge each other to set things right (see chapter 12).

We have nothing to add to God's Righteousness.

The Jews thought they could figure this setting-all-things-right business out on their own. They no longer needed God to help. They were wrong. What they got instead was God's punishment, rejection for a time, and a loss of their exclusive status as God's Chosen People. Do not try to outdo God's Righteousness. There is no way we can be more righteous than God.

The government has a mandate to bring justice to the world.

When we discuss the government and what ways we should obey it, we must read Paul's instructions regarding the Roman Empire. Paul does not want the Christians to either live as hermits and rebel against Rome or go along and worship the emperor as a god. Paul reminds them that the government is only a terror to those who do wrong things, not those who set things right. Then he says something that sounds strange—God gives the government their authority. God gave Rome—a brutal dictatorship who had little to no knowledge of human rights—the right to bring justice to the world. The government has the sole authority to bring justice on criminals. The church should not focus on punishment but on setting things right.

The Gospel in a word is love.

Jesus said the two foundational commandments for the entire law were about love: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Paul echoes that by stating the Message of Jesus can be summarized in one word: love.

What is your relationship with churched/unchurched people like?