There’s nothing like a crisp cool autumn day to mediate on all that God has provided, to reflect on His goodness and mercy, and to dream of what is to come. God will be good in all the seasons of life.
Jesus taught that prayer must be with faith (Matthew 21:21-22; Mark 11:22-26) In theses verses I see three aspects of faith in prayer that Jesus teaches. First of all…
(1) Faith must be in God. Matthew 21:22 says, “Have faith in God.” Prayer with faith, therefore, is prayer that believes in God and in the promises that He has given us. Then it is prayer that expects God to answer based on those promises; it is prayer that has a continuing hope for the answer and a lasting energy to pray until the answer comes. Secondly…
(2) Faith must be with obedience. Prayer with faith is prayer that doesn’t just pray and then believe that God will do it by Himself without us; it is prayer that counts on God to help usdo it; it is prayer that stops praying and starts obeying.
In Mark 11:23 Jesus…
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Away from me, all you who do evil,
for the Lord has heard my weeping.
9 The Lord has heard my cry for mercy;
the Lord accepts my prayer (Ps 6:8-9).
I have been thinking lately about the subject of African American Slavery. What an evil thing it is to enslave another person and to treat them so badly. It’s hard to understand. For a while now I’ve been thinking about reading and writing on the subject–just mainly to try to understand it, how it was. I found a textbook entitled, The African American Experience: A History. It’s quite informative and I’m learning a lot. I’m planning on blogging through it. So far I have these ten topics:
As I read on, there will be more topics such as freedom and threats to freedom, the civil war, etc. I don’t know what the topics will be. It’s hard to understand why some people treat others so badly. There is also the sad topic of the mistreatment and slavery of the Jews and also Christians. That to me is more understandable because it was and is the nature of evil–to hate what is good, to hate God and Christ. But why the African American, and why the Native American? I guess evil is all about who you can take advantage of, how you can profit. It’s all about ones own gain–loving yourself in disregard of others.
The harvest of the earth speaks of the great judgment of God upon all unbelievers, which occurs at the very end of the Tribulation. We will look at the entire passage and then break it down into three points.
Revelation 14:14-20. Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.
17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. 18 Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God. 20 And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.
The Executioners
There will be two executioners: Jesus Christ and special designated angels. Jesus Christ is seen by John as “a son of man having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.” This imagery, especially the golden crown on His head, shows us vividly that Christ is victorious in battle; and even before the battle is over, we know that He will conquer His enemies.
His special angels helping Him also have sharp sickles (deadly weapons), and they will be working to gather all the sinners into the great wine press of God (the wrath of God).
The Harvest Will Be Ripe
The harvest in this passage is first of grain (vs 14-16), and then of grapes (17-20). In the first group of verses I think the harvest of grain is dealing with the separation of the tares from the good grain, or the unbelievers from the believers (This is explained for us in Matthew 13:39-43). We can’t be sure exactly when or how this will occur, but I think it will occur sometime before Armageddon—which is what is described in verses 17 through 20.
So, as for this second passage, where the imagery is clearly of the harvest of grapes, the separation has already occurred, and all of the unbelieving people left (represented as grapes) are harvested (judged); they are all ripe and are cast into the great wine press.
Notice that in both cases—the harvest of grain (the separation) and the harvest of grapes—the timing is exactly right. Hence, as the writer of Ecclesiastes puts it, “There is an appointed time for everything” (Ecc. 3:1). And in this case, the time for God’s judgment on unbelievers has come. He has waited patiently for people to repent and come to Him. But there will be an appointed time when His patience runs out and His judgment begins. At that time nothing can be done to delay His time of judgment.
The Great Wine Press
The great wine press is the slaughter of all unbelievers like the pressing of grapes. The writing here portrays all those who will come to the great battle ground in Israel. As is described in the sixth bowl (Rev. 16:13-16), they (hundreds of millions) will be drawn to this place of battle: mainly in Armageddon, but I think in most of the land of Israel, by demons which will come out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet; these three will demonically convince the world to come and fight. And so, they will be led by demons to this great battle. But they will come to be slaughtered by the angels of God and Christ Himself. They will be slaughtered by the sword, and their blood will be as deep as the horses’ bridles—as it flows for 200 miles from Armageddon in the North to Edom in the south.
Now these who gather, at least most of them, I think, are military men (armies). But what of the civilian unbelievers. I assume that they will be judged too—wherever they may be located. None will escape the sword of God’s wrath. All will die because of their rebellious unbelief. As the seventh bowl judgment describes, some will die by a great earthquake, and some will die by huge hail stones, and I imagine that some will die merely out of fear—the fear of His judgment. In the end there will be no unbelievers left. All will die.
Cleaning up.
Changing Colors.
Going with the flow.
Changes in seasons is sometimes hard, but at the same time it is adventurous and fun. It brings new hope and a chance to experience new grace and peace–and to feel His contentment and mercy as we have so many times before.
Jesus taught that prayer should be in unity with others (Matthew 18:19-20) Sometimes when we pray we are not in unity and in agreement with others. But we should always strive for unity—that is, unity in the body of Christ. We can never have unity and agreement with those outside of the body of Christ, but we should always strive for unity within the body. For the body of Christ is one, of which we are all part. Therefore, since each of us (in the Christian church) is a part for the body of Christ it is natural that our prayers should be united and flow together in agreement by the power of the Holy Spirit.
At first it was hard for me to find in the gospels where Jesus taught this idea of unity in prayer (other then in Matthew 18:19-20); but then, as I studied it, it…
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In addition to the constant preaching all over the world by the 144,000 Jewish evangelists during the Tribulation, God will send His angels to warn the world of what is coming in the last three and one-half years of the Tribulation. We don’t know to what extent the angels will be active in this warning ministry, but here in these verses is what John saw and heard.
Revelation 14:6-7. And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; 7 and he said with a loud voice, “Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.”
Here John saw something incredible: an angel flying across the sky preaching the eternal gospel to all the world. We don’t know how he will do it, but he will. Perhaps it will be broadcast over the internet or TV so that all will see and hear it. That is my guess. Or perhaps this one angel will have others helping him. At any rate, we know that all the world will hear this eternal gospel.
Now this gospel will not merely be presented; it will be preached with a stern warning that they must repent and believe now because God’s judgment is coming. I think it will be much like the preaching of John the Baptist.
Verse 8. And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.”
This is not only a warning but a declaration that the evil, idolatrous and immoral system of Babylon will certainly be destroyed. Its destruction will begin at about the midpoint of the Tribulation, when the Antichrist himself along with his ten kings will make desolate the harlot (the false religious system) because of his hatred for her. He will be envious of her power and will want all power for himself (read Rev. 17:16-17).
The climax of Babylon’s fall will be toward the end of the Tribulation, when Rome, the future capital city of the world and of the Antichrist falls and is burned up, along with all of its riches and power (Rev. 17 and 18). Some may disagree with Rome being that city and say that it is the actual rebuilt city of Babylon. However, as I have stated in my book, After the Rapture, after the ancient city of Babylon was destroyed in 539 B. C., the high priest, along with the entire Babylonian system moved to safety and settled in Rome. There they merged their evil beliefs and idols with the Roman Emperors as well as with the Catholic Church. Hence, the city of Rome essentially has become Babylon.
Verses 9-11. Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”
Here, with this angel’s message is the final and ultimate warning. The first massage was to fear God and give Him glory, and thus to repent and be saved. The second message is that there is no hope for the Antichrist’s kingdom—that it is fallen and will be no more. This third message and stern warning is that if anyone decides to follow the Antichrist—to worship Him and receive him mark—they will suffer the wrath of God forever.
Now let me mention just a couple of things from this passage. The first is that because of the strength and clarity of the message, no one will be able to plead ignorance at and during their judgment. They will not have any way out. Secondly, it is clear here that all those who receive the mark will also worship the beast. The two go together. That is, no one can say I received the mark but I do not worship him. Thirdly, it is very clear here what hell will be like; hence, no one can say that they weren’t aware of the reality and severity of the judgment. Here are three distinctives of hell:
1. Hell will be to experience the wrath of God forever, which is the full strength of His anger.
2. Hell is being tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb of God.
3. Hell is to have no rest day and night. To me, this means to have no peace, no contentment, and no satisfaction of life. It will be a continual experience of pain and anxiety without a rest break.
I’m always looking for new things to photograph. I got a kick out of seeing these little fish near the shore of this shallow creek.
I said to the Lord, what are you teaching me now from these little fish. He gave me this thought: These little fish have no idea that I am delighted in them; yet the Lord uses them to delight me and allows me to see His glory in them. In the same way God may choose me and allow others to see His glory in me, even though I am not aware of it. They may see how I do my work so expertly and with care (I am a house painter). They may see how God has gifted me and how He has caused me to love my work and how I move along so effortlessly in the stream of life–like a little fish, ha ha.
Matthew 5:16. “Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in Heaven.”
I took this picture outside my window. I am blessed by the Lord.
I stopped and admired this birch tree. I love its white slender branches and also the golden yellow leaves bouncing in the cool wind.
What a perfect autumn scene.
Stephen Nielsen 