I was really inspired by a sports article I read in my newspaper today—all about how our quarterback, Kirk Cousins plans on using his comeback victory to share his Christian faith. Ya, in case you weren’t aware, our Minnesota Vikings got the all-time NFL record for a comeback victory. They were down 33 to 0 against the Colts at the half, but in the second half they somewhat miraculously got 39 points and held the Colts to just three points. The final score was Viking 39, Colts 36.
It turns out that the last comeback victory was led by Buffalo’s quarterback Frank Reich, against the Houston Oilers in 1993, and he is a Christian just as Kirk Cousins is! Well, the article tells how he has encouraged Cousins to use his comeback victory to share his faith just as he has been doing in the last thirty years.
I pray that Kirk will really take the opportunity to do it. God has given him a tremendous platform in the sports world. It is up to him to use it to glorify God—no pressure, ha ha.
God has given me a platform too—my painting business. Through my business I have found many opportunities to give a witness.
Here is the petition that is the most needed to maintain our relationship with God. It is the petition that helps to keep our mind and soul pure so that we can commune with Him in prayer. Hence this petition for daily forgiveness makes it possible to be satisfied with our daily bread, and also makes it probable that He will guide us and deliver us from evil when we ask Him.
The forgiveness that we ask for is according to our debts to God. For God has given us His laws and we have not obeyed them, we have not been righteous as He requires. Thus, because of our sin against God, we owe Him a huge debt of consequence. How can we pay this debt? It is so immense, so gigantic that we will never be able to pay it back. Therefore, all we can do is…
Here is the plague in which we see the beginning of the end of things. It encompasses the preparing of the way for all the armies of the world to come into the holy land for war against God. Hence this plague is not a plague that will immediately produce any more suffering, as was the case in all the other plagues. It is a plague that opens the way for the final judgment. It comes in two parts.
First, this sixth bowl is poured out on the great river Euphrates, causing it to be died up, so that armies from the east will be able to cross over with ease into the holy land for war.
The second part of the plague will come on the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, by way of unclean spirits of demons. These spirits we must believe will be directed by God to carry a message through the three to all of the kings of the world (the kings of the east who will cross over the dried-up Euphrates, and also the kings of the north, south, and west), instructing them to gather together for war against God in Israel. And verse sixteen says that “they [the demons] gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon” (or Armageddon). Warren Wiersbe comments on this place:
The name Armageddon comes from two Hebrew words, har Megiddo, the hill of Megiddo. The word Megiddo means ‘place of troops’ or ‘place of slaughter.’ It is also called the Plain of Esdraelon and the Valley of Jezreel. The area is about fourteen miles wide and twenty miles long, and forms what Napoleon called ‘the most natural battlefield of the whole earth.’ Standing on Mount Carmel and overlooking the great plain, you can well understand why it would be used for gathering the armies of the nations.
It was on this plain that Barak defeated the armies of Canaan (Jud. 5:19). Gideon met the Midianites there (Jud. 7) and it was there that King Saul lost his life (1 Sam. 31). Titus and the Roman army used this natural corridor, as did the Crusaders in the Middle ages. British General Allenby used it when he defeated the Turkish armies in 1917.7
Verse fifteen, which is parenthetical, is written to believers to be faithful and vigilant, constantly ready for His return. Hence this verse assures us that there will be faithful believers during the Tribulation—believers that will survive and go into Christ’s Kingdom.
Last, I want to pose two questions: First, when does the sixth bowl end? Does it end with the gathering, or does it include the battle of Armageddon? It seems to me that it stops with the gathering, but I’m not sure.
Secondly, we have said all along that all the plagues will be accumulative and ongoing. Is that true here? Does this sixth bowl, and also the seventh bowl, contain an accumulation of all the previous plagues? Should we assume in these last plagues that this is a climax and the greatest of the suffering? I’m not sure, but part of me feels that it is; that people are still suffering from all the pervious plagues: from famine and pestilence and wild beasts, and from martyrdom, and from natural/cosmic disturbances, and from demonic activity, and from boils and bloody water and scorching heat, and darkness.
7 Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Victorious (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books) 1985. pp. 117-118.
Here is the first of three petitions that describe our own personal needs. The first three petitions are for God’s desires. The next three are for our needs. And we must always remember to pray for His requirements first; then He will show us what our real needs are, and He will lead us to pray for those things. Moreover, when we concentrate on His priorities first, He gives us a true and right perspective on things; hence, He shows us what our priorities should be, and He puts us in a better mind to pray for ourselves and for our friends.
This first of these personal petitions is for our daily bread, and is normally thought of as a petition for all our daily, physical needs—for our food and shelter, etc. For the most part, I think this…
I’ll start with a few complaints. Aside from an aggravating health situation, the weather here in Minnesota is most unpleasant. It’s dark, cloudy, humid, cold, and dreary. I don’t mind it being cold, but I like a sunny day. God, please give me a sunny day!
Respect for Marriage Act
Is that an oxymoron? If I didn’t know what it was I would praise it. Marriage is a beautiful thing. And though I am divorced, I still believe it is good—as is all of God’s creation. But this Respect for Marriage Act is a farce. It is telling us that we have to respect the so-called marriage between people of the same gender. Well, I don’t! True marriage is only between a man and a woman. Anything else is a perversion and is dishonoring of their bodies; they are changing the truth into a lie, and are changing what is natural into that which is against nature. Consequently, they do not like to retain God in their thoughts and they have given themselves over to a reprobate mind (from Romans 1:24-28). But marriage between a man and a woman is good and honoring to God. It is what God designed from the beginning—the two shall be one flesh.
My Reading
For some reason I have gotten into reading about African American history, and recently about Booker T. Washington. Wow! He was such a great man. He has done so much for his race and also for the poor whites and all people in the south after the civil war. He was a great educator. His emphasis in his college was to get his students working in a trade as well as into books. And so many from his college became great leaders and moral people, as they were trained also biblically and morally. And it was a hard task, because blacks coming out of slavery then were kept from any kind of education. Most did not know how to read or write or how to keep themselves clean or in good health. Hence when they came to school, Booker T. trained them in the art of bathing and brushing their teeth, etc., as well as how to read and write. And they were also expected to learn farming and building. All of their school buildings were built by the students. And they even made their own bricks!
Retirement
Retirement is a big change for me. Sometimes I feel that I am getting lazy. I think I need to force myself to walk more and work more—even though I am retired. I do like to keep up with my customers and paint for them when they ask me for work. Lately, I have been asking myself, what is retirement? What should I be doing? How should I be winding down? I don’t want to be like some who spend all of their time in front of a TV.
After about six months of burning heat (from the fourth bowl), this plague will begin without warning; the sun will suddenly be completely blocked out, leaving the earth, or at least part of the earth, in thick darkness. We don’t know, but I suspect that, though there will be a relief from the scorching sunburn, the heat will still remain—like being trapped inside of an oven.
Now the Scriptures say that this plague will be poured out on the throne of the beast—on his kingdom. But where exactly is that? Some say that it will be the rebuilt city of Babylon, which is in Iraq. Others insist that it will be in the city of Rome. But I wonder if it will not extend further that just the city where he resides. How far is considered his kingdom?
Another question I have is: how long will this darkness last? I don’t think it will last to the end of the Tribulation, when the war of Armageddon if commencing, because they will need some light to fight. But I think it will be at least a few months, which I’m sure will feel like a long time.
One author suggested that people won’t even be able to produce electrical power to see in their homes, because most electricity is produced from rivers and bodies of water, and God will have shut that off (as you may have deduced from the second and third judgments). But I suspect that they will at least be able to light candles or use a flashlight. I don’t know. We don’t know how much God will allow.
One thing we do know is that the darkness will be felt and will produce pain—so much that people will gnaw their tongues in pain. That sounds to me like some kind of a nervous disorder. In Exodus 10:21, in the nineth Egyptian plague, it is written that the people felt the darkness. Also, in the prophetical book Zephaniah (Zeph. 1:15), it is written that in the coming day of the Lord it will be “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.” I’m not sure if there has ever been this kind of darkness on the earth. I’m sure that it will be terrible.
Surprisingly, it will not cause people to repent of sins. They, I suppose, will love their sins too much to repent. And, as in the previous bowl-plague, they will curse God because of their pains and sores.
Here is the petition that is the most needed to maintain our relationship with God. It is the petition that helps to keep our mind and soul pure so that we can commune with Him in prayer. Hence this petition for daily forgiveness makes it possible to be satisfied with our daily bread, and also makes it probable that He will guide us and deliver us from evil when we ask Him.
Stephen Nielsen 