Undisciplined Celebration

Undisciplined Celebration

Revelation 11: ⁷ When they finish proclaiming their message, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will fight against them. He will defeat them and kill them, ⁸ and their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, where their Lord was crucified. The symbolic name of that city is Sodom, or Egypt. ⁹ People from all nations, tribes, languages, and races will look at their bodies for three and a half days and will not allow them to be buried. ¹⁰ The people of the earth will be happy because of the death of these two. They will celebrate and send presents to each other, because those two prophets brought much suffering upon the whole human race. ¹¹ After three and a half days a life-giving breath came from God and entered them, and they stood up; and all who saw them were terrified. ¹² Then the two prophets heard a loud voice say to them from heaven, “Come up here!” As their enemies watched, they went up into heaven in a cloud. ¹³ At that very moment there was a violent earthquake; a tenth of the city was destroyed, and seven thousand people were killed. The rest of the people were terrified and praised the greatness of the God of heaven. 

¹⁴ The second horror is over, but the third horror will come soon!

 

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“No talking during library time” were the words of doom. Who wants to spend 30 minutes being quiet? First a note was passed, then a giggle would happen. Soon a word or two would come out, then full conversations. The battle of quiet to noise went on. Months later, the library teacher left and we celebrated! But another was put in place. This one was more strict and would enforce discipline.

 

• We wanted to do what we wanted to do!
• We wanted the teacher to be stopped by any means necessary.
• We celebrated the teacher’s abrupt departure, only to be met with a more strict teacher.

 

John, the disciple JESUS loved, saw the “beast” rise from the abyss. This being was able to kill the two prophets of GOD. People around the world celebrated, unknowingly siding with the beast, who could be classified as the second part of the unholy trinity with Satan. All seemed lost, BUT GOD intervened.

 

My Observations:

• GOD has total power over life and death.
• GOD has a specific time in which HE does everything.
• GOD has a plan to tear down Satan’s kingdom, so celebrating against GOD would not be wise.

 

Getting my way may not be good for me. I mean, when I want something that is not good for me, I may put my desires over GOD’s. HE may even allow me to get my way, but I may not want what I get. Trouble follows a celebration of my being undisciplined. BUT GOD has a remedy.

 

“Surrender” is something I need to do in order to truly change. HE wants me to surrender my life to HIM by believing in HIS SON, JESUS, who died for humanity and was raised from the dead. Only JESUS can cure the mess humans have made.

 

Challenge

• Does the writer seem as if he was writing a horror movie of today?
• Have you ever celebrated something you were clearly doing wrong?
• Will you ask GOD to guide you away from the things you were or are doing, that are against HIM, so you can have a loving relationship with HIM today?

Employed or Called

Luke 20: ⁹ He went on to tell the people this parable: ‘A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. ¹⁰ At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹ He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. ¹² He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.

¹³ ‘Then the owner of the vineyard said, “What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.”

¹⁴ ‘But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. “This is the heir,” they said. “Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” ¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

‘What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶ He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.’

When the people heard this, they said, ‘God forbid!’

¹⁷ Jesus looked directly at them and asked, ‘Then what is the meaning of that which is written:

‘“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone”?

¹⁸ Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.’

¹⁹ The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.

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JESUS spoke directly to the church leaders who were looking to kill HIM. They were appointed over people to preach only about HIM, but their words turned into those of greed and lust for political power. JESUS implied that Abraham, Moses and Elijah were not listened to, so GOD sent HIM but this act of kindness would be met with murder.

• GOD says to me “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
• GOD says to me “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of ME.”
• GOD says to me “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Whether I like it or not, I am involved in a spiritual war once I sided with JESUS. I mean each and every day I have to get up and ask GOD to protect me and those HE has given to me. HE also wants me to remain “called” versus “employed” by HIM.

• Serving GOD is a privilege, not a job. HE wants me to serve others just as HE serves me GOD is my refuge. I am glad to serve.
• Are you exhausted by serving GOD?
• Do you feel HE owes you something because of your service?
• Will you stop for a minute, regroup and look at your service to HIM with excitement today?

Hearing Quantities

Luke 4: ²³ He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’ ” ²⁴ Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. ²⁵ But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; ²⁶ but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.²⁷ And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

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“How many people showed up?” was the question of the church leaders posed to me. “Two” was my answer. I could see the disappointed and disgusted look on their faces and I felt like they thought I should have done more to make the event successful. “Maybe we should serve free hot dogs” were the next words out of their mouths.

• People have measured my success on their view of the numbers.
• People have based their opinions of my success by looking at quantities.
• People have tried to find the root cause of the problem by looking at numbers.

JESUS told the people, who did not believe HE was the Messiah, that prophets are not accepted in their own neighborhoods. HE sighted two examples of the most powerful prophets, Elijah and Elisha, being rejected and the consequences of the rejection was death, famine and lack of healing. Only small quantities were saved.

• GOD does not want me to focus on quantity rather quality.
• GOD wants me to seek HIM with faithfulness rather than measuring everything HE does.
• GOD wants me to preach HIS word no matter how small the crowd.

Faith is the missing ingredient when it comes to numbers. GOD sends me the number of people HE wants me to talk to and HE sends me to the number of those HE wants me to serve. Whether it’s one or one thousand, my focus should be on what HE wants me to say and how HE wants me to act. Quality is more important than quantity with GOD.

• Are you ashamed of how many people you serve for GOD?
• Are you not being heard even though you desire your friends and family to believe fully in CHRIST?
• Can you have enough faith to allow GOD to work in their lives and you stop trying to force the situation to happen?