Revelation 20:4-6 NLT

Here we go again. It is taking me longer than I would like to be able to blog but we do what we can, right? So without any more wait, lend me your eyes and thoughts so that I may put them into a state of non-conscious. I am going to go after the next three verses the same way I approached the first three. With has much detail that the Lord gives me and will try to use many cross references to back up everything.

So in the first three verses we saw four key things to remember....

1. An angel has gone down to the bottomless pit with a "chain and key"(death and a burden). Rev.20:1

2. The Angel captured the beast. He will be bound like this for 1,000 years!Rev.20:2

3. Those who take part in the first resurrection will be priest of God and reign with Him for 1,000 years! :) Hope you are there. Rev.20:3

4. Satan will be getting released. :( Rev.20:3

That is the main focus of the first three verses. Now to dig into verse 4...

"Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus and for proclaiming the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their forehead or their hands. They all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years." Revelation 20:4

Now we see thrones! What are they for? Who is on them? Why are they there? To find this answer we will look back into Revelation alittle bit.

"The twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones before God fell with their faces to the ground and worshiped him." Revelation 11:16

Now before I say what I am about to let me specify this.I try not to put my brain into translating the Word of God because my thinking is corrupt(just like yours and everyone else). However I am not able to find a cross reference on the 24. However it jumps out to me that it(this the Theology of Travis) might/could/maybe be the leaders of the "12 tribes"(Genesis 49)! The other 12 could be...the Apostles? 12 and 12 equals 24 right? Makes sense. Remember that this is my stinking thinking though. Take it, leave it, or challenge it.

These 24 have been given the authority to judge. Judge who? Later in this chapter we learn that God judges us. So who do they judge? Probably nobody. Thats right. Look at the verse again. It never says that they are judging anyone. They have the authority to but it never says that they do. Maybe they are maybe they are not. Once again I cannot find a reference has to what they are judging. By looking at later in this chapter you can see that God judges us. So we can say that they do not judge us. We simply don't know what or who they are judging.

Now we see the souls of all who were killed for being faithful to Christ. Those who turned down the mark that the beast wanted to put on them, or worship the statute were tortured, beaten, and murdered. Rev.13 However those who do not receive the mark are rewarded. They get to reign with Jesus for their faith in Him. They take part in the true life. The life that we are intended to live. An everlasting life. A life of peace, hope, and love. A life with Jesus. Here are a few scriptures that tell you about true life Matt.10:39, 16:25, 18:8-8, 19:16-17, 19:29, 25:46, and 27:52 Only those who follow Christ and trust in nothing else will find life. Narrow road folks.

Something to remember here is that it is not a life like you and I now know. It is eternal, pure, painless, and fantastic. Do not get it confused. It is different.

"This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.)" Revelation 20:5

So there is two resurrections. One of life. It is the one where the people will be able to reign with Jesus. The other is without a doubt the most depressing thing I have ever seen, read, or imagined. Those who do not get resurrected in the first resurrection will miss out on being with Jesus. They don't get this thousand years, and because they were not on the narrow road, they don't get to spend eternity with Jesus. They never get to see Jesus in His truest form other than when He is on His great throne and on the verge casting them into the darkness that they have chosen. I know of no other sadness that should grieve you like this should. The lost are going to be lost forever. No take backs. It is a choice that they have to make for keeps.

"Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years." Revelation 20:6

Now here we are at the conclusion of this post. It is a simple one. We (those who have accepted Christ) are blessed. We are going to made holy. Not the Holy that we try to live has but the true "Holy." Faultless! Standing side by side with God. Nothing can touch us. We will stand with Him for one thousand years has His representatives. His chosen people. No sin, no Satan.Nothing can possibly compare to the blessing that we are given in Jesus Christ. Be thankful. If you are reading this then be thankful. Not everyone will stand beside the Lord. Be thankful that He broke you enough to be for you to see Him. Realize that you are blessed.

Here are the key points that we covered in these verses.......

1. Those who do not worship or accept the beast are blessed with life!

2. There are two resurrections. One of life and the other (in contrast) of death.

3. We are blessed!

So click the comment tab below feedback on this one. If you think something needs to be covered more than cover it! Spread the Word!

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One Question

I know that this time of year many Christian blogs will be telling of the birth of Jesus. I love that. Many others will not. I am one who will be writing about something different. This is a question that was asked to the small children at my Church recently. I thought that it was a brilliant question. The answers ranged from a baby, a motorcycle, and money all the way to love and their sin. Here it goes......

If you could give Jesus one present for Christmas what would it be?

It's a good one! What would you give Jesus? Let us know!

Upcoming Post!

The next post here will be a continuation of the Revelation Chapter 20 series I started.

Glow in the Dark Christians...(Repost-I Love This One)

Glow In The Dark Christians- Originally Posted 7-7-07

You remember when you was a kid and you got a glow in the dark toy, or poster, or some thing else that would glow in the dark. It made you excited. It was different. You could help but to love it. They are cool. I still like them.
I am about to be short and sweet. We need to glow in the dark as Christians. In order for the object to glow you have to hold it under the light. You have to let it charge.If you went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night you would notice your toy was getting dim if not unable to glow any at all. Why? Because you have to let it have the energy ,that it gets from the light, for it to be able to glow.
What does this mean to us. We have to put God’s word inside of us. It is what lets us glow. We have to hide God’s word inside of us as much as possible so that when we go into a dark place we can shine for God. The more we have in us the longer we can shine for God. The more of His word we have in us the longer we stand against the darkness. Little word=small amount of fight in us. Lots of word= much ground to stand on. Glow we must.

Parting Sins, Parting Water. Same Difference?!

"The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God." Joshua 4:24 NIV
Sometimes when I pray I say the following……
“Thank you for parting my sins and making a way to walk across this world to you.”
Why? Because the same as God parted the sea He has also parted our sin. We are living in this constant state of sin in which we cannot find a way out.It is too deep to swim through! The consequences are coming up behind us. Death surely awaits if it catches us. Death awaits of try to make it though the water(sin) on our own. So we have no choice except to pray to God to save us from the death that is chasing us and the barrier(sin) that is before us. When we do, God will do what He did to the Jordan and to the red sea. He will move our sins and let us travel the road less taken. We can go through Jesus and walk through the water(sin). If we pray it will happen. He will take us through the rough times we face and away from the sins we committed that hunt us. We will find the promises of the Lord are true. If we follow Him.
Yes I do believe that it is much like the parting of the sea. I enjoy walking through the dry land knowing that my God has pulled my sin back off my life so that I can be with Him. If I walk in His plan and not my own plan.

Why Does God Let Us Suffer?

1.Suffering loosens our grip on this life. We some times get so involved in
this world that we forget what is really important and we have
to have those things removed from us.

2. Life is not forever. When others we know die we can learn that
life is a gift that is to be taken serious. We have a mission here.
We have to be willing live out that mission because we are not
promised another day. Make the choices God commands while
we can.

3. Suffering builds character. We face trial by fire. Some things we cannot
do with out experience. Patience, being forgiving toward
others, loving one another. These things come with
experience. We have to learn to do these things. Even faith
must be build with life experience. We do not know how our
faith will hold up if everything is easy.

4. Without suffering we would never get saved. Without suffering for sin
here on earth we would never know what the pain that sin
causes. We would never understand how serious sin is if we
didn’t have to pay for some it here. We would never turn
to God and we would be lost. Right and wrong and we would
not know honestly know that without pain.

5. It is our sin that causes pain. We sin we pay. We all sin. We all pay. No
way around that. Our suffering is a direct result of sin.If we
cheat or have sex before marriage we have no reason to say
I got am STD! Why God? How about if we steal and
end up in jail. Any sin will result in some type of pain. Be
prepared for the price that sin carries.

6. We learn to love God. Without the hard times we would never really know
how good God is. It is when He pulls us through the trouble
that we are in that we really know that God loves us ,thus
we begin to really love God in all His ways.

7. We forget about ourselves. Pearl Harbor, 9/11 had heroes.Heroes who
set the bar could not have done it without the suffering.
In times like that we learn to put others a head of ourselves and
that is what sacrifice is. Laying our lives on the line for some one
or something other than our well being.
This is all I have for now. God is good and He is complex. For us to understand why everything happens we would have to be completely dead and in Heaven. We could go on and on about why God does this our that but the truth is that we can never fully understand Him. The only thing that gets me through alot of things that I deal with is knowing that God does everything for a reason. I don’t understand but my God knows what He is letting happen. Trust is key to facing your suffering.