Press the arrow to listen to “Rescue” by Jared Anderson.

Scripture
The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died.

Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say:
“You are just in these judgments,
you who are and who were, the Holy One,
because you have so judged;
for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.” Revelation 16:3, 5, 6

Observation
Can I praise God as much when he uses wrath as much as when he uses love?

Think of it this way. We have watched movies like Band of Brothers. In it, the bad guys are really bad. The good guys well…they are us. It’s easy to choose which side to be on and to yearn that the characters in the movie will be successful in their destruction.

Life surrounds us with a plot more moving than a movie. A battle swirls around us and the battle lines are not clear. It isn’t one nation against another or even a terrorist organization against peaceful society. There is a system that runs through our world that is pitted against anything and everything God desires. We sit next to it in airplanes, push our shopping cart through it and pass it on the freeway. It is woven into the life we live in. Yet it is strategically opposing every purpose of heaven. Good people die because of it. It tramples everything we value and mocks everything we believe.

One day God will have had enough and he will act. We must face it. God makes the bad things in Revelation happen. The disasters in Revelation are not natural ones or man made ones. How can a loving God make such terrible things happen? Because justice demands that something eventually be done. He wouldn’t be a God of love if he did not eventually stop evil. Wrath is really an expression of his intense love. The end result is that the city that opposes God is destroyed and heaven comes down to earth.

Application
The wrath of God is a heavy thought for 6:20am as I write this. But this story in Revelation tests which side I’m really on. My existence is so woven into the system that opposes God that it is easy for me to take the wrong side. Reading this story on a regular basis holds me at gunpoint and forces me to decide whose side I’m on. It is only as I can applaud the wrath of God, even when it comes against the world that I sometimes love too much, that I come to know true love for the Lord.

I read this sentence yesterday,

This is the highest wisdom: to see the world as it truly is, fallen and fleeting; to love the world not for it’s own sake, but for God’s… (Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ)

It is only as I choose sides with God that I can love the enemy I live with as recklessly as I am called to do.

Prayer
Father, help me to see clearly which side to be on. While I’m being comforted by the enemy, help me to recognize the claws under the fur. I chose your side and to rejoice with your purposes, even when they are difficult. Amen.

Scripture
In a loud voice they sang:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!” The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped. Revelation 5:12-14

Observation
Some think Revelation is a book about the future. It isn’t.

Others think Revelation is a book about mega disasters. It isn’t.

Most think Revelation is too confusing and should be left alone. They are missing out.

Revelation is a musical and it is filled with more singing than a Rogers and Hammerstein show. When events become grim, angels, elders and mega crowds burst into song.

All this singing would all seem heartless unless we fall in love with the purpose of the book of Revelation. Revelation is not about the future or disasters; revelation is about Jesus.

And there is more. Revelation is a book of instruction of how to worship Jesus in the blackest times of history. Anyone can sing in the sunshine, but Revelation is about singing in the rain. It requires me to pry my fingers that clutch the things produced by this world free enough to be lifted up toward heaven toward he who is coming.

Application
This last book asks me the question: will my song become softer or louder as the world falls apart? The cast of “Revelation: The Musical” seem so focused on God, heaven, and his longterm purposes. Even bad news inspires them to worship him more. What sets them apart from my generation, is that this world had no interest to them. Their hearts were so set on God’s plan of bringing Jesus back to planet earth, that if God had to take things apart to put Jesus in the right place then they would rejoice.

Revelation is an album for robust, hearty all-weather, all-terrain worshippers who have a determination to sing louder the darker life becomes. It is time for the church to turn up the volume. For the message of this book is that understanding end times is simple. The world will be the worst it has ever been while the church of Jesus Christ will become the best it has ever been. It is time to show our colors and join the song that will never end.

Prayer
Father, I find the news more than distressing; I’m becoming indifferent to it because it is always worst than the last time I read it. I find I’m embracing this book of Revelation more and being encouraged to let go of what doesn’t last and to grasp tightly to what is eternal. The song of heaven described in this book surrounds me. Help me to tune into the worship that has already begun and to singing with unseen friends, glory to the Lamb who was slain. Amen.

I think Linus sums up Christmas best.

Scripture
So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. John 20:3-8

Observation
As I reflected over the life of Jesus on this Christmas Day, I saw how the story of his life is connected with his clothes.

He was born into poverty. In the rush of travel, Mary and Joseph had no shower gifts to wrap their baby in. So Mary bundled her baby in tight layers of fabric found nearby. What a way to wrap the gift of God becoming man in idle rags.

In life Jesus must have been a well dressed man. His garment was seamless. Someone wove it for him personally with great care. Whoever the woman was, she wanted Jesus presented well. It was so desirable that the soldiers gambled over it. Someone who valued Jesus took care to clothe him well.

Naked and exposed, Joseph and Nicodemus took long strips of cloth, and just as Mary had done 33 years before, they wrapped the body of Jesus tightly and set the stage for the greatest gift of all, the resurrection of Jesus.

It was the Father in heaven who was able to move beyond the wrapping of the gift of Jesus. He brought Jesus not just from the tomb, but through his grave clothes. The words of John suggest that the tightly wrapped bandages around the body of Jesus still had their form and contour. The shape of his body could be seen but he, himself, was gone.

Application
It’s our call to wrap the present of Jesus well, to make him attractive the the world in which we live. It’s ours to wrap tightly those who bear his resemblance so they feel the love of Christ. But it is the Father who can unwrap the present of Jesus to the world in which we live. So Jesus bounds alive and well into the dreary world in which we live. What we can do is nothing compared to what God will do through the presence of Jesus in our world.

Prayer
Father, thank you for the gift of Jesus. This Christmas we made a deliberate family choice not to give and receive gifts. It was the first time in my life I’ve done that. It was nice to fast gift giving this Christmas. What I dissevered was how much I cherished the relational gifts. Having Kris and Laurel married and close was most precious. But it seemed that today I was able to reflect more on the gift of Christ than I have in the past. Thank you for unwrapping the gift of Jesus and making him a part of my life. Amen.