THE ONE YEAR BIBLE CLUB

 New Year's Eve is all about the final count down! And our reading today, our last reading of the year is also about the final count down.  The ending of Malachi and the ending of Revelations blend together all too well. Malachi we are reading about the coming of the Lord and how everything and everyone will pass through the fire, nothing will pass that is not pure, refined or holy. The same message we read in Revelations.  In Malachi God is disputing with the people about their bad relationship, or horrible relationship, let's say, that they have with Him. And each time they come back and challenge God on His assessment of them and each time God comes back with concrete evidence and even quotes back to them what they are saying about Him.  In revelations God sums it up as "those that live a lie". Mirroring in essence what He is telling them in Malachi, it's really quite amazing. Then we read in Psalms, you could say, the finality, "let everything that has br...

       Do you really want to start a dialogue with God?  Or as we would say today, “do you really want to go there?” Normally that statement reflects the idea that you don’t want to start an argument you are going to sorely lose; there is just piles of evidence heaped up against us, if we want to start throwing accusations. What I especially like about the Old Testament is we get actual dialogue from God and I find that fascinating. How does God think? What upsets him, if He was going to speak, what would he say? If you will read through the whole Old Testament you will get to know Jehovah/Yahweh quite well!      Today we read in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi and Jehovah has one last opportunity to speak. It will be 400 years before God ever speaks to the Jewish people again! And what we find is that it is the typical conversation between man & God.  God says, “I have always loved you” man says, “how have you loved us!” It’s...

 Of course those reading this blog will more than likely be dead when this great battle takes place; Satan and his gang against Jerusalem and the people of God. Most would have a hard time seeing themselves on either side. They are not evil but neither are the devoutly religious. If anything, they want to be more neutral, than anything. As the war rages against ISIS and radical muslin extremists in the Middle East, many men and women have chosen a side and have gone to Iraq & Syria, to engage the enemy in a full frontal assault. The animosity that is breeding between those soldiers and the civilians is based predominantly on this issue. It is hard for them to return from having engaged this real enemy and come back to a society that wants to remain neutral. They have had limbs and fellow soldiers blown up by this enemy and they come back to civilians who want to remain neutral. This infuriates the soldier and causes animosity between him and his fellow countrymen. This also rep...

       "HOW far is this kid going to take this before I have to knock him off his feet", ever wonder that?  How far will an employee take his insolence before his employer is left with no choice but to fire him? How far will a soldier take his insubordination before his superior must write him up or court martial him? And the question of all ...is how far will the creation (man) take his arrogance, pride and audacity against his creator?  And the answer to that is "to no ends".   Will he (the created) defy the creator? Yes Will he rebel against his creator, Yes.  Will he shake his first at his creator, Yes!  But will he go so far as to FIGHT his creator....???? YES  19  Then I saw the beast  and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together   to wage war against the rider on the horse  and his army."         "Are you serious, you are going to wage war against God?"...

  Why do people want to stay in their false religion and attempt to serve God there, after they have come to the truth? Is it some kind of compromise? Some kind of admission of "partial guilt"? A text that has often stood out to many is our text in Revelations, "  Come away from her, my people. Do not take part in her sins or you will be punished with her ". One of the most frustrating things for me as a Born Again Christian is to have a Catholic come to me and tell me "we are the same".  We are both "believers" we are both "Born Again" it's just that I am Catholic and you are Protestant. And I grieve for the martyrs who gave their lives so that we could be set free from false religion. As if there's salvation inside the Teachings of the Catholic Church?! As if salvation and forgiveness of the "original sin" comes at at the baptism of an infant. As if Martin Luther was just a great fool in forging the Protestant Reform...

 God gives a high & lofty position in this story, in Revelations, to "the woman". We know that the woman is a personification, not a literal person, but it is still interesting that God chooses a woman for this personification. "the mother of all prostitutes and obscenities in the world".  Jesus (God) built his movement on the backs of men. We do not know any of the names of the wives of the apostles or even if they are married (except Peter). Men are given quite a lofty position, it is the names of the 12 Apostles that are written on the Walls of the New Jerusalem. We go on to read about this powerful woman that rides the beast. "In her hand she held a gold goblet full of obscenities and the impurities of her immorality".  As strong as "man" is, the Achilles Heal of every normal, red blooded man, is "women".  She has taken down the mightiest of the mighty. And we are not simply speaking about non-Christian men either; if only that ...

  I  wonder how many readers we will get on Christmas Day? Christmas Day is such a celebratory day. With phone calls and visits and dinners, where does Jesus fit in? Then you actually do take the time to sit down and read your One Year Bible on Christmas and you are reading about judgment in Zechariah and then we are faced with even harsher reading in Revelations about Jesus and the bowls of Judgment He is releasing upon the earth. It's not very Christmassy reading, to say the least. It would be so neat if we picked up the One Year Bible on Christmas Day and it just so happened to be a reading on the Christmas story; instead we are faced with doom and gloom.  It's almost as if we and Jesus are not on the same page on December 25th or December 24th for that matter. It's not often that Christmas or Christmas Eve falls on a "church day" but it seems that when it does it turns out to be an inconvenience to us. It's almost as if Jesus is getting in the way of our C...