“It is done. I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from
the spring of the water of life.”
“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let
him take the free gift of the water of life.”
*We made it! Last week of the year; Last book of the
Bible! If you have anything you
would like to share about what you’ve experienced throughout the year please email
me at ejmushlock@gmail.com*
God’s mercy plan that all started with a baby being born is coming
to completion. Jesus was born both
fully human and fully God. He
lived on the earth and experienced life as we do except He remained without
sin. Then He made the ultimate
sacrifice for the world by dying on the cross to pay for our sins. He rose from the dead three days later,
and when we believe in Him we die to our sins and rise a new creation holy in
the eyes of God. He ascended to
heaven leaving us with a commission and a promise. He gave us the job of spreading the good news of salvation
and to make disciples of Jesus. He
gave us the promise that He would come back again someday.
As we know from the Bible, God is a just God as well as a merciful
God.In the end times God’s wrath
is poured out, and His judgments are just.“You are just in these judgments, you who are and who were,
the Holy One” (16:5).Even though
He is justly pouring out His wrath, He has mercy on those who believe in Him
and do not take the mark of the beast.He also continues to offer the chance for people to repent and turn to
Him, but it says that they refuse to repent and glorify Him and they curse the
name of God.
Another important reminder within these chapters is we don’t know
when this will all take place.It
could be in our generation … It could happen anytime.No one knows.“Behold, I come like a thief!Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he
may not go naked and be shamefully exposed” (16:15).He wants us to be ready.He wants us to believe in Him, to be strong in our faith,
and to do the job He gave us to do.No wasting time.
*We made it! Last week of the year; Last book of the
Bible! If you have anything you
would like to share about what you’ve experienced throughout the year please email
me at ejmushlock@gmail.com*
“The devil is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is
short.” (12:12b)
In these chapters we get a glimpse of the warfare that goes on in
heaven that we have no idea is happening, but there is also the reminder that
between good and evil – good is going to win.The devil’s power does not even come close to comparing with
that of Jesus.There will be a lot
of darkness in the end times, but ultimately Jesus wins.He is not limited, but Satan is.
Here are some of these examples:
~The Woman and the Dragon – “And there was war in heaven.Michael and his angels fought against
the dragon … and the great dragon was hurled down.
~The Two Witnesses – “The beast that comes up from the Abyss will
attack them, and overpower and kill them.”(11:7).But then after three and a half days, a breath of life from
God will bring them back.
~The Mark of the Beast vs The Seal of the Living God – Being
controlled by darkness or being protected by the light.
Satan’s time is short.Jesus is victorious and will reign for eternity.
*We made it! Last week of the year; Last book of the
Bible! If you have anything you
would like to share about what you’ve experienced throughout the year please email
me at ejmushlock@gmail.com*
“I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open
the scroll or look inside. Then
one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has
triumphed. He is able to open the
scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5: 4-5)
He alone is worthy.He is worthy because He was slain, and with His blood He purchased men
for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (5:9).Revelation is full of vivid pictures of
John trying to describe what was beyond imagination.What I love are the glimpses of worship we get in chapters
4, 5, and 7.There is incredible
worship going on … why? … Because He is worthy!He is worthy of all worship for all eternity!
He came to the earth to be slain in order to redeem the
world.This is why He is the One
who is worthy of our praise today and every day for eternity!
“Day and night they never stop saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come.” (4:8)
“They lay their crowns before the throne and say: ‘You are worthy,
our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all
things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” (4:11)
A multitude of angels encircled the throne, and “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!” (5:12)
“Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth…singing: ‘To
him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be praise and honor and glory and
power, for ever and ever!” (5:13)
“And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our
God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (7:10)
“They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped
God, saying: ‘Amen!Praise and
glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for
ever and ever.Amen!” (7:12)
*We made it! Last week of the year; Last book of the
Bible! If you have anything you
would like to share about what you’ve experienced throughout the year please email
me at ejmushlock@gmail.com*
“Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and
blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because
the time is near.” (Revelation 1:3)
I think there are many Christians who avoid the book of Revelation
… maybe because it is hard to understand or maybe because it is all about the
end of the world and they don’t want to know or think about that.Even for myself, if I’m not reading
through the whole Bible, I don’t necessarily think to spend time in the book of
Revelation.This is the only book
in the Bible that says up front – Read this.
Take it to heart, and you’ll be blessed.
Now, I do want to say that since we’re reading through Revelation
in only 5 days, this is obviously not going to be an in-depth study of this book.As I’ve mentioned throughout the year
for any book of the Bible, as we read it I will share my personal reflections
of what I hear God speaking to me through His word each day.
Today there were a few things that stood out to me within the
letters to the churches, but the main one is the one that feels like a punch in
the gut – to the church in Ephesus.Jesus first tells of good things they have been doing like persevering,
enduring hardships, not tolerating wickedness, and hating the things that God
hates, but then comes the hard part to hear: “Yet I hold this against you:You have forsaken your first
love.”As Chuck Missler puts it in
his book Learn the Bible in 24 Hours,
“They got so busy doing the work of the Kingdom that they didn’t have time for
the King!”
Jesus tells them to remember, to repent, and to do the things they
did at first.We always need to
remember what He’s done for us and why we do what we do, and we need to spend
time with Him – our first love.It
is like a marriage.Any husband and
wife can easily get caught up in the daily chores of life and neglect their
love for one another.You have to
spend time together.You have to
reminisce about when you first met, when you first started dating, and remember
why you’re so in love.You have to
do things like you did at the beginning such as going on dates, holding hands,
and taking time to look in each others’ eyes, to listen, and to say I love
you.This keeps a marriage strong,
and this is the same with our relationship with Jesus.
We’re supposed to be walking with Jesus.Throughout the whole Bible it is so clear how God desires to
have a personal relationship with us.It is great to serve Him and be active in the work for His Kingdom, but
along the way we can’t forget our first love.
“To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you
before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy … “ (Jude v.24)
Do you worry about falling, about messing up?He’s able to keep us on our feet.Once you have put your faith in Jesus,
confessing your sins, and trusting Him to forgive you of those sins and to walk
with you forever, you are forgiven.Your sins are covered.You
do not have to walk around with guilt.Jesus presents us to the Father without fault and with great joy!
Lately I keep thinking of an illustration my pastor used recently
to describe how Jesus loves us and delights in us.He said that Jesus’ eyes light up when we walk in a room,
and it is like we’re the only one He sees.It is like when you are a parent and your child is in some
sort of program – your eyes go straight to your child as if there is a
spotlight on them and of course, they are the best!My daughter just had a program at her preschool, and I
experienced this very thing.My
eyes were on her the whole time, and a smile was on my face the whole
time.I had to fight back tears
watching her because I was so full of love for her and was so proud of
her.Jesus loves us like this.
I also keep having this verse popping up in my head and heart a
lot lately: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it
and are safe” (Proverbs 18:10).I
think that sometimes I sort of resist going to the Lord for help.It is a little bit of an
I-can-handle-it attitude.And He’s
there, my strong tower that is constant, loving me like a parent loves a child
wanting to hold me in His arms.“The righteous run to
it.”I should never resist Him; I
should always run to Him.He’s
able to keep me from falling; He is my strong tower that lifts me up.
*Last 2
weeks! These will also be 5-day
weeks instead of 6. If you would
be interested in sharing personal reflections or things God has shown or taught
you through the year, please email me at ejmushlock@gmail.com
.
There seems to be an
if-you’re-going-to-talk-the-talk,-you-better-walk-the-walk kind of theme in 1
John, but what really stood out to me today in this reading was the apostle
John’s teaching on love.
First, I needed the reminder of how great the Father’s love is for
us.It seems such a simple truth –
God loves me - but it is easy to stop being in awe of how wonderful and amazing
that really is.I have two Bibles
at home - one is a newer one I use most often, but then I also have my old,
falling apart one that was the Bible I really used to study on my own outside
of church for the first time.Most
of the underlined verses and notes made in it were from when I was younger
physically as well as younger in my faith, and sometimes it is refreshing to
remember the things that had such an impact on me at that
time.Today I found in this Bible
exclamation points squeezed in the margin after this: “How great is the love
the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of
God!!!!!And that is what we
are!!!!!!”I don’t ever want to
lose that enthusiasm and excitement and wonder of God’s love and that He calls
us His children!
Then, the phrase “love one another” seems to be repeated in 1 John
many times.In fact, I wonder how
many times throughout the whole Bible that phrase shows up … I know it is a
lot.The world is all about loving
and doing for yourself: what makes you happy, what you want, what makes you
look good, but the Father is all about loving others.“Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (4:11).And here is
the key: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions
and in truth.”(3:18)
“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives
in us and his love is made complete in us” (4:12). This reminds me of my favorite line
from my favorite musical Les Miserable:
“To love another person is to see the face of God.”
