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Revelation 15
1 I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
5 After this I looked, and I saw in heaven the temple—that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law—and it was opened. 6 Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
1 Chronicles 22
1 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”
3 But Joab replied, “May the LORD multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”
4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. 5 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.
6 But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him. 7 This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.
8 Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
9 The LORD said to Gad, David’s seer, 10 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”
11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Take your choice: 12 three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the LORD—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the LORD ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
13 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
14 So the LORD sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. 15 And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
16 David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.
17 David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd, have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? LORD my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.”
18 Then the angel of the LORD ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19 So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the LORD.20 While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. 21 Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.22 David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”
23 Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”
24 But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
25 So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site. 26 David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
27 Then the LORD spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. 28 At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. 29 The tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.
1 Then David said, “The house of the LORD God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”
This is the song I would have sung at my own funeral: Helpless, mp3, YouTube
I’ve spent the day singing Christmas songs at church.
Many of the songs I have sung today could be confusing to those who seek to understand God and the meaning of Christmas. The lyrics might lead one to believe that Jesus was about to be born, or that He was a little, manageable baby. But, Jesus has always existed. The world came to exist by Him and through Him. This was not His first entrance into the world that he created. And, Jesus was more than a little baby. Jesus was always fully God.
My favorite Christmas songs are “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!” and, I have Seen the Light!
What is the meaning of life? What is the chief end of man? To Glorify God!
Grace To You just broadcast a series called Back to the Basics in which John McArthur teaches how to grow as Christian by glorifying God. This is probably the best sermon series that I have ever heard.
Notes
What does it mean to Glorify God? To live to his honor, to live to his praise. To adorn the Doctrine of God. To so live that we bring honor to the Lord. Living a life that manifests godliness. Needed to grow spiritually. Self glory is the glory of Satan, no growth at all. 2 cor 3:18
What Brings Glory to God
1) Confessing Jesus as Lord. Phil. 2
2) Aim our lives at the Glory of God. 1 Cor 10:31
3) Confessing our sin. Joshua 7:19
4) By Trust, and Faith, for example, Abraham’s faith brought Glory to God. Romans 4:20
5) By our Fruitfulness John 15:8, Gal 5:22-23
6) Praise Him Psalm 50:23, Phil 1:11
How do we praise the Lord?
- Recite God’s Attributes, God’s nature – Holy, Almighty, Eternal, Covenant Keeping God
- Recite His Works, His attributes are on display in his works
- Saying Thanks for both
7) Loving Him enough to Obey Him, Obedience. John 21
8 ) By Prayer. John 14:13-14 It shows God’s power, you will praise of God.
9) By Proclaiming the Word. 2 thes 3:1, Gal 1:23-24
10) By bringing others to Him. 2 cor 4:15
More proof that you don’t always get what you pay for.
I must say, the new big 10 logo is really lame.
It might be more palatable in a different color.
It makes me wonder what these marketing people are thinking. Is there any kind of objective or scientific criteria that guides the design of these logos? If so, was it applied?
Eric Holder is having a hard time prosecuting Wikileaks, according to this article. Eric Holder is weak and subversive, according to me.
I have revised my opinion of Wikileaks since they have published a list of targets for Al Queda to attack, and since they have encouraged illegally attacking U.S. based business.
Their hypocrisy is mind blowing. If they were truly concerned about freedom and transparency, they would
(a) be more transparent about their own operations by leaking their internal e-mails
(b) require Assunge to actually talk to the Swedish investigators and answer their questions
(c) respect the rights of the U.S. based business who simply decline to do business with Wikileaks
(d) leak information from some country other than the U.S.A.
(e) admit that their leaks of confidential diplomatic cables makes diplomacy less likely, punishes the US for transparency, and makes war more likely.
Suffice to say, I now take a very dim view of Wikileaks; and I consider them to be a criminal organization. But that isn’t the point of my post.
Eric Holder could easily charge Wikileaks with copyright violations, and violations of the DMCA. Copyright law is universal by treaty over nearly all of the entire Globe, and DMCA violations can be a 5 year felony. If nothing else, all of Wikileaks assets could be impounded under copyright law. This recourse is available now.
True, U.S. government generated material may not be under copyright, but the rest of the leaked information is under copyright, and it was obtained after several DMCA violations.
This demonstrates how out of balance our justice department is. The Feds are very well equipped to destroy the life of a teenager who shares a song or a movie illegally, but they seem helpless to stop the wholesale publication of classified intelligence data.
Family of Fallen Soldier Builds Refuge For Other Soldiers
“It’s still painful,” Blumberg said. “But you can’t change it. I’m an old, tough sergeant, and I’d never let the enemy see me cry. It’s what we have to live with for the rest of our lives. And you better learn to deal with it or it will eat you alive.”
Schools Rethink Giving A’s For Good Behavior
“Over time, we began to realize that many teachers had been grading kids for compliance — not for mastering the course material,” Berglund said. “A portion of our A and B students were not the ones who were gaining the most knowledge but the ones who had learned to do school the best.”
Boomers Carry Drug Problems Into Golden Years
Substance abuse and addiction accounted for 18 percent of Michigan’s state budget and ranked second at nearly $5.3 billion, behind elementary and secondary education, according to a 2005 study by the Columbia center. However, only 2 cents of each dollar was spent on prevention and treatment.
Man’s Burned Body Shocks Detroit Neighborhood
“People were out there taking photographs with their cell phones,” said Robin Hudson, who lived in the neighborhood. “That’s just terrible.”
“Some people feel defeated,” Smith said. “Expectations were raised so high, and people really believed there was a massive positive change coming. But it simply has not come.”
Some Stem Cells Protect TB Bacteria
More than 2 billion people, or a third of the world’s population, are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis.
Nearly all TB infections are latent, with carriers showing no symptoms and they are not infectious. One in 10 will become sick with active TB in their lifetime, primarily as a result of a weakened immune system.
WikiLeaks Archive:
As he left Zimbabwe in 2007 after three years as ambassador, Christopher W. Dell wrote a sardonic account of Robert Mugabe, that country’s aging and erratic leader. The cable called him “a brilliant tactician” but mocked “his deep ignorance on economic issues (coupled with the belief that his 18 doctorates give him the authority to suspend the laws of economics).”
FBI Investigates Coder For Liberating Paywalled Court Records
The feds also checked Swartz’s Facebook page.
Assembling The Global Baby
Mike Aki and his husband, a Massachusetts couple, confronted this question. The couple planned on having two children. But their two surrogate mothers in India each became pregnant with twins.
At 12 weeks into the pregnancies, Mr. Aki and his husband decided to abort two of the fetuses, one from each woman. It was a very painful call to make, Mr. Aki says. “You start thinking to yourself, ‘Oh, my god, am I killing this child?’”
He didn’t think of his decision as an abortion, but as a “reduction,” he says. “You’re reducing the pregnancies to make sure you have a greater chance of healthy children,” Mr. Aki says. “If you’re going to bring a child into this world, you have an obligation to take care of that child to the best of your abilities.”
Today, Mr. Aki and his husband have two 21-month-old daughters. The girls share the same genetic mother. Each man is the genetic father of one of the girls. Next week, Mr. Aki and his husband will officially adopt each other’s genetic daughter.
Africa Needs Aid, Not Flawed Theories
Pessimism is often wrong because people assume a world where there is no change or innovation. They simply extrapolate from what is going on today, failing to recognize the new developments and insights that might alter current trends.
The fact patterns of published legal opinions are better than fictional short stories. Each opinion has a set of facts, a conflict, and a resolution.
Beard v. Kindler: Mr. Kindler’s amazing escapades sealed his death. But, thanks to Westlaw, the heinous deeds of Mr. Kindler will be remembered by civilizations long after our union is dissolved.
More Short Stories: 2009
I often hear that conservatives and liberals are pretty much the same, and I think this is true when it comes to fiscal policy and dithering on behalf of lobbyists. However, the justices nominated to the Supreme Court provide a clear contrast between the ideologies of both political parties.
So far, I tend to agree with the opinions of Obama’s nominees when they dissent. For example, I would side with Sotomayor in Michigan v. Fisher. This really surprises me.
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