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THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA

Jonah has free will and can run away from the presence of the Lord, just like you and I can if we chose to do so, BUT GOD WILL BRING A STORM INTO THE LIFE OF JONAH THAT WILL AFFECT NOT JUST JONAH, BUT EVERYONE WHO IS IN DIRECT CONTACT WITH JONAH.
Tony Evans in his book “DESTINY” writes:
“The Bible is not an anthology of random stories. The thread that ties the entire Bible together is the theme of the kingdom. God’s goal is to see His rule and authority cover the earth through the expansion of His kingdom. That is God’s purpose in history.
Scripture was penned in order to facilitate that one agenda. The unifying central theme of the Bible is the glory of God through the advancement of His kingdom. Every event, story, and personality from Genesis to Revelation is there to stitch that theme together.
Without that theme, the Bible becomes a collection of disconnected stories that seem to be unrelated to one another.”
To quote Tony Evans one more time
“When you live out your destiny, you don’t measure what you have done according to what someone else has done. Nor is your destiny to be CONFUSED WITH A BUSY LIFE.
When your life is filled with purpose, you measure what you have done according to what you were created to do.”

O LORD, PLEASE OPEN HIS EYES

Question of the week:
What difference does this truth make in your life, having your eyes now opened to the reality of this intense spiritual battle between God Almighty and the fallen angels, and how does this truth affect your behavior since you now know that your loyalty to God is being watched every day by both sides of the spiritual war?
Quote by Michael Heiser
“Many people think of the New Testament as a recounting of the life of Jesus and the apostles sprinkled with a collection of letters sent by Paul to churches with odd names. While we follow these men and their lives and read the correspondence, the New Testament is so much more.
The New Testament makes the rebirth of a struggle thousands of years in the making. The people of God have been isolated and under foreign rule. The divine presence of the days of Moses, David, Solomon, and the prophets is nothing but memory. When angels visit Mary and Zechariah to announce the impending births of Jesus and John, centuries of divine silence are broken. Thirty years later, JUDEA WILL EXPLODE. THE UNSEEN SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IS EVEN MORE VOLATILE.
Every chapter of the New Testament provides a glimpse into this conflict. The cosmic geography of the Old Testament is evident in the New. Where Jesus goes and what he says and does when he gets there is framed BY CONFRONTATION WITH UNSEEN POWERS. The conflict pursues him unto death – as God has planned and Jesus provoked. THE KINGDOM OF GOD ESTABLISHES A PERMANENT BEACHHEAD AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS AND THE DOOR OF THE EMPTY TOMB.
The rest of the New Testament draws heavily on Old Testament motifs. Jesus is gone but present, just as Yahweh was in heaven invisible yet on earth in human form. The seed of Abraham, scattered to the winds in exile, turn out to function like spiritual cell groups secretly planted in every nation under the dominion of the hostile gods. The kingdom spreads slowly but relentlessly, one new believer at a time. EVERY CHURCH IS A NEW POCKED OF RESISTANCE, EVERY BAPTISM ANOTHER PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE MOST HIGH, EVERY CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER A DENIAL OF FELLOWSHIP WITH LESSER MASTERS AND A PROCLAMATION OF THE SUCCESS OF YAHWEH’S MYSTERIOUS PLAN.
The lines are drawn. The stakes are high. The enemy desperate. The fullness of the Gentiles will come, all Israel will be saved, and the Deliverer will come from the heavenly Zion.
IT’S JUST A MATTER OF TIME. Dr. Michael Heiser

Preparing for the MARRIAGE SUPPER

The great composer Frederick Handel composed on of the most famous piece based upon this verse. The Hallelujah Chorus: Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. And He shall reign forever and ever. While this chorus is a masterpiece, it cannot even be slightly compared with the chorus these heavenly beings are singing.
Why are they singing?
• They witness the final triumph of good over evil
• They witness the final triumph of Christ over Antichrist
• They witness the final triumph of God over Satan
• They witness the final triumph of the Holy Spirit over the spirit of evil.
We must understand that since the fall of Adam, the faithful angelic beings around the throne of God have anticipated that ultimate day when God would finally judge Satan and those who follow him in his rebellion against God Almighty.
In verse 2 of this chapter we read that God’s judgment are true and righteous. The great harlot, religious, political and commercial Babylon has been judged. All that Babylon typifies since the days of Nimrod, when he inaugurated a system that led men away from God. In other words, all the iniquities of past ages will be justified in this ultimate destruction when God will judge Babylon. According to verse 3, God’s judgment upon this religious, political and commercial Babylon will be complete. Satan will never be permitted to rebuild that system ever again. No wonder those in heaven were singing for joy.
For almost 2000 years Christians around the world prayed: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. When the heavenly beings sing the Hallelujah chorus, they do so in great anticipation of the promised return of the King of the universe, Jesus Christ, to set up His glorious Kingdom on this earth.
Paul is using a wedding to picture the Lord’s relationship with His church.
In Biblical times, a marriage was the single greatest celebration. Their wedding preparations were even more elaborate and lasted much longer than in modern times.
Such wedding preparations consisted of 3 different stages:
First was the engagement. It consisted of an arrangement by both sets of parents contracting the marriage of their children. Such an engagement was legally binding and could only be broken by a divorce. This engagement did not just include those two children, but it included the union of two families. There were years of preparation for the time of marriage, as the boy prepared for his bride.
Second step was the so called PRESENTATION. Here both families would celebrate with the entire town for up to a full week. This presentation was always just prior the actual wedding ceremony. When the celebration came to an end, the groom and his best men would go to the bride’s house and take her and her bridesmaids to the ceremony.
Third step was the most anticipated and significant one. During this ceremony the bride and the bridegroom finally exchanged the wedding vows. After this ceremony the families and their friends would have one more final meal before the newly weds would depart.
We as Christians are His workmanship, he made us new, a new creation. What’s the purpose? FOR GOOD WORKS, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND that we should walk in them. The purpose of every born again believer is to be available to the Lord for “good works”. We can be faithful or we can be unfaithful to walk in the things God prepared beforehand.
The Devil is a master deceiver and the father of lies. He tells those who are not yet in God’s kingdom, “WORK FOR SALVATION”. If they don’t listen to that lie, and eventually someone comes along to share the Good News with them and accept Jesus as their Savior, the Devil will change tactics: He will say: “Now that you are saved freely by grace, you don’t have to do anything.” That’s not Biblical. I think the Apostle Paul’s experience should teach all of us a vital lesson: Acts 9:1-16
We make ourselves ready by faithfully walking in the work God has prepared for us to do here on earth. Such work will be rewarded greatly by God Himself, and those rewards will reflect on our garments we will wear throughout the 1000 years here on earth as we rule and reign with him.
Are you ready?

The Final Judgments

The judgments of God on this entire earth are wrapped up in 7 seals, followed by 7 trumpets and finally followed by 7 bowls. If you carefully read those passages you can find out that the 7th seal contains the 7 trumpets and the 7th trumpet contains the 7 bowls. This simply means that there is a very specific sequence to these judgments. First the seals; then the trumpets and finally the bowls. The seals are being broken by THE LAMB. The seven seals are opened by the Lord Himself, the 7 trumpets are blown by angelic beings, and the seven bowls are being poured upon the earth by seven angelic beings as well. In other words, the Lord uses His angelic beings to execute judgments upon this earth. We will find out later why this is so important.
Four very important purposes that will be fulfilled during the final judgments upon this earth.
1. The Kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. (Revelation 11:15; John 16:7-11)
2. The nations and its rulers will find out who truly OWNS THE NATIONS AND TO WHOM THIS EARTH REALLY BELONGS. (Revelation 11:18a; Psalm 2)
3. All the dead people will be judged. That is all the spiritually dead people, those who have rejected the offer of salvation. (Revelation 11:18b; Daniel 7:9-10)
4. All the Servants, Prophets and Saints and those who fear God’s name will receive their promised rewards. (Revelation 11:18c; Revelation 22:12)
God’s judgments will always reveal the human heart; FULL OF REBELLION AGAINST THE CREATOR HIMSELF. This all started in the Garden of Eden long ago when our parents believed the lie that they could through knowledge of good and evil become God themselves. That was Satan’s promise to them. The human being has been in rebellion against God ever since. God’s very own and special creation claimed Godhood. When God Himself eventually brings that rebellion to judgment, every human being will find out that rebellion has its price.
These bowl judgments will crush man’s rebellion and remove the rebellious from this earth. The final completion of this purpose will be accomplished when Jesus Christ returns with His armies to this earth.
Who is the recipient of this first bowl judgment? All those who had received the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image. We can find out from another text found in this book that a very small fraction of the world population will actually resist the beast and will refuse to take his mark.
Good news, the only ones who do not have to worry about this judgment are the ones who found refuge in the lord Jesus Christ. They have refused to take the mark of the beast and have refused to worship him.
Jesus has taken the judgments for their rebellion against God upon himself, came to this earth, lived on this earth a perfect, sinless life, was falsely accused, rejected, condemned and eventually crucified in our place. And the proof of his work on our behalf came 3 days after his crucifixion. 3 days after his burial, he rose again, because death could not hold him, there was no legal claim against him and those who trust in him. Hallelujah.