Morning Musings: Revelation 6:9-10

Leave a comment

“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.  They cried out with a loud voice, ‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This verse has long been really encouraging to me during times of loss.  We have to be careful crafting doctrines from a single verse, but the picture John paints here seems to suggest pretty clearly (especially when paired with Jesus’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16) that those who have died before us are in some sense aware of what is happening here on earth.  They may be dead and gone, but they are still somehow able to see and know what’s going on here. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: John 20:28

2 Comments

“Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Thomas has been affixed for centuries with the rather unfortunate moniker, “Doubting Thomas,” because of his entirely justifiable disbelief of the other disciples when they reported to him that they had seen the risen Lord Jesus.  He is held out as a model of the kind of doubt-filled faith that believers should want to avoid.  Nobody wants to be like Thomas.  And yet, given the trajectory of his life and confession from that point forward, perhaps that is not such a fair assessment as he actually deserves. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Revelation 4:9-11

4 Comments

“And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.  They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This, as with much of the book, is a somewhat bewildering picture.  John describes a scene that is hard to imagine (which probably just means it was equally hard to describe).  He describes creatures that would be terrifying to behold.  It is a picture of God in His throne room, seated on His throne.  It is a picture of Him being worshiped by the heavenly host.  It is a picture of continual worship of the God who is on His throne. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Isaiah 6:8

Leave a comment

“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’  Then I said, ‘Here I am!  Send me.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

There is a real sense on the part of too many that the call of God is only something experienced by people who He is calling to full-time, professional ministry.  I experienced this call in my own life and still remember it clearly.  I can remember where I was sitting and what the are around me looked like in almost as much detail as the morning I proposed to Lisa. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Psalm 142:1

Leave a comment

“With my voice I cry out to the Lord; with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This is one of those psalms to pray when the wheels have fallen off the thing and nothing is going your way.  The context note tells us that it was a prayer of David’s when he was in the cave.  That alone gives us some hope that this is a good prayer for hopeless-seeming situations even without any of the other words. Read the rest…