All this technical mumbo-jumbo has lost some of you.  I could go on for days and days about this stuff.  I've been collecting material on this subject for over fifty years, and have stacks and stacks of it.  But for only one purpose: to rectify the Christian mind to the fact that Bible is always true.  That there is no scientific error in Genesis.   Our young people need to have complete assurance of this before they head off to college where the world will ridicule them for believing.  If they know what they believe and why, their faith will stay strong.  And they can defend the Biblical account scientifically.  Everything fits.

1. God created two things.  The heavens and the earth.
2. Something, or someone (Lucifer--the fallen angel?) messed up the earth.
3. The earth was covered by water.
4. The dinosaurs went extinct except those animals living in water.
5. God looked down and said, "Let there be light."
6. He separated water above the earth from water on the earth.
7. He separated the water from the land on earth, and let dry land appear.

And to finish up the third day, (however long that was) He said: Gen.1:11 "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth..."

This is another "let."  "whose seed is in itself upon the earth..."  This sounds like there must have been pockets of dry land--in caves perhaps--where seed was preserved dry. The seed was "...in itself--upon the earth..." It doesn't indicate that anything creative was going on.   Not that God couldn't have re-created plant life if that was what He wanted to do.  I am just trying to point out what the Bible actually says.

I told you that I believe in words.  And I believe the words in the Bible are exactly true.  Is there room for discussion?  Of course.  I have simply presented the conclusions that I have come to after years of study.  I am currently reading a book by an evolution "theorist" that discounts what I have told you.  He's wrong, but I try to stay current on what the other side is thinking...  The Bible is always right.  Always.

Day two is about to begin.  God is about to "Let" something else happen.  "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."  No mention of land.  Just water. (Firmament means "sky"--Webster) Water seems to be covering everything at this point.  It would explain all those compressed archaeological deposits that we continue to find in silt.

The dinosauric ages are over and gone--except for those animals that can live in a wet environment.  Whatever happened, there would have been floating debris that might have given refuge to some types of life.  We know that the crocs and alligators survived.  And some of the other animals that lived on land--these date back as far as the sharks and fish do.  Consider the centipede.  The cricket.  They go back forever and don't change.  They look now like they always did.

In verse 20, (I'm getting ahead of myself) God said, "...Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life..."  Life was already there in the water.  It didn't vanish between verses one and two. God didn't need to create water life because those life forms had survived the disaster that killed the dinosaurs.  God just "Let" the conditions develop for "abundance".

The evolution "theorist" would have us believe that we all evolved from sea life.  This has no basis in strata.  Strata shows two worlds.  With a huge gap between these worlds.  And statistically, using their time lines, and their ideas of change over time, there is not nearly enough time (statistically) for the types of animals that we now have to have evolved.   The entire theory falls apart at this point.  This is one of the reasons that the scientific world is considering other possibilities.

You and I know that there is an answer to their dilemma.  They can call it intelligent design, but we call it God.  Certainly both sides will agree that we came from somewhere.  And that we are floating through a vast space.  Where did the "space" come from.   Forget evolution!!  Where did "space" come from???   Where are we anyway!!

So, given that the earth is old;  given that animals existed before the second verse in Genesis--which seems to be the only likely explanation that explains the dinosaurs, we can set aside the earth's past before the Genesis account--God didn't see fit to share that with us--and we can look at the work of God as he begins to unfold a plan to create something brand new.  A man in HIS OWN IMAGE.  (A man that can hold the breath of God--the Holy Spirit.)

But before He does this, he prepares the earth to receive plants, and to restore animal life to the dry land.  The account is progressive, rational, and orderly.  The critical issue is light.  The critical purpose is to create a perfect place for people to live.  Everything that God did, he did for the good of man.  At each point in the account, God pronounces it "Good."  The entire universe, the entire earth is a perfect place created for the good of the human race.

I don't give much credence to dating past life by the use of strata.  It isn't consistent.  But two things I find that have validity are ice plugs from the pole--where pressure has laid down layers upon layers of ice, one layer after another over millenniums, compressed into thin bands, and where you can "see" the years that volcanoes have deposited ash.  The other is carbon dating--rate of decay.  If the world isn't old, both of those methods would not be dependable.   So far, they are.

So God let the light in again.  And the earth perked up.  Then he "...divided the light from the darkness...and called the light Day, and the darkness...Night."  Gen. 4-5.  So rotation had to be occurring.  The sun had to be present for the rotation to give daytime and nighttime.  "...the evening and the morning were the first day."  I have no idea what the rotational speed of the earth was.  Neither does anyone else.  Was it 24 hours.  Maybe.  But who knows.  Don't get hung up on that.

The purpose of what I am writing is so that you can see that you don't need to defend Genesis.  It is true.  Completely true.  And it is not in disagreement with what we know for sure scientifically.  Scientific "theory" is another thing altogether.

Gen. 1:6-8 "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.  (God is "letting" something happen--letting something take its course.  Not creating anything.)  And God made the firmament (sky), and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.  And God called the firmament Heaven.  And the evening and the morning were the second day."

The air now is humid.  Clouds probably formed after the water was separated into two parts.  Up to this point, it sounds like everything had been covered with water.  There are evidences of this in the archeological record that we can find today.  Whether it was this original covering of water, or the flood of Noah, I don't know.  Maybe it was both of these water coverings.

Again, God pronounces it "Good."  Two days have passed.  There is so much argument about the length of a day in theological circles that it makes my head hurt.  If you accept the gap between verse one and two, the length of the day doesn't really matter.

As day three begins, God is going to separate land from water and get things growing.  It will be a busy day. I wonder how long this took.  Were the mountains under water before this happened?  Did water evaporate up into the heavens?  I don't know.  Neither does anyone else.  God doesn't tell us.   Gen. 9-10  "And God said, "Let" the waters under the heaven be gathered together...and let the dry land appear...and God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas: and God saw that it was good."  We now have a land mass, and seas and oceans.

Everything is ready for plants.  Which will provide food for animals.  I would point out that the "life in the water" goes back for millions of years (carbon dating).  And it didn't evolve.  At this point in the Biblical account, the sharks and other water based life look almost exactly like they always did.  You can identify a cricket from the long ago past, because it looks like a cricket now.  There aren't any intermediate forms.  There is no significant evolution in the water.  Interesting.  God isn't going to "create, make, or let" fish have a place in the Biblical account because they are already there.  I believe they have been there in the water since verse one when he created the heaven and the earth.

So if you are like me, and accept the Biblical account in all of its parts as the true and faithful word of God, you need to have some idea of how it could all fit together.

Genesis 1:2b-3a "...and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light...and God separated the light from the darkness."

We started this discussion with three words.  1. Create.  2. Made or make, and  3.  Let.  We also defined those three words.  Notice in the passage above, God says "Let."  "Let" means to allow to happen.  He doesn't create light, he had already done that in the first verse when God created...the heavens. Which included the sun.  And anything else that was here before the Genesis account.

God simply "let" something happen.  He allowed the sun to part the dust and debris-clouds that made the earth dark, and let the sun shine through.  This is absolutely necessary for the growth of plant life, which will provide food for all of the animals he is getting ready to create--and to restore.  I don't think this light and darkness has anything to do with day and night. I think it was simply a separation of the mess circling above our planet.  This allowed the sunlight to come in.

Yellowstone is the largest "super-volcano" in the world.  It has erupted approximately every 600,000 years.  It is overdue, and the ground in that region is rising.  They say that when it blows, it will blot out the sun in all of the USA and much of the rest of the world.  That the ash will destroy the ability of the country to grow food.  (No sunlight) That one by one animals will die--as well as most people.  These things do happen.  They have happened in the past.  By taking ice-core samples at the pole, scientists can look at the past--year by year--and see what has happened on the earth, and when.

Maybe super eruptions are what killed the dinosaurs.  However, in Montana, we find a multitude of remains piled up in silt.  Evidence of great waters rushing down and depositing hundreds of animals in that region.  We also find evidence of a flood in the petrified forest much further south of Montana, where trees have come to rest and piled up on top of each other in the thousands and thousands.  From rushing water.  It could be the planet earth has suffered many, many "destructions"  in its past.

Which brings us to verse three.  There are those in Biblical theology that insist that the world is very young.  That it can't be over ten thousand years old.  They ignore the archaeological facts.  They ignore the geologic facts.  Science is their enemy.

However, I do not believe in evolution "Theory" as proposed by Darwin.  That somewhere back there, one cell became two, two became four, etc.  And somewhere along the way the cells became "alive" and developed into something that developed into something better and better until you finally had creatures of every sort, and man.  Scientists have not been able to provide us with any examples in strata of the development of such creatures.  They go from one creature in one layer of strata to an entirely different creature in the next layer of strata and say, "This is proof that the first creature evolved into the second."  But there are no intermediate creatures.  With all of those bones in both layers, where is the strata, bones, and connections between the two layers??  It just does not exist.  We're not talking about a missing link.  We are talking about billions of them.

Lately, scientists have been talking about a new theory.  "Intelligent design."  But instead of calling it God, they are looking for outside intervention from outer space.  Aliens.  When you deny the existence of God, you have to find an explanation somewhere else.  And as Darwin's theory has become problematic, they are starting to look somewhere else.

There is a big difference between 1.  Evolution, and 2.  Evolution theory.  Evolution simply means change.  Take a dog, and with human intervention, you can come up with dozens and dozens of different types of dogs.  Big ones, little ones.  Black, white, spotted and brown ones.  That is evolution.  But if you leave them alone--if you stop intervening--they will not get better and better, they will revert.  But they will still be dogs.  Not pigs, not cows, not fish.

Evolution "theory" says that in the animal kingdom, animals got better and better all by themselves due to natural selection.  That one animal turned into another one--over millions of years.  This is where the science falls apart.  There aren't any examples of continuity.  Anywhere.

"Let there be light."

If we understand that "created work," and "dark, void and without form," are two polar opposites, we have no problem realizing that there is a gap in the written account of the Bible.

vs 1:  "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth."
vs 2:  "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
Something had to have happened between those two verses. Creation isn't void, dark and formless.

Notice that the deep--the seas--already existed.  As did the earth.  But in verse two, nothing is said about the heavens that were created in verse one.  It doesn't say that the heavens were without form, void and dark.  The heavens stayed the same as when they were created.  It was the  earth that went through some sort of catastrophe.

When we have a volcanic eruption--anywhere in the earth--ash, debris, smoke particulate, etc. stretches around the globe.  If the eruption is large enough, debris particles blot out the sun.  I think that could have been why the earth was dark.  Remember the dust bowl??  In those conditions--if it lasts for very long--nothing much grows.  And because of the loss of sun, chlorophyll, plants and animals would die out.  But the seeds from plants don't die out.  That becomes important later.

Another fact that we know, is that asteroids hit the earth causing much of the same effect.  Now that we have cameras circling the earth, we have discovered evidence of huge impacts in the gulf of Mexico, Northern Russia, and other places.  If asteroids are big enough, they have the strength to throw the earth off kilter.  An earthquake in S. America a couple of years ago was so powerful that it changed the speed of rotation of the earth. The resulting effect is to change the length of a day.  So as we look at days one through six, remember that it never says rotation occurred in twenty-four hours.  I don't know what the rotational speed of the earth was back then.  Just don't get stuck on 24 hours.

Another interesting phenomenon is that the polar magnetism of the earth has changed.  It seems that North and South poles haven't always been where they are now.   In other words, the world is not static.  It changes with cataclysmic events.  God's word doesn't change.

I personally adhere to the "gap theory" when I look at the first chapter of Genesis.  It is the only reasonable Biblical theory that incorporates geological, anthropological, and archeological truths  such as: there were dinosaurs.  They existed.  They vanished.  And then there was a "strata gap" before other animals appeared.  Other theories are a stretch, and don't fit observation.

Science wants to connect the layers of strata--but so far, they haven't been able to even come close.  The "Evolution Theory" requires intermediate forms  located in strata.  But there aren't any.  The missing links are in the millions and millions and billions.   The only life forms that seemed to survive were those that lived in water.  And those life forms look today like they did millions of years ago.  They didn't evolve into something else. There are those who say that the earth is not that old and that the dinosaurs were killed by the flood.  But no where in the account in Genesis (concerning the creation of animals) does it refer to God creating the types of dinosauric animals that went extinct.

I could go on and on about all that.  Suffice to say, I have spent years on this subject and explored dozens of theories, and more than proved the truth of Genesis to myself as a scientist.

Here is what I believe.  God didn't tell us very much.  Maybe because it isn't relevant to the here and now.  I don't know.  But I believe in words, and the words say: Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth."  Period.  He doesn't tell us what all that involved, or what all he put in this earth and heaven that he created.  What it does tell us is that he "Created" it.  He made it out of nothing.  He made it perfect.  He made it exactly like he wanted it.

And then something happened.  He doesn't tell us what it was.  But what the words do tell us is that somewhere between verse one and two, something happened.  Because in verse two we do not see a "Creative" work.  We see a mess.  Dark.  Void. Without form.  That is not a creative work.

We get puffed up about being in the human race--since Adam and Eve--and don't consider that there may have been an entire world designed before that.  I don't know.  What I do know is that there is strata and there is carbon dating, and there are really old bones.  All kinds of bones.

I got interested in the creation story that is recorded in the Bible back in 1966 when the Bible was first under attack in the schools.  I was teaching a group of senior girls who had questions that I couldn't answer.  It was no longer good enough to accept the story on faith--they were being buffeted by ridicule.  Darwin's "Theory of Evolution" was accepted as fact by science, and the Bible story was labeled as a myth.  As folklore.

So I decided to go to college and find out what was going on.  I was twenty-eight years old, and had never been to college.  I had been raising children for ten years.  So I went.  I took all the science classes that were offered.  I cut up sharks, monkeys, etc.  And pinned them and did all the comparisons of the composite parts.  I noted the similarities, and the differences.  I did it all, and graduated with three degrees (after my master's).  Pre-med, Zoology, and math.

And then, with the assumption that the Bible was true in all of its parts, I began to rectify the known facts of science (not theories) with what the Bible had to say.  I read everything I could find on the subject.  And finally was satisfied that the record in Genesis was completely true--but that very few people take the time to examine the words--and what they mean.

Three words in particular change everything.  The first is "Create"--which is used three times.  The second is "Made," and the third is "Let."  The definition of those words as translated from the Hebrew is pretty critical.

The word "create" as translated means to take nothing and make something perfect.
The word "made" means to take something--and turn it into something else.
The word "let" means for things to take an allowed course.

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth."  He took nothing and made a perfect something.  What was it????

Continued...

Well, I didn't take one prop, I took a bunch of them.  A picture of Ken, one of my children, and a picture of a plane Ken flew during the crisis with Russia over placing rockets in Cuba.  (He was carrying weapons--as were all the guys in the squadron--that were as bad as it can get.  I would say what, but don't know about national security.  It was so long ago it probably doesn't matter.  That was part of my life as well.)

I took one of my little glass and filigree boxes, a pin I wore to the Marine Corps Ball in 1964, a Calculus book, my marimba mallets, and finally my Bible.  I spoke on all of those things in three minutes.  Probably not very well, but I couldn't pick just one.  I talk fast.

My raccoon is gone.  He escaped through the PVC pipe the exterminator put in the eaves.  "How do you know he used it," I asked.  "Because I filled it with bendable taut twigs so that when he slid down through the pipe, the twigs would end up on the ground," the exterminator answered.  Cool.

We are studying Genesis in my church for the next few months.  It is very, very hard to sit and listen instead of teach.  I have spent over fifty years examining this book in detail.  The reason this book is so important to me is because of my strong belief that the Bible is true.  All of it.  And because the world attacks the faith of our young people by confusing them on the subject of evolution versus "The theory of evolution."  They are two entirely different things.

There are no proven scientific truths that conflict with the Genesis story.  The conflict comes because we have not had scientific explanations of what the Bible actually says.  The first chapter has been taught many times by people who don't know what they are talking about.  Ignoring the age of the dinosaurs is ignorant.  They fit perfectly between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.  The rest of the first two chapters are just as clear if you have an extensive scientific background.

I wrote about all of--this from the point of view that the Bible is absolutely and completely true--three years ago when I started this blog.  Maybe it is time for me to do it again for those of you who joined me later?

Today, I am going to a "Boxes" gathering.  It is an organization that tries to make newcomers (those who are unpacking boxes) to the town of Edmond feel welcome and familiar with the town.  It is the second of eleven sessions, and they have asked all of us to sign up for a session, and to tell something about ourselves--in three minutes.  I signed up for today to get it over with.  How in the world do I pick three minutes out of seventy plus years?  How does a person "connect" in three minutes?

I am supposed to take a "prop" that describes something from my life.  I have wandered through the house and looked at all the things that bring back memories and all it has done is confuse me.  There is no way I can figure out how to do this, and I have had a week to prepare.  Do I take a Calculus book that I taught from?  Or my marimba mallets.  Or sheet music from my senior recital.  Or maybe one of the jewelry boxes on my chest of drawers that holds nineteen-thirtys and forties jewelry that I have collected, some of which belonged to my mom.  I am embarrassed to admit that there are forty six glass and gold filagree boxes--sometimes stacked three deep--that I have bought at junk, antique and garage sales throughout the years.  All filled with old, old, costume jewelry--not the new stuff.

Do I take something that I bought in Paris, or Florence, or Rome, or Prague? (I told you Becky took me with her for  a number of years while she was working for Conoco, so she could take one of her boys with her while she worked.)  We, my grandsons and I, got to play.  Hopping trains, wandering through cathedrals, puttering through little isolated towns.  As a result of all that fun, both of her boys, even though they are in their late twenties, think I am cool.  They call me just to talk.  We bonded back then and it has blessed my life.

The most important prop that I could take is my Bible.  I got it in the early sixties and it is so threadbare it is pitiful.  The pages are brown from spilled tea (Janie's cup of tea) and many of them are torn.  But it is filled with almost fifty years of notes in the margins.  It is the one thing I would save first in a fire.  Pictures would have to come in second.

I'll figure it out.  Any of those objects would do, It's just hard to pick one.

Pat retired from teaching math last year and took a job at the library three days a week.  For something to do. "I don't have to make any student do anything that they don't want to do anymore," she said.  "I can read, and check out books for others to read."

Last week, she took me to lunch and I could tell something was wrong.  "What's bothering you?" I asked her.  "It's the library," she answered.  "You love the library," I said.  "Yes, I do, but it is so depressing."

"I can't think of any reason why a library would be depressing," I told her.

"Well, I just realized today that there are hundreds and hundreds of books that I want to read, and I don't have enough years left to do it."  She reads three or four books a week, so I figure that she will make a dent in it.

"Maybe there will be a library in heaven," I said.

Yesterday, I opened a box of books.  Religious books.  Dozens and dozens of them.  Even though I have read them all, I can't remember what half of them had to say.  One by one I put them into some sort of order on a bookshelf and set aside a few that I want to reexamine.  I love to read, too.

Media has almost put reading as I once knew it out of business, but holding a book in your hands has a kind of magic.  I just don't get the same kind of a buzz with a Kindle or my Ipad.  I like to turn the pages.  I like the feel of the paper.  I like to write in the margins.

Psalms 40:7 "Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book--it is written of me,"
Hebrews 10:7 "Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book--it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God."  The writer of the book of Hebrews was quoting the Psalms.  He added that he wanted to do God's will.  That is the secret of peace.

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My oldest daughter, Pat, has always loved to read.  When she was in the fourth grade, her teacher called me in for a conference and told me that Pat was putting a book behind the workbook that the class was doing at the time.  "Has she done the math that she is supposed to do?" I asked.  "Well, yes, but she shouldn't be reading something else while we are doing math," the teacher answered.

"Why?" I asked her.  "If she has finished the assignment, what is it that you want her to do?"  The question just flustered the teacher.  She couldn't tell me why.  It just didn't seem right to her that Pat was reading while everyone else was doing math--even though her math problems were done.

I wonder sometimes if I am rigid in some areas of my life that are just as stupid.  Where do I need to rethink the way I am entrenched.  Do I always have to have mashed potatoes and gravy when I have roast beef?

For instance, I am a haphazard Bible reader.  I have no plan.  I admire people who do, but I don't follow one of those "Read the Bible through in a year" guides.  Do I need to rethink that?  I just read whatever I feel like.  I know where everything is, so I just turn to what I am currently thinking about.  I really, really, really, don't like rigidity of the mind.  But sometimes, I get mentally rigid.

Revelation ends with 22:13-14, "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.  Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."  So we started this book with a blessing if we read it, and we end with a blessing if we obey him.  And we started the book of Genesis with a description of the tree of life.  And we end with it.

Rev. 22:17,20 "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is thirsty, Come...Surely I come quickly...even so, Come Lord Jesus.

Come on.

This week has been a bummer.  The Pryor realtor called and said she was sending me papers--that she had sold my house there.  Three days later she called and said the buyer backed out.  I was so disappointed. Yes, I put it in God's hands--but then I take it back.  I'm working on that.

Then night before last, I was awakened at four in the morning with a banging on my roof.  I thought someone was breaking in.  It was really, really loud.  I called the police--they came--and found nothing.  Five minutes after the police left, it started again.  I decided it must be in the attic.  Sure enough, I have a raccoon in my attic.

So I called animal control, and three hundred dollars later, I still have a raccoon in my attic.  He really went to town the next night--banging around.  The exterminator put a baited trap in the attic and an escape tube in the eaves.  But wouldn't you know it, I got a "smart" critter.  He isn't interested in a baited trap.  And he must be afraid of the escape tube.   Problem is, he has no water, and no food.  So he is going to die up there and then my house will not be habitable I fear.

The exterminator found where the critter got in, and nailed it shut it.  So that is good news.

In the last chapter of Revelation, the second verse, a street and a river are described.  "In the midst of it, and on either side of the river, there was the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

I started thinking of the twelve fruits that I want.  First would be mangos.  Then peaches from Rome, Georgia--there's a reason girls are called Georgia peaches--they are so sweet.  Then bananas.  I love lemons and limes.  Kiwi and oranges.  Is a pecan a fruit?  I hope so.  Hazelnuts, walnuts, Brazil nuts.  I'm not an apple lover, but I am sure they will be there.

In heaven when we bake a fruit pie, we can use lard, not shortening.  Nobody uses lard anymore for their pie crusts, but if you have ever eaten a crust made with lard, you will know you are in heaven.

Rev. 21:1-2a "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth...and I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven..."  (This entire chapter is about the "city".)

This is getting good.  All the bad stuff is now over.  And God comes to be with men and "...God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes..."vs. 4   God tells John to write all this down (again)  "Write: for these words are true and faithful." vs. 5

God wants to be sure that future generations will have the written word.  He wants them to know about these things, even if we don't understand it all.  He uses the words "true" and "faithful" any number of times.  He is describing himself.

The last chapter (22) is my favorite.  I understand this chapter.  All the other chapters can get a little fuzzy.

vs. 1 "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal..."

When I was a little girl, we used to go to Saline creek to swim.  The water came from a spring and was as cold as ice.  And pure.  Crystal clear.  You could stand in water up to your chin and count your toes.  ( And shiver.)  It is one of my fondest memories.  But "progress" ruined it.  They built a dam, which covered everything over and around that place and the next generation will never know that it existed.

I think that this river in heaven is going to be like that.  I am definitely going to dip my toes in it.  And I am sure that God isn't going to build any dams to ruin it.

Rev. 20:12-13b "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.... and they were judged every man according to their works."

I wish I knew exactly what kind of works counted.  I'd get busy doing more of them.  I guess they will fall under loving your neighbor as yourself.  Doing those things that help others.  Kindness.  Giving to those in need.  Helping the sick. And probably there will be works of worship.  Those times we sincerely connected to God, or tried.

Suffice to say, all the silly things we do to amuse ourselves won't be in the book.  Think about how much time we waste doing things that don't count.  Not that those things are bad, but we should always be looking for opportunities that do count to God.

I'm glad that Jesus is going to step up and say, "I've covered her sin.  I died for it."  Otherwise, I would be without hope.  We all would.  Praise God for His Son who takes away the sin of the world.

You can tell that I have skipped all the wars, punishments, etc. that come to earth.  You can read that yourself.  There are 22 chapters in Revelation, and chapter 20 ends this way:  Rev. 20:14-15 "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

Fearing God is the beginning of wisdom.  That's what David said in the book of Psalms.  God is not a fluffy  figure with a staff in his hand sitting on a throne.  He is the creator of the universe.  We, on the other hand are small.  Insignificant.  But he loves us and wants us to be with him forever.  Really, that is unbelievable.  But God does not lie, and he says it is true.  So we can trust his words.

When the seventh angel sounds his trumpet,  Rev. 11:15 "...there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord...and he shall reign for ever and ever."

So the prayer that Jesus told us to pray will finally come to pass, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done."

Rev. 12: 9 "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil..."  Good riddance.  Things are looking up.

Rev. 16:1,17 "And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways
and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth."  Seven angels with seven vials.  What they pour on the earth is terrible, but when it is over, God says, "It is done."  That's a good thing.

There is a horrible war.  Armageddon. Rev. 16:16.  And after all the horrible stuff is over, the people in heaven begin to praise the Lord our God, saying "Alleluia"--a word which is only used here in the  entire New Testament.  Rev. 19:11,13 "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True...And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God."  The Word of God is Jesus.

There is a song that my son Scott used to sing in church called, "My Redeemer is faithful and true."  That is a wonderful thing.  Faithfulness is a huge attribute of Christ.
 
We may not be faithful, we may not always be true, but Christ is.  Once we are his, he will never let us go.  You can count on God.  He has us gripped tight in his hand.

Psalms 37:23-24 "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord...though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholds him with his hand."  You are in the hand of God!!!!

The Lamb opens the seventh seal.   Rev. 8:1-2,6 "...when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for he space of about half an hour.  And I saw the seven angels which stood before God: and to them were given seven trumpets...and the seven angels...prepared themselves to sound."

So far, there have been seven churches, seven candlesticks, seven stars, seven attributes of the Lamb, seven lamps, seven spirits of God, seven trumpets, seven angels, and seven seals.  And I am sure I didn't get them all.  I am always suspicious of preachers who say that they know exactly what all of this means.   Obviously, the number seven is a holy number to God.  He created the world in seven days.  The number is used over and over again in the Bible.  Like I told you the other day, my friend Carolyn--who is a researcher--says there are fifty-five "sevens" in Revelation.

This vision that John is having is from God, and we must simply recognize that it is a vision of the end of time that God is sharing with John, and with us.  In Rev. 1:11, God says to John, "...What you see, write it in a book..." And remember he said we are blessed if we read it.  I know...it's hard.

Our preacher gave a sermon today titled, "Ready or not, here I come."  Jesus is coming again.  People who tell you what day, year, month, etc. are ignoring what Jesus told us in Mark 13:32 "But of that day and that hour no man knows, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."   Jesus doesn't even know when he is coming again.  He tells us to watch and pray.

Once the seventh seal is broken, the angels--one at a time--begin to sound the trumpets.  This is where it gets ugly.  I am not going to cover what happens here.  You need to read that for yourself.  It is found in Chapters 8-10.  Everything goes to pot.

Of course, we want to hear about the "Tribulation, and the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth.  There is so much controversy on that subject.  There are many books on the subject that can do a better job of explaining it than I can.  Suffice to say, I personally don't think we will be here for the tribulation.  But there are many who disagree.  One way or another, we are going to see Jesus.  Here, or there.   We shouldn't be alarmed, we should be alert.                                                                                                                                                                  

I have had my days mixed up so these posts have been late.  Sorry.

Angels appear.  "And I saw another angel ascending from the east having the seal of the living God. (I think this refers to the seventh seal--which isn't opened yet.)  God tells the angels not to hurt the earth until "...we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.   And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel." Rev. 7:2-4   There were 12 thousand from each of the twelve tribes.

Some evangelists, and some writers, have spent their lives trying to explain those numbers.  If you want to speculate, read what some of them have to say.  There is a current denomination that says that only one hundred forty thousand people will be saved, which is obviously not true because there are any number of Christ's followers that were Gentiles.  Which includes me.  This next verse includes everyone, not just the twelve tribes--which is another way of saying that everyone that is saved is not Jewish.

Rev. 7: 9,12, "Then a great multitude of all nations, kindreds, and people, and tongues stood before...the Lamb...saying:  Blessing, thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God for ever."

One of them said to John, "...What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and where did they come from?"  Then he answered, "...these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."Rev. 7:14

The last few verses in Chapter 7 tell us that "...they shall hunger no more...nor thirst...and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

I'm not too sure how I feel about not being hungry.  I love food.  But I guess that if you aren't hungry, it won't matter.  I really like the part about not being sad.

In the sixth chapter, the Lamb begins to break the seven seals of the book.  The first four seals are accompanied with a rider on a horse.

The first horse was white and the rider (Christ) went forth conquering.

The second horse was red and the rider took peace from the earth.  He was given a great sword.

The third horse was black, and the rider had balances in his hand with which he measures barley, oil and wine.

The fourth horse was "a pale horse" and the one who sat on him was Death.  Power was given to him for the fourth part of the earth to kill with a sword and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.   Mercy.  I hope I am in heaven before this happens.

Then the scene changes as the Lamb opens the fifth seal.  When he breaks the seal, we see a vision under the alter of the souls of all those that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held:  There is a book called "Foxes Book of Martyrs" that chronicles those who were killed for their faith.  Starting with Stephen who was stoned to death while Saul (later renamed Paul), held the coats of those who killed Stephen.  Saul had set out to kill all he Christians he could find when God struck him blind on the road to Damascus.  Paul's testimony is one that can not be ignored.  He was a changed man and became the most prolific writer of the New Testament.

The sixth seal brought a great earthquake, and the sun became black, and the moon became as blood. Then the stars fell unto the earth, and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together.  6:13-14.  All the people of the earth begin to hide from the wrath of God.

6:17 "For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

Then there is a space of time before the seventh seal is broken.

Rev. 4:5, 5:6-7a "And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God...And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne...stood a Lamb as it had been slain.  And he took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne..."

Now we are going to find out what is in the book that is sealed with seven seals.

Before this,  John tells us that there was great lamenting because no one was worthy to open the book until the Lamb took it.  John says,  "I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book..."  Rev. 5: 4   But then, the Lamb appears, "And they sang a new song, saying you are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation..." Rev. 5:9

The purpose of redemption is to restore our relationship with God.  And Jesus is the only one, the only way to do it.  He alone restored our relationship with God.  He wiped away our sin.  When people tell you there are many paths to God, just know, they are wrong.  God accepts the blood of Christ and Him only as payment for sin.  "He is the way, the truth, and the life.  No man comes to the Father but by him." John 14:6

John then tells us why Jesus is worthy.  Rev. 5:11a-12 "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne....saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."  He repeats those qualifications in 7:12.  There are seven of them.

Now, we are going to break the seals and see what is in the book.  And, of course, there are seven seals.   Let's start breaking them............

My friend Carolyn told me that in Revelation that there are fifty-five "sevens" and five sevenths.  I certainly am not the researcher that she is so I will definitely take her word for it.

Before the seven churches are introduced, right at the beginning, we are told what some of it means.  Rev. 1:20 "The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks.  The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which you saw are the seven churches."

I love how John introduced what all he was going to say.  1:10 "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice...saying I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and last.  What you see, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches."

There is a scripture that says, "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord."  Psalms 122:1  I can compare how I feel when I get ready to go to worship to "Being in the Spirit on the Lord's day."  Some days I am just more spiritual than others.

John had spent weeks, maybe years exiled on Patmos when he had this vision.  I am sure he was deeply encouraged to be in the Spirit.  I am impressed that he knew what day of the week it was.  He was ready for God to speak to speak to him.  He had "pen and paper" ready to record his vision.

After he tells the seven churches what God has found wrong in their lives, he ends by telling them: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Rev. 3:20

Jesus is knocking.  The doorknob is on your side of the door.  Open it!!!!