Commissioned

Jesus makes St. John responsible for his mother Mary because as Mary's firstborn, Jesus is legally responsible for her welfare, to ensure that she has a place to live and food to eat during her widowhood. This tell us that Jesus was concerned that His mother's earthly needs were going to be taken care of in His absence. In our own lives we should love our parents and make provisions for their well-being.

Sinners are most responsible for killing Jesus. As born sinners we bear the responsibility in this. Jesus praying for us because of the full magnitude of our sin, we just do not understand; but Jesus died for us, the unrighteous.

I would like to believe that Jesus Christ would return in my lifetime, and I would like to think that I a living in a "ready now" mentality. However, I pray for God's grace to be ready when He returns. I pray that I am effective in carrying out the commission that Jesus left for me, to go out and share the gospel.

Of the three passages, 1 Corinthians 6:11b points to salvation by the grace of God rather than mere salvation by right living. The passages reads: "... but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

The vision of the Holy City tells us that Jesus looks at his Church as the Holy city of Jerusalem. He sees the Church as a jewel, redeemed and perfect in all its ways.

The "water of life" represents eternal life. It is free in the sense that it has been given to us when we accepted Christ as Savior and Lord. The "Spirit and the Bride" extends the invitation in our community because the Spirit is constantly brooding over the nation and the church, the Bride, is out in the community evangelizing - preaching the gospel and extending the invitation to salvation.

The significance of the fact that in heaven "God himself will be with them" is that finally God's original plan to have man with him in heaven is realized. Jesus has taken away our sins and now we stand in His presence holy and righteous. The promises in 21:4 only be fulfilled in heaven because in heaven death and pain are never present. I will especially look forward to "no more death." On earth death causes a lot of sorrow and pain.

The assurance that I have that my name is written in the Book of Life is based on the fact that Jesus bore my sins upon the cross. My sins have been forgiven and I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and I have placed my trust in Him.

This awesome scene of judgment is so frightening because we do not want to believe that all of our deeds will be judged. People seem to resist the idea of a final judgment because they want to carry on without the thought of their actions and non-actions being judged one day.

For me the title "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" mean that my Redeemer is supreme to every circumstance, every situation, every struggle or battle that I might face. And because He is "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" I can, as He has asked of me, cast every care on Him and He'll take care of them all. In every thing Christ has final victory.

These verses do bring a sobering time of reflection. When we consider that we are the bride of Christ, the Church, when we accepted Christ as Savior we pledge then and there to be faithful and true to Him. We pledge to live a holy, separated and consecrated life as we await the arrival of our Lord, the husband of the Church. Also when I think that one day I will be with all the saints in heaven enjoying that great feast I am encouraged. The Word of God admonishes faithfulness and if I continue to be faithful and walk in obedience to God's word someday I will enjoy both the uniting of the bride with the groom and the feast with the patriarchs, apostles and great saints of old.

We are to be in the world and not of the world. We live in the world and are obligated to socially contribute to the economic and governance of the world, but at the same time our priority is to be the salt and light of the world. We must not allow the world system to taint us but instead we must bring the gospel to the world and allow the gospel to bring purity to those who accept Christ. We fulfill the command, "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins...." when we live in the world but are not of the world.

The subject and goal of these singing and praises are centered on giving God due worship. Though we can never give enough worship at every opportunity that we have we should give the praises to God. Many of our choruses do likewise giving praise to God.

Everlasting punishment so difficult for us Christians to accept because we are the carriers of the gospel while we are here on earth. The time to be a witness for Christ is now. As the song tells us we are to work while it is day for the night cometh when no man can work. We must work while it is day Spreading the Word of God As we walk along the way Willing to do His Will Spreading the Word of God Till it reaches throughout the hills We must witness to everyone we meet In every song we sing We must tell them of a Soon Coming King The harvest is plentiful But the laborers are few There are so many jobs In God's vineyard For all of us to do We must witness to everyone we meet In every song we sing We must tell them of a Soon Coming King Once we've done all that we can we can be sure that God will do the rest. For those who refuse so great a salvation they will not be able to refuse eternal punishment, it will be their just punishment?

They are an ideal representation of Christianity, people who keep themselves spiritually and morally pure.

The two beasts who will be revealed are given power to do so release lawlessness on the earth because the restrainer, the Holy Spirit, is taken out of the way. The lawless one, the Antichrist, will rise up out of the nations and will be worshipped as a god. He will be given power by Satan, his throne and great authority. The Antichrist blasphemes the true God and present himself as god in the temple. Both Satan and the Antichrist are worshipped. The antichrist will make war against the saints and overcome them. He shall have authority in every nation. The false prophet exercises the same authority as the antichrist, he demonstrates great signs and will point people toward worshipping the antichrist. Eventually, the Antichrist will be consumed by the Lord with the breath of His mouth and destroyed by the brightness of His coming (2 Thess2:8).

Revelation 12:11 could be considered a theme verse for the book. "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." This means that the Christian has the power of the blood of the Lamb and their testimony in their mouth to overcome the Devil. If we die in the process we are still victorious because we've died for the cause of Christ. The "blood of the Lamb" was shed for the cleansing of our sins. It bought our redemption. When we love our lives more than the cause of Christ we will not be witnesses for fear of losing our life. But we are told by Jesus, when we lose our life for Him we will find it (have eternal life).

The vision of the woman and the dragon are heavily symbolic, but comprehensible when you take care to understand. This vision tell us that the cosmic battle in Jesus' day and in our own being the birth and the protection of the Church of Jesus Christ. We can be comforted knowing that our God will protect us from the onslaught of the enemy, that old serpent.

The witnesses declare the glory and goodness of God, and represent the power of the Church in the earth. This is a final opportunity for the gospel to be preached in the earth. Even as they come to give a final plea for mankind to accept Christ as Savior, so should we, today, be about God's business preaching the word of God. Their reward is to be taken into heaven by a rapture.

The bitterness in Revelation 6 - 10 is knowing that in spite of the opportunities given to people to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, there will still be many who would have rejected Him and will face a judgment. The sweet news is that we who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord will be protected from the judgment to come and together we will worship our God around His throne.

The kind of people who make up the "great multitude" before the throne are people from every nation, tribe, people and tongue. Their spirit within them cause them to cry with a loud voice and offer worship to God. The first verse of the song "Amazing Grace" shares a deep gratitude to God for His grace and that He saved us and kept us through eternity. A wretch like me! Thank you God!