The 260 Journey

Day 252 Today's Reading: Revelation 14 The Beatitudes are a unique part of Jesus’ teachings from the Sermon on the Mount that all start the same way: “Blessed are . . .” Jesus said, “Blessed are . . .” nine different times in Matthew 5. The word beatitude actually means supremely blessed. It is a state of utmost bliss and happiness. Here are some of Jesus’ beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (verse 3). “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (verse 4). “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (verse 5). “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (verse 8). “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (verse 9). But the strangest beatitude has to be in Revelation 14. It starts just like the Matthew 5 Beatitudes, but we would never think the word blessed belongs with the following words. It’s radical, counterintuitive, and sobering: ‘I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”’ (Revelation 14:13) Blessed are the dead. Sounds morbid. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. The Holy Spirit responds to this beatitude and says, “Yes, so that they may rest from their labors.” We are part of a culture that is trying to stay alive the longest they can. Our culture says, “Blessed are the living,” yet God says here in Revelation 14, “Blessed are the dead.” The world judges by the wrong standards; they don’t have eternity in their minds and hearts. They are trying to stay alive and extend their life longer when they need it extended forever. Blessed are the dead . . . with a very important attachment to it: “who die in the Lord.” So that means that not all who die are blessed, happy beyond bliss. Think of all the death that happens every day. And blessedness is for those who die in the Lord. There are more than 6 billion people on earth. On average, 60 million of them will die this year. That is 175,000 people dying every day, 8,000 people dying every hour, 200 people dying every minute, eight people dying every second. It is unavoidable and undeniable, and one day, you will become one of these statistics. But not all will be blessed. Of the 175,000 who are pouring into eternity every day, there is a company that believes in Jesus and is on the blessed list. As Robert Murray McCheyne wrote: ‘There is no blessing on the Christless dead; they rush into an undone eternity, unpardoned, unholy. You may put their body in a splendid coffin; you print their name in silver on the lid; you may bring the well-attired company of mourners to the funeral in suits of solemn black; you may lay the coffin slowly in the grave; you may lay the greenest sod above it; you may train the sweetest flowers to grow over it; you may cut a white stone, and grave a gentle epitaph to their memory; still it is but the funeral of a damned soul. You cannot write blessed where God hath written “cursed.”’ Mark 16:16 says, “Whoever believes and is baptized is saved; whoever refuses to believe is damned.” You cannot write “blessed” where God has written “damned.” No three words could be more important to the living than in the Lord. That must be our goal, that when we die, we are “in the Lord.” That’s not the strangest beatitude but the ultimate beatitude. We are learning something about heaven and death with this beatitude. If the Holy Spirit agrees with the voice from heaven that “blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,” then the ultimate happiness and bliss are not here but in heaven. Then death is not our enemy but our entrance into that joy. One of the most amazing books I have ever read on the subject of dying is Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring by Henri Nouwen. It revolutionized my life and helped me overcome any fear of death. Listen to how he starts the book: “Is death something so terrible and absurd that we are better off not thinking or talking about it? Is death such an undesirable part of our existence that we are better off acting as if it were not real? Is death such an absolute end of all our thoughts and actions that we simply cannot face it? Or is it possible to befriend our dying gradually and live open to it, trusting that we have nothing to fear? Is it possible to prepare for our death with the same attentiveness that our parents had in preparing for our birth? Can we wait for our death as for a friend who wants to welcome us home?” Nouwen then tells us from the Bible that death is our enemy. First Corinthians 15:26 says that. But here’s what is revolutionary. In Matthew 5:44, the same chapter with the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “Love your enemy.” Nouwen says, “death included.” To befriend death makes death lose its sting. How does this happen? When we understand that death is not the end but the doorway to ultimate happiness into the presence and home of God Himself. C. S. Lewis spoke to it this way: “Our Father refreshes us on our journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.” There is a longing for home. There is a call deep in the human spirit for more than life, as we know it can provide. What Lewis was saying to us was, why would we want to stay forever at a hotel when we have a beautiful home waiting for us? Why long to stay here when something inside of us tells us God is preparing a place for us? That’s why blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. We no longer have to live in a hotel. We get to go home.

Day 251 Today's Reading: Revelation 13 If you are a baseball fan, the number 42 is an important number. It belonged to Jackie Robinson, the first African American to cross the racial lines and play major league baseball in 1947. That number has been retired from all MLB teams. This means that no future MLB player can ever wear Jackie’s number. It commemorates the courage and bravery of what Jackie Robinson did for the game of baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The number was retired in a ceremony, which took place April 15, 1997, at Shea Stadium to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Robinson’s first game with the Dodgers. That number was important not just for baseball but for the racial divide in our country. It is also important and significant today and more so in the future for a different reason. In today’s chapter, we look at something else important and significant for today and the future, where the number forty-two is seismic for the planet. When we see the prefix anti, we immediately think it means “against” or “opposite.” Consider some of these words with the anti prefix attached to them: Anticlimax—the ending of something is disappointing. You expected more. Antisocial—it’s the opposite of being outgoing and inviting. Anti-inflammatory—we older folks know about this. It’s that which fights against swelling in the human body. But how about this disturbing one—antichrist? Revelation 13 introduces a character yet to be named in human history who is eviler than any one person who has ever walked the planet—the antichrist. Many believe that the beast from the beginning of this chapter refers to the antichrist. Let’s read this chilling account of what is coming to the earth: “I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; and they worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies; and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. It was given to him to make war with the saints.” (Revelation 13:1-7) Revelation 13 closes with the antichrist’s mark of the beast, the number 666. Whenever you hear people talk about eschatology, the study of the end times, many like to speculate about this number and its meaning. I grew up during a time when there was wild speculation about who the antichrist might be. Some even went as far as throwing out some names using the 666 as the key to unlocking their identity. One name I heard growing up was Ronald Reagan. Why? His full name is Ronald Wilson Reagan. Every part of his name has six letters, thus ending up with 666. Seriously? Nobody said it better about Revelation speculations than R. T. Williams: “Young men stay away from the subject of prophecy. Let the old men do that. They won’t be around to see their mistakes.” Brilliant. The things the apostle John detailed are scary and sobering. Let me give you three points of this time in the future. First, it is disturbing to see the similarities between Christ and the antichrist. Listen to the language: ten diadems, like a lion, he has power and authority and a throne. And if you look closely at his head, it looks as if he has been slain. How deceptive this is. But no one can forget the beast’s power comes from the dragon. What an awful combination—a beast and a dragon make an antichrist. Second, the world is sucked in and duped by all of this. The whole earth is amazed and follows the antichrist. And they will worship the dragon and the beast. What insanity, before the tribulation, the world is made aware of the Lamb of God who died for them but not amazed and will not follow Him or worship Jesus. The satanic deception is awful. Third, his job is to discredit the true and living Christ. He will speak blasphemies and arrogant words against God, His name, His tabernacle, and to all of His children who are in heaven. He will make war and inspire others on the planet to do the same. Just as it seemed hopeless for African Americans ever to play in major league baseball until number forty-two paved the route, so forty-two gives hope again to humanity. Here is the hope in the midst of this planetary mayhem. Remember, God is the CEO of the universe, not Satan. Satan is not an independent power who can do whatever he wants. He is under God’s rule and control. Satan is God’s puppet. And as we see, here comes number forty-two again! God gives the beast forty-two months to wreak havoc. It will seem God is absent and not defending Himself or the saints in heaven, but this is all in God’s plan in the end times. When we see all of these characteristics of the antichrist, it seems hopeless. But the part we cannot miss is these words: authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. This brings everything back to the reality of who is actually in charge. Forty-two means God sets the boundaries. Forty-two means Satan is God’s Satan, and the beast and the dragon are not separate entities that call the shots. God says essentially, “Do your thing for forty-two months, then I will do My thing. And when I do My thing, your future is about to come to an end.” When I read these chilling details and remember forty-two, I’m always reminded of what E. Stanley Jones said: “When Satan attacks you, command him in the name of Jesus to bend his neck. On the back of it you’ll find there’s a nail-scarred footprint.” Amen.

Day 250 Today's Reading: Revelation 12 Some years ago, I read an interesting book called Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War by Eliot A. Cohen and John Gooch, in which the authors noticed that throughout history, defeat rises out of three basic features: the failure to learn, the failure to anticipate, the failure to adapt to changing conditions. We are in a different war called spiritual warfare. And in today’s chapter, we find one of the most descriptive places in all Scripture of this battle. We also see in these verses the battle lessons that Cohen and Gooch speak about—that we can learn about this battle, we can anticipate the enemy’s movements, and we can have new weapons to adapt to his attacks. Here is the battle we are in: “There was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.’” (Revelation 12:7-12) We find so much in these verses about hell, heaven, and the believers. There is a battle going on against the soul of every Christian. This is the origin, the reason, the cast, and the results of spiritual warfare. We see all the descriptive words of the devil. He is called the dragon, the great dragon, the serpent of old, the devil, the accuser of the brethren, and Satan. We learn that he and his angels were thrown out of heaven. They are fighting a war they can’t win, and they know the time is short, but that doesn’t stop their devilish onslaught. They fight with great wrath and anger. And their target is God’s church. The last verse of the chapter says, “The dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (verse 17). We are the offspring. And if we are the target, we need a weapon. But we don’t get just a weapon. We get three weapons: “They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death” (verse 11). Here are God’s three devil-winning strategies to overcome Satan: First, the blood of the Lamb. This is a judicial weapon. Judicial means we have legal rights. The blood of Jesus is our assurance that our sins are forgiven. In the long list of his names, the devil is called “the accuser of the brethren.” He accuses us of our sins to try and get us to doubt that we are God’s children. When we have been born again, the blood of Jesus goes over the doorposts of our hearts, just as the children of Israel needed to put it on their actual doorposts, so the angel of death would pass by. We are covered by the blood, Satan has to pass by, but not without throwing some fiery darts. The second weapon is the word of our testimony. This is an evidential weapon. We have history from saints in the past that God delivers. When we read and hear about God’s deliverance in His children’s lives, this is a weapon. How do we use it? Like this: When we tell or hear testimonies, we are encouraged and know that if God did it for others, He could do it for us as well. The third weapon hardly gets mentioned: “They did not love their life even when faced with death.” This is a sacrificial weapon. It’s the realization that our lives are not our own. We have been bought with a price. We don’t have to go into self-preservation mode. Our timelines on earth are determined by God, not by cancer, violence, or tragedy. We are on God’s clock, and He determines our home-going date, so we don’t have to fear death. As A. W. Tozer so powerfully reminds us, “When God calls a man, he cannot die until he has done the work God has called him to do. If God calls a man to a work, and the man says yes, that man cannot die until that work is done. The man God calls is immortal until his work is done.” Man doesn’t decide our death. God does. That’s why Jesus said, “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative” (John 10:18). Charles Spurgeon gives us this warning: “The trumpet still plays the notes of war. You cannot sit down and put the victory wreath on your head. You do not have a crown just yet. You still must wear the helmet and carry the sword. You must watch, pray, and fight. Expect your last battle to be the most difficult, for the enemy’s fiercest charge is reserved for the end of the day.” But something good comes out of this war and battle, as evangelist Smith Wigglesworth reminds us: “Great faith is the product of great fights. Great testimonies are the outcome of great tests. Great triumphs can only come out of great trials.” This is a great fight we are in, but we will come out with great faith, great testimonies, and great triumphs because the Lamb of God gave us weapons in this war.

Day 249 Today's Reading: Revelation 11 Whenever I read Revelation 11, my mind goes back to the three temptations Jesus experienced in the wilderness that started His public ministry—especially to the third temptation. Today’s chapter reminds us that Satan will tempt us with the right outcome but with bad shortcuts getting there. Always remember the journeys God puts us on toward a desired end have our spiritual growth in mind. One of those shortcuts that Satan has gotten so many to bow to has been immorality and fornication. Fornication is having sex outside of the covenant of marriage. The lie of immorality has been, If I love you, then I should sleep with you. It’s sabotaging the growth journey. Commitment and covenant are the prerequisites for intimacy, not love. Love leads us to commitment and covenant, not to the bedroom. In the waiting period, we learn patience, we learn how to develop other important areas, we learn respect, and we learn what real love is. Immorality and fornication are shortcuts that will always hurt the future of a relationship because they are sins. Jesus was tempted to take a shortcut when His ministry was launched with forty days of fasting and Satanic temptation. In order to see the magnitude of the Revelation 11 verse, we have to see the three temptations of Jesus and key in on the third one. In order for the temptation to be a temptation, it has to attract us. It has to have something that we want. What was in it that attracted Jesus? There were three satanic requests made to Jesus: make bread from stones, throw Himself off the pinnacle, bow before Satan. Satan requested those things because he was asking Jesus for proof: prove You are God’s Son, prove the Bible is true, prove You don’t want it now. In the first temptation, Satan is saying, the way to fix your own doubts/insecurity is by what you do instead of trusting what God says. God already told Jesus that Jesus is His beloved Son, so Satan said, “If You are the Son, turn these stones to bread.” In the second temptation, Satan quotes the Bible and wants Jesus to live out a misinterpretation of Scripture. He quotes Psalm 91 but not completely, telling Jesus to jump off the temple, and the angels will rescue Him. But Psalm 91 isn’t meant for random temple jumping. This is like what churches are doing by snake-handling to prove Mark 16:18: “They will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them.” It’s dangerous, and people have died. Don’t jump without a full context. Finally, in the third temptation telling Jesus that He can have it all sooner than He thinks if He only takes a shortcut: “The devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me’” (Matthew 4:8-9). That’s what Satan told Jesus. That’s what Satan tells Jesus’ children: “Bow down now, and you can get what you want sooner.” But what he doesn’t tell us is by taking the shortcut, we lose the process and the maturity that comes in pain and affliction, and patience. These are some shortcuts: cheating on a test to cheating on a marriage, lying to get money, lying on an application, not tithing, exaggerating, plagiarizing, and the list goes on. The satanic proposal is that we should have it all now, and the only thing we have to do to get it is to bow. To Jesus, he was saying that He could bypass suffering and the cross and the three years of ministry by bowing to his agenda and clock, not God’s clock. When you get it sooner than God’s clock, you also get exhaustion, disappointment, strained or tainted character, and no joy. The good news is that Jesus did not bow! Jesus did not take the shortcut! But what about the kingdoms of this world? Now we enter into Revelation 11, the result of not bowing and taking the shortcut: “Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever’” (verse 15). Jesus got it all God’s way. And heaven got loud with that statement. Many times God’s way is the long way, but it’s the right way. Don’t be afraid of it taking too long. When it’s all said and done, I want heaven to get loud for you and me by not bowing when we have had every opportunity to take Satan’s shortcut.

Day 248 Today's Reading: Revelation 10 David Wilkerson was a spiritual father to me. His investment in my life was so significant that I am in ministry today because of him. He is the founder of Teen Challenge, the author of The Cross and the Switchblade, and the founding pastor of Times Square Church, and he made an imprint on my life, unlike anybody in my early years. From the investment of wisdom, finances, time, and opportunity, one thing I have today, which he gave me when he ordained me, was a New American Standard Bible that he signed in the front. He also included a verse from Revelation 10. Let’s look at our passage for today, which includes the verse David Wilkerson wrote in my Bible: “The voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, “Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.” (Revelation 10:8-10) David Wilkerson was challenging me to be a man of the book. The book means the Bible. He was wanting me to understand that when we devour the Bible by reading it and studying it, there will be places in it that will be sweet and some places that will be bitter. When John was being challenged to eat the book, it was not literally but figuratively. Eating meant study, read, and apply, not actually eating. I read this crazy story of someone who missed the point of Revelation 10. In the early 1900s, the Ethiopian emperor Menelik II grew ill. Believing the Bible could cure him, he ate pages of the Bible. He died in 1913 after eating the entire book of 2 Kings. The book of 2 Kings is good but not good enough to eat all twenty-five chapters. The Bible becomes bitter when truth troubles me when it contradicts me. Then it’s swallowing a bitter pill but a healthy one. When it’s bitter, I am tempted to theologize the concepts away or to pass over it, but that’s hard to do when you are eating the book. E. Paul Hovey so insightfully said: “Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself but because it contradicts them.” Those are the bitter sections. But to be honest, there are a lot of sweet spots in the Word. And when you hit a sweet spot, there is nothing like it. A sweet spot is getting something from the Bible that you needed that day, that moment, for encouragement and hope. I can say without a doubt, the honey-sweet verses make the bitter verses palatable, because when I hit a bitter verse, one that is challenging my behavior and attitude, a verse that refuses to move for me, I remember all the sweet ones and realize I can’t always have dessert but need vegetables too. And that bitter verse isn’t going to move. It’s asking me to move. An officer in the navy had always dreamed of commanding a battleship. He was finally given commission of the newest ship in the fleet. One stormy night, as the ship plowed through the rough water, the captain was on the bridge and spotted a strange light rapidly closing in on his own vessel. This was before radio, so he ordered the signalman to flash the message to the unidentified craft, “Alter your course ten degrees to the south.” Only a moment passed before the reply came: “Alter your course ten degrees to the north.” Determined that his ship would take a backseat to no other, the captain snapped out the order: “Alter course ten degrees—I am the Captain!” The response came back, “Alter your course ten degrees—I am Seaman Third Class Jones.” Now infuriated, the captain grabbed the signal light with his own hands and fired off: “Alter course, I am a battleship.” The reply: “Alter your course, I am a lighthouse.” God’s Word stands like a lighthouse for us. It directs us to alter our course at His direction, both the sweet and the bitter parts.