Daily Devotional

I want to get some landscaping cobblestones for my yard, for a project I am working on in my front yard.  I have been hiring my grandson, Connor, to help me with that project.  He is 15 years old, and strong.  We get to work together, and to talk.  It is a great combination!

Since I no longer have a truck, I sometimes use my car as one.  Once in a while I ask my neighbor, Pete, to use his to help me.  But not today.  When I go to the rock place, Rosenbalm Rockery near 99 and McKinley, it is always both a dirty and dusty area.  But lots of fun!  So I wait until my car already needs to be washed.  Today is such a day!

It is a Monday, so trying to be efficient as usual, I plan my regular Monday morning excursion near the Rockery.  Belmont Memorial Park seems a good place.  It is a cemetery, and it is near.  We have two sons buried there.  Both are long stories.  I occasionally go there and clean the headstones.

I take the normal but odd route to get there – 99 to Belmont, then to Pacific Ave and back across the railroad tracks and 99 to the cemetery.  Michael’s grave is on the right on the way in.  That of Nicholas is on the left.  I go right, get all my stuff, and setup my chair for a couple hour stay.

I ask the Lord for a place to read, to meditate, pray and write in my journal.  I am directed to Revelation 13.  It is the chapter about the two beasts.  The book of Revelation always reminds me that there is an end to things on earth.  That end is pre-planned, the two beasts and all the rest.  Several thousand years of life may seem long to me, perhaps giving off a sense that life here is interminable.  But Revelation gives us a sense that life on earth is finite.  Life for individuals is obviously terminal, to which all these gravestones testify.  It is good to reflect on such.

The sound of the freeway behind me is loud, though I cannot even see it.  That sound tells me that life pulsates along. But the cemetery tells me that the people on the freeway, right at this moment, are all new people from 120 years ago!

The Word tells me that God is infinite, that He has always existed.  It also tells me that as infinite, God always will exist, no matter the temporary state of man and the earth.  The many gravestones seem to say that these lives below them are valueless, meaningless; that nobody remembers, nobody cares.  But God’s word says they will all stand at judgment before Christ.

And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.  It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.  Revelation 13:5-6

Why should such a mouth be given?  Why was it allowed to exercise authority?  Its only role seems to be to blaspheme God – His name, even His dwelling.  Why should such a creature be allowed to exercise authority?  It can’t do anything good with that authority.

Here we must trust God’s wisdom and sovereign control.  He has allowed the devil to be among us, too, and all the fallen angels.  He has allowed death to rule.  As the world has gone along, so it must finish.

Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.  And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. Revelation 13:7-8

More curiosity.  The beast not only gets freedom to make war on the saints, it is allowed to conquer them!  No plan of man did that!  It can only be a plan of the eternal God, not fully conceivable by us.

There is described a division of people in these verses.  One, those whose names have been written in the Lamb’s book of life before the foundation of the world.  Two, those whose names are not written there.

Those not written fall under the authority of the beast – this is God’s provision for them.  Of those written there, the saints, the beast is given authority to not only make war, but to conquer them!  What are we really in on this earth?

The description of the names in the Lamb’s book of life, written before the foundation of the world, testifies heavily toward pre-destination and absolute election of individuals, not unnamed groups of people who will choose the Lord someday!

I rest in this truth this morning.  God is sovereign!  Go to Thy great work, O God!  Thank you that You have chosen me!

If anyone has an ear, let him hear: If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. Revelation 13:9-10

As I read this, I rejoice!  I suppose I could be one of these destined ones in this era.  Not likely. But what is not only likely, but absolutely pre-determined is that I will go through all those things that the Lord has laid out for me, from before the foundation of the earth!!  What are some of these already experienced?  Michael’s death.  Nicholas’ three day life.  Lynn as my wife. My call as a pastor.  An eye injury in 1966.  My Northview HS experience.  Community Christian Fellowship.

There is much more history than this.  And apparently, much more is yet to be experienced by me, if my understanding about my day of exit from this earth is accurate.  But as I wander around Michael’s grave, as I step around and over marker after marker, with birth dates and death dates, I wonder -- is there no end to all the dying?

The joyous answer is, “Yes!”  There is an end to death!  The book of Revelation is about that.  And it is about Life, and the end of our story.  Consider the following truths it contains, and why it was written, and rejoice!

• The devil is thrown into the lake of fire. (20:10)
• Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire. (20:14)
• A new heavens, a new earth and a new Jerusalem brought forth. (21:1-2)
• God is among His redeemed people. (21:3)
• Tears, death, mourning, crying, and pain are all passed away. (21:4)
• God illumines His people, and the Lamb is the light. (21:23)
• There is no more curse. (22:3)
• God’s people will see His face. (22:4)
• There will be no night there. (22:5)
• God’s people will reign with Him forever and ever. (22:5)

As I get up from my chair after all this, it collapses and is destroyed!  I guess it is fitting.  I put it to rest with the other dead out here!  As I make my way out of the cemetery, and head the back way over to Hughes Ave and the Rockery, I rejoice!  “Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”  Revelation 19:7, NASB.

It has been a marvelous morning!  Death comes to an end!  Forever!  Hallelujah for the day of Revelation!  Come, Lord Jesus!  Come quickly! (Rev. 22:20)