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As my Christian journey continues, my physical journey is at a standstill due to a storm system moving through the center of the United States and I can’t help but wonder if we’re experiencing “birth pangs”. Our trip to a warmer state for the winter has us packed and ready except for last minute items, waiting for snowy and icy roads to be cleared. With that said, my iPad and Revelation study are “last minute” so I’ve completed week 33, Revelation 13:5-10. It’s times like this I miss studying with my Lovely Ladies.

Pastor Myer did the study on Revelation in 2019-2020. This was a memorable time in my past life and I see God Winks in every chapter. The things he was telling his congregation then are the things the church is still dealing with today in an amplified way. As I stopped the sermon several times, baking up each time, I took many notes. Revelation 13 tells us what to expect in the final 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation, and although it is terrifying I’m confident I won’t be here to experience it ……. but the thought of my unbelieving loved ones experiencing it makes me sick as I pray for their salvation.

And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been been slain. – Revelation 13:8

One of the things pastor said prompted me to stop, backup, and write it down. “People reject God because they do not want to be held accountable for their actions, they want to be able to sin freely and do as they please.” He took us to Romans 1:18-32 and showed us what Paul said would happen. And as he read it to us I recognized it was going on in the world today, and a lump formed in my throat.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

As the chapter closed, I was thankful God put me here and thankful for the technology to visit a sermon series from 5 years ago. Now we wait. Persecution will continue, it will prove the genuineness of our faith. And it won’t be over when the fat lady sings, it will be over when the seventh trumpet sounds.