Tuesday, May 22, 2018

WHY?

Today’s Reading: Revelation 15 

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

 

About 15 kilometres from ancient Laodicea is Pamukkale. Pamukkale, meaning “cotton castle” in Turkish, is a natural site in southwestern Turkey. The city contains hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. It is located in Turkey’s Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which has a temperate climate for most of the year. The ancient Greco-Roman and Byzantine city of Hierapolis was built on top of this white “castle” which is in total about 2,700 metres (8,860 ft) long, 600 metres (1,970 ft) wide and 160 metres (525 ft) high.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

 

Key Verse: Revelation 15:4a

Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.

 

Jim and Kathy Cantelon write today’s 100 Words segment (originally published in Crossroads’ Day Unto Day devotional series)…

In chapters 15 and 16 we read about God’s wrath. This isn’t pleasant reading, and if we’ve thought of God only in terms of His love, these chapters can be disconcerting and even repellent. But we’ve got to understand something – Jesus didn’t come to earth merely to give us a good example, nor was His death at Calvary some sort of morality play. He didn’t come to make us better people. He came to make us new.

Why? Because God the Father is wholly pure, holy, and just. Sin offends Him – so much so that He has decreed that “the wages of sin is death.” All mankind have sinned, and all deserve death in His eyes – His justice demands it. But He is also love. He is not willing that any should perish; He loves the sinner and hates his sin. So what does He do?

God becomes one of us. His Son, Jesus, is born in Bethlehem, is raised in Nazareth, and for three years teaches all who will hear about the Kingdom of Heaven. He tells us what God is like, and He tells us to repent of sin. He takes the penalty of our sin upon Himself and dies on the Cross. Three days later He rises from the grave and issues in a whole new order of life that transcends death and enters the eternal. He becomes the “first fruits” of “them who shall also rise.”

He does all this to satisfy His justice so that man can have a second chance. But if we don’t accept His offer, we’ll suffer His anger. And “it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Revelation makes that very clear.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, Your creation of the natural world should be sufficient to cause me to fear You! May I give You at all times total respect! When I realize that You entered Your creation as a tiny life in the womb of the Virgin Mary, I am in complete awe of You. I am moved to pray the prayer of King David found in Psalm 51:1-13. Lord Jesus, You took upon Yourself my sin and the sins of the human family as the sacrificial Lamb. I confess my sin, and I ask for the assurance of forgiveness and cleansing from all sin. In Your Name I pray! Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

The Apostle John served as the Overseer, or Bishop, of the Roman province of Asia Minor. Today this land is called Turkey. Norma-Jean and I travelled across Turkey with 150 friends, otherwise known as tourists. Actually we called ourselves Pilgrims, visiting cities such as Antioch, where people were first called Christians. I remember well the city of Tarsus, birthplace of the Apostle Paul and his home until he left to study in Jerusalem. At each stop, I would read the Scriptures about the place. Rev. Dale Lang, of Tabor Alberta, would make an application to our lives today, and Dr. Paul Maier, Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University, would give the historical background. On one occasion we were at the ruins of the first century synagogue in Tarsus. Dr. Maier pointed to a rose bush growing out of the ruins and said with a straight face, “This is where Paul got his thorn.” As Jim mentioned above about today’s reading, “This isn’t pleasant reading.” I thought I’d share a time of hilarious laughter from our group there in Tarsus. Paul wrote of his “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Recently I met with a Pastor who is constantly in pain and yet he soldiers on. In my judgment he is one of the finest Bible teachers and preachers I’ve ever met. His name is Jay, and I want to ask you to pray for his healing. He said that he drew strength from the knowledge that Paul persevered. He quoted Paul, “For when I am weak, then I am strong!” I said that the Corinthian letters were some of Paul’s first letters to the churches he had planted, and that I like to believe that by the time Paul was executed by beheading in Rome, God had said, “Yes” to his prayers; and if the thorn was a physical problem, he was healed! By the grace of God I expect to ask many questions of the Lord, His Apostles, and others. The thorn question is on my list!

Yours for the attitude in our lives of Paul to the thorn and John toward his imprisonment on Patmos,

David

Pamukkale’s terraces are made of travertine, a sedimentary rock deposited by water from the hot springs. In this area, there are 17 hot water springs in which the temperature ranges from 35 °C (95 °F) to 100 °C (212 °F).

11 thoughts on “Tuesday, May 22, 2018

  1. Oh dear! Please disregard my comment about broken bones. That was from another site I had been reading. Sorry.

  2. Found such true words this a.m. online:

    Now you and I face a choice.

    We can decide that there are many sources of life, that defending the uniqueness of Jesus and the necessity of salvation in him is bigoted and intolerant. In other words, Jesus was wrong, and our culture is right.

    Or we can decide that there is only one true source of life, that defending the uniqueness of Jesus and the necessity of salvation in him is our gracious gift to a dying world. In other words, Jesus was right, and our culture is wrong.

    There is no third option.

    • Wide road, narrow road. Jesus is True.

      Amy Carmichael, writing of Caleb’s daughter Achsah’s request:

      “And it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wilt thou?

      And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.” (Judges 1:14-15)

      “When, some years before Kohila came, a Greater than Caleb had asked a lesser one than his daughter, What wouldst thou for these children? she had answered Him [this is God asking Amy what she would have Him do for the children she ministered to]:

      Make them good soldiers of Jesus Christ: let them never turn themselves back in the day of battle.

      Let them be winners and helpers of souls.

      Let them live not to be ministered unto, but to minister.

      Make them loyal; let them set loyalty high above all things.

      Make them doers, not mere talkers; make them sound.

      Let them enjoy hard work and choose hard things rather than easy. Forbid that they be slackers. Make them trustworthy. Give them grit.

      Make them wise, for it is written, He hath no pleasure in fools.

      Let them pass from dependence on us to dependence on Thee.

      Let them never come under the dominion of earthly things; keep them free.

      Let them grow up healthy, happy, friendly and keen to make others happy.

      Give them eyes to see the beauty of the world and hearts to worship its Creator. Cause them to be quick to recognise “the figures of the true.”

      Let them be gentle to beast and bird; let cruelty be hateful to them.

      May they walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance.

      Let this be the inheritance of these children – the upper springs and the nether springs of life.

      And for ourselves we asked that we might learn how to brace and never weaken. “God is my strong salvation,” we asked that we might train them to say that word and live that life, and pour themselves out for others unhindered by self.”

      from “Kohila”, by Amy Carmichael

      May all these things be true for all Your cildren, Father, I ask in Jesus’s great name…

    • amen Lynda! there is only One Way to Heaven, and that is through our Risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! this brings me to my knees, amen amen amen

  3. Our God is faithful and True: God is Love! He loves us with an everlasting love! God is Just! He hates sin. God is Righteous!
    What a Great and marvelous God we serve, Praise His Holy Name!

    Amen to David’s prayer! Always appreciate his personal comments.
    Thank you Reynold for the pictures and explanation of them.

    God Bless you Ron and Ann for continuing to post this daily manna!

    Have a wonderful day all bloggers!

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