Revelation 9 - The Final Three Trumpets

The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 

And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.

Revelation 8 - The First Four Trumpets

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.

10 Promises Of God

1. God will be present with you (Isaiah 43:1-2) – God does not promise His people that they won’t go through trouble. But He does promise that He will be with you through all your challenges, pain, tribulation, isolation, grief, and loneliness. He will never leave you!
2. God will provide for your needs (Matthew 6:25-33) – Jesus assured us that the Father knows our every need and will meet it. Sometimes His provision may not be what we expected, but we can always trust in our divine Provider. But this subject cries out for context, for this is not our home, and all of our dreams, promises, and longings will never be met here, but will be fulfilled forever in the age to come. 
3. God loves you (Romans 8:39) – No matter the quality of your other relationships, as a child of God, we can always depend on our heavenly Father’s love for us. His love does not waver, it cannot be swayed, it cannot be earned or lost, He is always for us!
4. God will ease your fears (Psalm 34:1-7) – God is greater than anything that can hurt or harm us. He can deliver us from trouble and whatever He does allow into our lives He will deliver through it, even if it’s all the way to glory. We have no need to fear what today or tomorrow holds because God is with us.

The Longest Conversation

I mistyped the title three times, each time substituting the word "Day" for "Conversation". Chalk one up to the power of movies. For today I want to discuss a conversation that Jesus Christ had with a woman, at a well, in Samaria, which ended up being the longest recorded conversation between Jesus and another person. 

Let's check it out together . . . 

When we join this story, Jesus has decided to leave Judea, because of the rumors that He was baptizing more people than John the Baptist. (So we see that pettiness ruled the ancient religious culture as well) Scripture tells us that despite the fact that the rumor was not true, (His disciples were the ones actually doing the baptisms), Jesus felt that it was time to leave. He starts back toward Galilee, which requires Him to travel through Samaria.