Studying Eschatology can sometimes seem overwhelming and confusing. It is so hard to understand what may be imagery and what is literal, as well as when and how all of this will come about to happen. This time through though, it was helpful to have it broken down and explained a little better. When I got to the discussion on the judgments of the tribulation, having them explained to me truly stopped me in my tracks. The three waves of judgment are varying in type, and in severity. There are the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls of judgment.

The first four seals of the seven are depicted by horsemen that are symbols of judgment. The first is believed to be the Antichrist, the second represents war, the third symbolizes suffering and hunger, while the fourth is named Death. The next three seals continue the judgments, and the seven seals serve almost as an overarching preparations for the intensified judgments of the trumpets and the bowls.

The first four trumpets of judgment come from heaven and directly affect the earth and the people still on the earth. The last three trumpets are known as the 3 “woes” because they are each harsh judgments on the people ranging from horse-sized human eating locust, to four evil angels being released to kill 1/3 of the population on earth. They are a step up in severity from the seals, and they are more deliberately punishing to the people of earth.

The final group of judgments in the tribulation are known as the seven bowls of judgment. These judgments are the climax of God’s wrath being poured out on the earth and the people still living. The bowl judgments are similar to the trumpet judgments so some think of them as simply a repeat, but they are much more severe and affect the whole earth rather than just 1/3 as the trumpets did.

As I read these different punishments and was truly seeing a picture of God’s wrath I began to think of those I know that don’t know Christ. We have no idea when He will return and this tribulation will begin. All of the people who don’t know Christ would have to suffer these judgments if Christ came back today. It breaks my heart to think that anyone would suffer when Christ has provided a way to be enjoying the wedding supper of the Lamb as this happens on earth. I wouldn’t wish any of the seals, trumpets, or bowls on my worst enemy and I will do my best to love them and lead them to the one who took this punishment so they don’t have to.

The book of acts is sometimes known as Acts of the Holy Spirit. This nickname is quite suitable because of the fact that the Holy Spirit is quite frequently at work within the multiple, twenty-eight, chapters. Now this is not just a simple day to day progress, but rather a span of months and years. As the units in the Borean studies show, the book of acts can be split into four different parts of this book. They are split as: The pre-witness days of the Church in Jerusalem, the witness of the Church in Jerusalem, then in Judea and Samaria and finally to the ends of the Earth.

The beginning of Acts focuses on the importance of the remaining disciples staying in Jerusalem. They stay so that they could receive the Holy Spirit, which leads them to do so much more than they ever could. Along with receiving the Holy Spirit, or the promised gift, the time frame was set up perfectly for them. It was an opportunity to be witness for those in Jerusalem who were gathered togethered for the feast of Pentacost. From there on out, the Church, now empowered by the Spirit, went out and performed miracles and told people about Jesus. The church grew and grew in number as they were placed into a state of awe by the Spirit. However, though the Church’s numbers were increasing, they were not going out and making disciples of all the nations.

A man by the name of Stephen was killed for his faith, he is often known as the first martyr for Christ. The public killing of this man by religious leaders set out a wave of fear, dispersing many believers all over the world. Some back to their country of origin, others into different cities. Thus the news was spreading, but all the while a zealous man by the name of Saul is introduced. He has an encounter with Jesus that would then make him the most influential missionary back then and in today.

Saul, who would now be refered to as Paul, had the key to being useable. He was a Roman citizen and a Jew, granting him several rights both to the Rome and when entering synagogues. He was also trained by the high priest, educated in the what the world saw as best place to gain an education. Though Paul had a rough start trying to get Christians to believe he was on their side, he would be sent forth by the Spirit to venture on three missionary journeys and a final journey that would bring him to Rome.

Needless to say, Paul was chosen. God intended this very man, who was persecuting the Church, to go out and tell the world of Jesus. And though Paul has passed away, the Holy Spirit is still alive and working to this very day, doing works in the lives of many believers.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!” Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 7:55-59 NLT)
This month I have been doing an in-depth study on the Book of Acts.  I chose Stephen as my topic, because this man is so inspirational, and is a vital person in our Christian faith.  Yes, he was the first Martyr, but you should also read his life.  He had such boldness and was filled with the Spirit.
But the verses I brought you were of his death, and I want to kind of break it down for you, and pick some stuff that caught my eye when I was doing this study.  First off  Stephen gazed into heaven, and the Son of Man is standing at God’s right hand!  Wow, what a honor to see Jesus before his death.  That is an amazing thing in itself.  But the thing that pops out was that she Jesus was standing up at the throne.  The last time we hear about Jesus was the Great Ascension.  Jesus was seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  But now Jesus is standing.  Jesus sees him, and responded by standing.  Stephen’s faith was so great, and he was honored to suffer for Christ.  I some times picture Jesus just singing praises to the Father and cheering for Stephen when this happened, because of his audacious action.  For if we suffer for Christ,  it is a honor and not a sin.  So, let us rejoice in Him, and be glad that we have Christ in our lives.  One of Stephen’s last statements were, ” Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  Even when he was placed in suffering, he called upon the name of the Lord.  But he didn’t ask Jesus to save him.  Instead, he asked Christ to receive him.  Stephen asked Jesus to except his spirit when he dies, so that he may spent eternity with Him.
Now I know their is other things to these verses, but my main purpose of this blog is that you truly understand that when Stephen looked in heaven.  Jesus was standing not sitting.  These verses put me in check to see if my life makes Jesus stand at his throne, or am I living a lukewarm life.

“And Saul went wild, devastating the church, entering house after house, dragging men and women off to jail,” (Acts 8:3). Chapter 8 lesson 1 in the book Acts: the Holy Spirit at Work in Believers by George O. Wood, it tells Saul lived his life persecuting the church and the people within it. In Philippians 3:4-6, Saul, which at this point is called Paul writes, “Though I could have confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin- a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.” Whatever Saul was doing, he gave one hundred percent to it. That’s why when Saul met Jesus, the life he lived that had once produced violence and death changed radically. In lesson 3, Wood gives the reference to Acts 9 which is the story of Saul’s meeting with Jesus. Acts 9:9 tells about Saul’s genuine remorse, which was an immediate response to his experience. In verse 11-12 Saul had not yet been baptized in water or the Holy Spirit, but it says that he was already hearing from God through visions. God sent Ananias to pray with Saul, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit and baptized. “Then he wasted no time. He got busy for God with the same zeal he had shown while persecuting the church,” says Wood on page 150. While living his life for Christ, the table had now turned on him. Acts 9:23 reads, “After a while some of the Jews plotted together to kill him.” Saul went from killing Christians, to being martyred because he was a Christian.

This last month I have been in a class on the Old Testament. Now I have read the old testament plenty of times but God has a creative way of doing things, and that is He teaches you something new from the same passage almost everytime you read it. I was in a lesson on the Kings of Judah and I came to a King I had read about before but never given much thought to, King Hezekiah.

King Hezekiah became the King of Judah after his father Ahaz died, and Hezekiah’s son who took the throne after him was Manessah. The reason I tell you the names of these two other Kings is because those two are known as two of the most wicked and sinful Kings who ever ruled Judah, but Hezekiah was the exact opposite. It says in 2 Kings 29:11 that Hezekiah “Immediately set out to reverse the damage done by his father.”

All of these details I noticed and have noticed about him but a detail I have always looked over was that fifteen years into Hezekiahs rule he became very sick, and even had the great prophet Isaiah confirm that he would die from this illness. What does Hezekiah do? Hezekiah turns his face to a wall and prays. He is faced with a crisis and turns to the one he knows will have the solution; God. In His graciousness God heals Hezekiah and gives him fifteen more years of life and rule in Judah, and the Bible tells us that there never was a King in Judah like Hezekiah.

This was all crazy cool to me, and really encouraging. Why? Because here is Hezekiah, a man who turns a wicked, sinful, flat out terrible nation, back to God, and then he gets a life threatening illness. Does that seem fair to anyone? Instead of complaining though Hezekiah turns from people, who he knows will only tell him that he ahs every right to complain, and faces a wall where he calls on God. How many of us can say that at every trial faced we turn to God? I know that this story has been a great reminderfor me. That even though bad things happen to godly people, those bad things should give us only one type of excuse, an excuse to pray harder and more often. You never know what God may do through the insant, fervant, and sincere prayers of the children He loves.

The book of Ecclesiastes is a raw expression of the thoughts almost every person at one point or another in their lives. Ecclesiastes is by an unknown author, but is written from the viewpoint of a teacher giving his final musings on life to his students. The overall feel of the book is pretty pessimistic, but in the end the teacher brings it around to give advice to save his students from the same pain he went through. We see two major lifestyles that the teacher addresses and they are life apart from God and life in obedience to God.

The lifestyle addressed in most of the book is the life apart from God. The author summarized this life in one word: meaningless. The word meaningless is found 35 times in this short 12 chapter book. The teacher had lived a life full of riches, wisdom, women, fame, and anything else that could ever be imagined or desired. He lived in his sin and doing whatever he wanted to do to find pleasure. At the end of his life the only word he could think of to describe the way his life was lived was meaningless.

I think this is true for every person who pursues a life outside of God’s will and tries to find pleasure in what the world offers. I know for me that before I gave my life to Christ my life felt pointless. I didn’t have a purpose in life and it was meaningless.

The second way to live that the author brings at the end of the book is living in obedience to God and in relationship with Him. The teacher concludes that young people should recognize God when they are young and that they will then live a life of joy and fulfillment. He realized, too late, that a life lived in obedience and in relationship with God is the only thing that brings satisfaction and fullness to life.

I know this to be true in my own life. After giving my heart to Jesus my life began to have a purpose. I knew that God had a plan for my life and that I was born to accomplish something bigger with my life. I was created for something beyond me and I’m so glad to know that I don’t live a meaningless life. I get to live to tell others about a life of meaning and to help them begin a life of purpose in relationship with God.

The book of Psalms is not only the longest book of the Bible, it is the one that most connects us with God. Several authors, including David, Asaph, the sons of Korah, and Solomon, contributed to the composition of the 150 chapters of Psalms. In total, it took around one thousand years for the entire book to be compiled.

What is unique about Psalms is that they were intended for both public and private worship. A lot of them were set to music, and have been used since their composition as means of worship in some form or another.

The different types of psalms are as follows:

Hymns, which rejoice and praise God’s goodness.

Laments, which are the author’s cry to God for help in the unjustness of life.

Thanksgiving, which respond to an answered lament.

Confidence, which express trust in God.

Remembrance, which recognize and show gratitude towards God’s past faithfulness.

Wisdom, which show a contrast between righteous and wicked patterns.

Kingship, which either discuss human kingship or God as King of all.

In addition to being songs of praise and worship, the psalms also involve forms of Hebrew poetry. Hebrew poetry is quite unlike the poetry we know today. Whereas we know poetry by rhyme schemes or pentameter, Hebrew poetry is characterized by its parallel lines of thought.

The four types of parallel poetry that is found in Scripture are :

Synonymous, which is the repetition of the same thought, but using two sets of words that reflect the same idea.

Antithetic, which is also a repetition of a similar thought, but using words that reflect different ideas.

                        Synthetic, which is when the second thought completes the first.

                        Chiastic, which is when the two lines of poetry are flipped, or criss-crossed.

Overall, Psalms is not just a book of the Bible that is full of literary devices; it is a book that is entirely focused on God. Whether it be through worship, agony, triumph, or joy, each author continually points back to God because of His faithfulness and role as our Father. That is part of what makes Psalms a book that is so comforting to many of our daily issues and trials.

In the book of Joshua, the battles that the Israelites fought in can be grouped into three categories: central battles (Joshua 6-8), southern battles (Joshua 9-10), and northern battles (Joshua 11-12). One thing that I noticed while looking at these categories and the descriptions of the battles is that the northern battles are the only ones where God does not perform an extraordinary miracle.

The first time God does an extraordinary miracle is at Jericho when He collapses the city walls after the Israelites obey His commands (Joshua 6:20). This occurs during the central battles. The second time is during the battle at Gibeon with the southern kings. Joshua prays that God will not let the sun go down until the Israelites are victorious and then the sun remained in the sky for what could have been a whole extra day (Joshua 10:12-13).

This just leaves the northern battles with no miracles of this nature. Even though God gave the Israelites victory in these battles (Joshua 11:8), He did not do a miracle of the same kind as when He gave them victory in the central and southern battles. I think this came down to a matter of growth in faith and trust.

God made His assistance something that the Israelites could see at Jericho and Gibeon. This way, there was no doubt in the Israelites’ minds that the Lord was fighting for them. But their faith and trust in God grew through these experiences. That made it so God did not have to give a visible, physical sign that He was helping them with the northern battles. They just believed Him when He said it because their past battles had proved that He would.

I know God has done this type of thing in my own life as well. When I first became a Christian, God had to make it very obvious to me that He was involved in my life. As time went on, I got to know God better and began to recognize His actions that were more subtle. It has gotten to the point where I find God in some seemingly ordinary things. As I continue to grow and know Him more, I have no doubt that I will see the characteristics of His work in even more “ordinary” events.

In Bible times, childbearing was on of the most important purposes a woman had in life. Children carried on the family name and where viewed as evidence of God’s blessing. A woman who could not have children may have felt worthless and possibly unloved by God and others. Not only did a barren women have to deal with internal turmoil, she also most likely faced ridicule from others because people considered barrenness as a punishment for wrong living.
There are many instances of barrenness in the Bible. These women’s infertility seemed like an impossible problem and a huge road block for their futures. Whether we are experiencing barrenness or something else like joblessness, fear, sickness, or other situations, we can learn from their stories and apply it to our own seemingly impossible struggles.

THE IMPOSSIBLE SITUATIONS:
Sarah: God promised Abraham and Sarah as many descendants as there were stars in the sky. Yet Sarah was childless, and it seemed impossible that she would be able to conceive in her old age. (Genesis 12, 15-18, 21)
Rachel: Rachel’s and her sister, Leah’s, husband loved Rachel more. God saw this and allowed Leah to have children while Rachel remained childless. Rachel became jealous and discouraged by this situation. (Genesis 29-30)
Hannah: Hannah could not have children, while her husband’s other wife had many. She was very upset by this, and promised God that if He gave her a son, she would commit him to the Lord. (1 Samuel 1)

Here is a few Do and a Don’t learned from Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah- a few barren women in the Bible…

-> DO: Pray
Genesis 30:22, “Then God remembered Rachel’s plight and answered her prayers by enabling her to have children.”

Rachel was very discouraged by her infertility. Although she did let her frustrations overcome her for a moment (Genesis 30:1), she did the right thing by taking her struggle to God.

1 Samuel 1:15, “…I am very discouraged, and I was pouring out my heart to the LORD.”

Hannah took her heart- broken from being childless and harassed- to God. She pleaded with the Lord to give her the desires of her heart.

The right response to difficult situations is to ALWAYS go to God first. He is the one who made us and can do anything, why would we want to go anywhere else?!
He hears our prayers and answers them, “And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for” (1 John 5:14-15).

-> DON’T: Interfere
Genesis 16:2, “So Sarai said to Abram, ‘The LORD has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.’”
Although God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation, Sarah didn’t think she could make God’s plan happen, so she took matters into her own hands. Eventually, God did give Sarah a son- 25 years after He first made His promise to Abraham.

Genesis 30:3, “Then Rachel told him, ‘Take my maid, Bilhah, and sleep with her. She will bear children for me, and through her I can have a family, too.’”

Like Sarah, Rachel didn’t think God would allow her to have children, so she decided to make things happen on her own.

God didn’t need Sarah or Rachel to make His will happen. And He doesn’t need us to interfere and try to provide for our own needs/ make His plans happen in our situations either. We must trust that His timing is absolutely perfect, because it is!

In all of these women’s cases, God used their infertility to demostrate His power. And He is wanting to use our impossible-barren sitiuations to demonstrate His power, too!

So, let’s take what we’ve learned from these women and apply them to our own “barrenness,”
by PRAYING and BELIEVING.

What lesson relates to your life the most?
-Maybe you have a struggle in your life that you need to come to God with.

-Maybe you have already brought your needs to God, but then got tired of waiting and interfered.
If this is the case, you should ask for forgiveness and start believing!

Wherever you’re at right now, nothing is impossible for God, and He wants to do the impossible in our lives!

Anyone who knows even a little bit about building houses, knows that in order to build it you need a strong foundation or the building will collapse.  The same thing is true when it comes to a person’s faith.  If you are not sure about what you believe, then you will crumble and fall like a building on a shaky foundation.  Jesus told his disciples a story at the end of his sermon on the Mount about two men who built themselves each a house.

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock….But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.”  Matthew 7:24 & 26 (NLT).

After they built their houses, a great storm and flood waters came. The house that was built on solid rock withstood the storm.  However, the house that was built on sand fell and was washed away by the flood.

There are people all around us who are dying without the hope and saving grace of Jesus.  We have the tools and materials they need for a firm foundation in Christ.  It is important to have a strong doctrine to believe in when it comes to your faith.  The Assemblies of God have four foundational truths or doctrines that stand out the most.  According to Introduction to Pentecostal Doctrine, they are:  Salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit and His dynamic work in Spirit-filled Christians, Divine healing as part of the atonement, and The Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

In order to way to be a difference and to make a difference is to know exactly what you believe in and to always stand by it.

“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” – Unknown