A sacrifice of praise

My class just finished up with an indepth Precept upon Precept (PUP) study of the book of Hebrews.  For those of you who do the PUP series of books, remember in our homework (of any study) that we are asked to ready the observation worksheets over and over throughout a study?    By the time a study has ended, we will have read the text a hundred or more times.   And even so, when we slow down and start doing the observations, we see things we missed?  And even more so, we start answering the questions in our homework and still see more things we missed?

This happened to me, again, while studying Hebrews.  Consider this verse:

Hebrews 13:15:  " Through Him then, let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips praising His name.^"

It wasn't until I was watching Kay's video that I truly started to understand this verse.  The times I read through it, I realize now it was superficially.  I thought it just meant to give God praise.  But there's so much more to it.

First off -  what's does sacrifice mean?  According to the online 1828 Webster's dictionary, the first meaning for sacrifice is "To offer to God in homage or worship".  Another meaning is "To devote with loss."  A sacrifice costs you something.

So what can a sacrifice of praise mean then?  In Hebrews chapter 12, the author was talking about difficult times. There are times in every person's life that is hard.  A bad medical situation, financial hardship, family issues...  It's easy to praise God when life is good, but how hard is to praise God when life is hard?  It costs you something.  And when life is really hard?  that praise costs you a great deal.  

This is what the author of Hebrews was referring to as a "sacrifice of praise".  And we know that those sacrifices of praise are pleasing to God.  (Hebrews 13:16)

My recap of Hebrews

I'm in a weekly Precepts Bible Study and since last September, we've been studying Hebrews.  It's a book I've never studied in depth before, so I've been so enjoying this.

My personal theme for Hebrews is "Jesus is Better".  He's better than the angels, He's better than Moses, He's better than Abraham, He's better than any earthly high priest.  He's the mediator of the New Covenant, which is better than the Old Covenant.  

And Jesus, God Himself, the Son of God, sinless,  - gave Himself willingly to be our sacrificial lamb.    Jesus' sacrifice was once and for all.  Through His death and His resurrection, He conquered death.  If anyone accepts Him as our Savior, we will live eternally with Him.

Hebrews chapter 11, often called the Hall of Faith, gives us many, many examples of great heroes of faith, whom we should emulate. In fact, the author recaps this in Hebrews 13:7:  "Remember those who led you, who spoke the Word of God to you; and considering the result of their way of life, imitate their faith".

Hebrews chapter 12 is all about God's discipline.  We should look to the heroes of faith in Chapter 11 and how they overcame and were steadfast in their faith, even when there was suffering and hard times in their lives.  God allows difficulties, as a father disciplines a child.  These hard times mature us in our faith.

Let me explain how that's working in my life:

*When I was 39, I had breast cancer.  At the time, my children were ages 12, 6 and 4.  It was hard, chemo was awful.  But that experience changed me.  My faith grew during that time. An analogy would be of a tree - I was 25 years in the Lord, a 25 year old tree,  and my roots started to grow even deeper.  

*About 10 years later, we had to deal with a very difficult issue with one of our children, which lasted about 3 years.  Thinking back to the analogy of the tree - when your roots are deeper, you can withstand stronger and stronger storms.  Because I went through cancer, it made me stronger.  We not only got through this very difficult time in our lives, but our roots keep growing deeper and deeper.

* Fast forward another 8 years to 2023.  Another difficult chapter in our life was upon us.  I called 911 for my husband and it turns out he had a double subdural hematoma.  2 surgeries and almost a month in the hospital and skilled nursing facility.   Again, it was a hard, difficult, agonizing......  And in the midst of it, I heard the Lord through my lovely child's mouth say "We're not doing a good job of keeping Dad safe".  And it's like God said "GO!".  You've been praying for years about where to live and how to live safely, now go and buy the house I have for you.  So I did.  My roots were much deeper.  They allowed me to stay deep in the Lord during this time.  I was able to hear Him clearly and follow His direction, even while emotionally distraught.

Chapter 13 is the closing and final chapter of the book of Hebrews.  The author gives these Jewish Christians final words of wisdom, warnings, and lots of encouragement about how to live the life that Christ promised them and us.

God kept his Covenant with Noah

For the past few months, instead of participating in an organized Precept study at church, I've been doing a study with my husband, daughter and son-in-law.  We Facetime every Friday night and do our discussion.  This has been such an unexpected wonderful blessing during this coronavirus season.

We decided to start at the beginning with Genesis.  It's been more than 20 years since I studied this book in depth and thought it was time.

We are currently studying Genesis Part 2 and are on Lesson 4.   My daughter made an interesting observation about Genesis 7:16:   Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.

My daughter observed that God commanded him.  But the Lord closed the door.  Why the difference in names? In the Old Testament, the authors have revealed that God is called by many names, each with its own significance.  Let's look at the Hebrew words for these two names - God and Lord.

God =אֱלֹהִים    'elohiym = Strongs # H430.  This means The true and supreme God.  If we look back at Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  This reference to God is also Elohiym.  We can say that Elohiym is the name for The Creator God.  In Genesis 7:16, it's the Creator God Elohiym who commands male and female of all flesh to enter the ark. 

Lord = יְהֹוָה Yehovah =  Strongs #3068.  This means (the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jeho-vah, Jewish national name of God:—Jehovah, the Lord. The personal name of God to the Hebrew people.  

This was the "A-HA" moment for me. A-HA -  The Lord closed the door.  The Lord, who made a Covenant with Noah to enter the ark.  We saw that in:  Genesis 6:18: "But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you."

Here, God, Yehovah, shows Himself to be The One who kept His covenant promise to Noah to enter the ark and be saved.   (Abraham, father of the Hebrew people, was later descended from Noah's son Shem).

Lesson 6 is all about the Covenant with Noah, so I'm looking forward to studying this more.

Death and Hades

As we've been studying Revelation this year so far, there's several mentions of death and hades.  I'm interested to see what else I can find out about this.  One of the inductive study methods is to list. 

1)  So let's start out by listing mentions of death and hades together in the Bible.

Revelation 1:18:

and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Revelation 6:8:

I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Revelation 20:13:

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

Revelation 20:14

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

The reason I'm intrigued about this is that I know I had seen death and Hades usually mentioned together.  What caught my attention was Rev 6:8 because it said Death was on the ashen horse and Hades was following him - as if they were two separate things.


2)  Word Study 

My next inductive study method is to go back to the Greek and see what we learn.  Let's go to Rev 6:8 and do a word study.  I use www.blueletterbible.org for this.

Death is Strongs number G2288. In Greek, the word is thanatos.   One of the definitions is  the death of the body.  And that separation (whether natural or violent) of the soul and the body by which the life on earth ended.  I think we all know what death means and do not need to explore that concept any further.

Hades is Strongs number G86.  The Greek word is Hades (the same).  And it's a noun - a proper locative noun - meaning a place.  One of the definitions is a later use of this word: the grave, death, hell.   i.e. "Hades" or the place (state) of departed souls:—grave, hell.   Another word that means the same is in the Old Testament in Hebrew is Sheol or Strongs number H7585.

At this point in my study of death and Hades, I would summarize it by stating that through physical death, people enter Hades.   Which is why Hades was following death in Rev 6:8.

3)  Cross Referencing:

Another inductive study method is to cross reference with other scriptures.  Scripture always confirms scripture.  So if we don't understand something, there may be another Scripture that explains it more fully.

 To explain this further, let's look at Luke 16:23: In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.  This is the story of the rich man being tormented in Hades on the hot side and he sees Lazarus also in Hades, but on the cool side.  So from these observations, we can say that Hades is the place where departed souls go after their physical death.  From other study that I've done,  In the Old Testament, all souls went to Hades.  There was a "cool side" and a "hot side" (as evidenced from this scripture above).  Those on the "cool side" were those who believed and had faith and looked forward to the coming of Messiah.   When Jesus was resurrected, He "cleaned out" the "cool side" of Hades and those souls were taken to heaven with Him.   Those on the "hot side" stayed there in torment.  Hades keeps enlarging itself to this day, to hold all those who had physically died without believing. (Isaiah 5:14).

Looking at the above verses again, refer to Rev 20:13.  It says that death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them and they (those in death and Hades) were judged.   This says to me that Hades is "cleaned out" of the souls of those who had died in their physical body.  They will be brought before the Great White Throne of Judgment to be judged.  Remember, as a Christ follower, you will not be judged.  You have been made righteous, once you have believed that Jesus Christ died for and paid the penalty for your sins.  You have been washed clean.

Let's look at the final scripture above - Revelation 20:14 -  we see that death and Hades are thrown in the lake of fire, which is the second death.  I believe this means that after this event, there will be no more death, no more hades.  Everything will be made new.  We can see this if we continue reading in Revelation 21, specifially Rv 21:4a:  and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death.

We can finish up this study of death and hades by looking at Revelation 1:18.  We see that Jesus alone holds the keys to death and hades.  Everything in Revelation is God's plan and Jesus is in control.  When we accept Jesus' offer of eternal life, we overcome the power of Hades and death, just like Jesus did.  (1 Cor 15:55).

Earthquakes in Revelation

We've been studying Revelation all year so far - 1 more full year to go.  As we've been studying, there are several mentions of earthquakes.  One of our inductive bible study methods is listing.  So I thought I would list out every mention of earthquakes and see what we learn about them.  Interestingly, there are only 17 direct instances of the word earthquake in the entire Bible:

1 Kings 19:11-12

So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.

(Note:  The wind, and earthquake, and fire, did not make him cover his face, but the still voice did.)

Isaiah 29:6

From the Lord of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.

 Ezekiel 38:19

In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.

(this seems to be a cross-reference to the same earthquake in Rev. 16:18)

Amos 1:1

[ Judgment on Neighbor Nations ] The words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders from Tekoa, which he envisioned in visions concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Zechariah 14:5

You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!

(these verses in Amos and Zechariah both refer to the same great earthquake that happened in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.  Archaeologically, they’ve found evidence of this earthquake in several places in the middle east and have dated it to 760 bc, which correslates exactly to the timeline of Amos the prophet.   There’s a really great website that explains this earthquake:  https://patternsofevidence.com/2019/01/20/biblical-quake-confirmed/)

Matthew 24:7

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.

Matthew 27:54

Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Matthew 28:2

And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.

(a strong earth shaking and movement occurred, done by an angel, which rolled the stone away from the grave of Jesus.  Jesus had been resurrected).

Mark 13:7-8

When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end.  For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

Luke 21:11

and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

(In the mark 13 and Luke 21 passages, these both refer to when Jesus spoke about the things to come.  This could be a reference to the same earthquakes that are described in Revelation).

Acts 16:26

and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

(An earthquake, in such circumstances, was regarded as a symbol of the presence of God, and as an answer to prayer.  See cross reference Matthew 28:2)

Revelation 6:12

[ The Sixth Seal—Terror ] I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;

 (the seals are God’s judgment.  It says later in verse 14 that every mountain and island were moved out of their places).

Revelation 8:5

Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

(this earthquake brought in the 7 trumpet judgments. )

Revelation 11:13

And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

(This happened after the 2 witnesses were raised from the dead and taken into heaven.  This event happens after the 6^th trumpet but before the 7^th trumpet).

Revelation 11:19

And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

(This happens after the 7^th trumpet is blown and before the bowl judgments).

Revelation 16:18

And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty....... verse ²⁰ And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

(This happens after the 7^th bowl judgment was poured out on earth.)

It seems, from looking at these verses, that earthquakes either represent God's presence or his judgment.   And looking at the ones in Revelation, I think about how intense they will be and that we really have no concept of how bad they will be.

In today's modern world, it seems that the instances of earthquakes have been getting more intense.  I found an interesting article that did a graph of this.  It is a graph of 5.0 magnitude earthquakes since 1900. https://ocean.si.edu/planet-ocean/seafloor/graph-magnitude-5-or-greater-earthquakes-1900-april-2011

From looking at the graph, one can clearly see how many more earthquakes there have been in the 2000's.  And we think about how many people have been killed by these quakes.  Most recently, the large quake and tsunami in Indonesia that killed 230,000 people.  But this will pale in comparison to the quakes that will happen in Revelation.  It will be much, much worse during the events of Revelation.  I cannot even imagine every mountain and island moved out of their place (Rev 6:12), or every island disappearing and every mountain leveled. (Rev 16:20).  Humans during this time will face horrifying hardships.  But to tribulation Christians during this time, they will have to remember that this time will be short (7 years) and Jesus will be returning quickly.

God is The God of second chances

We've been studying Revelation all year so far - 1 more full year to go. One of the things that's been hitting me is that throughout this book is that God keeps giving people chance after chance, to accept the reality that only through faith in Jesus Christ the Messiah, will you have eternal life with God in heaven.

Some people say and write that God is a God of wrath, violence and judgment.  But it's quite the opposite.  Throughout history, He shows his complete patience and love for us. 
"But God demonstrates his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8. 

God is always wanting us to turn to Him - to love Him and accept His Son, Jesus Christ as our Savior.  My mentor Karen says that God is a gentleman - He never forces Himself on us.  We have our own freewill to make a choice for Him.  But with our own freewill, there are consequences for not following God's Laws and accepting His free gift of eternal life.

God could have just wiped us all out at any time  -  time's up!  But He didn't.  Even during the endtimes and during the time of Revelation, God keeps giving us humans, more chances to turn to Him.  In the context of Revelation, here's what I see:

1)  He first directs John to write what is in the book of Revelation.  So that we would know the things which John saw, the things which are and the things which will take place after these things. (Rev 1:19).   We have the complete counsel of God in His Word  and in the book of Revelation.  We know what will happen.  Time is short.  He's giving us more time and chances to repent and turn - even before the events of Revelation chapters 4 through 22 start.

2)  Then the judgments start - first the seals, then the trumpets, then the bowls.  The seals are bad, the trumpets are worse and then the bowls - which are the worst of all.   With every judgment, there is more time to turn to Him.  People will know it is the wrath of God, yet they still will not turn to Him:

 Rev 6:16: "and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; ¹⁷ for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

Rev 9:20: "The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; ²¹ and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts."
 

Rev 16:21: "And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe."

We know from Revelation that there will be an uncountable multitude of tribulation saints who have been saved during the tribulation.

Rev 7:9:  After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 
Rev 7:14b: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

But we also know from Revelation that there will be an uncountable multitude who will not believe, even while Christ is reigning on earth for 1000 years.  Yet they won't believe.  Satan is released from his chains in the abyss and gathers people together to fight against the armies of God.  Rev 20:7-8: "When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, ⁸ and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore."

Humans are eternal beings - after our physical death here on earth, we will be in 1 of 2 places:

1)  With God and Jesus forever in heaven;
2)  In Hell, waiting for the great white throne of judgment, and then eventually into the lake of fire and brimstone and eternal punishment.  Rev 14:11: " And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."

Jesus says in Revelation that time is short.  He is coming quickly:
Rev 3:11: "I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown."
Rev 22:7: "“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”
Rev 22:12: “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.

Please my friends, do not wait to make the most important eternal decision of your short life here on earth.  Do not wait.  No one is assured of tomorrow.

Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord

I've been a Christ follower most of my life and sometimes, in the busyness of the holiday season, it's easy to get caught up and forget what Christmas is really about.  My mentor, Karen, says that every year she asks the Lord to show her something new during the Christmas season.  So I did that this year.  And He showed me something.

During the Christmas Eve service at our church, Pastor talked about the Christmas story.  It's found in the book of Luke:

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^{Luke 2:8-20:
8} In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; ¹¹ for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,  ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”  ¹⁵ When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”( O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!)

 ¹⁶ So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.


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I've heard and read this story hundreds ot time.  But I really started trying to put myself in the shepherds' place.  I imagined myself in the dark of the night in the fields, among the sheep, and then suddenly an angel in the light appearing and proclaiming the Messiah's birth.  Then the sky lit up with a multitude of heavenly host - all praising and worshipping God. 

At church, we sang "O come all ye Faithful".  I've sung this uncounted times, yet, this time, I really listened and read the words.  The song suddenly made sense to me in connection with the Christmas story.  This Christmas carol was written about the Christmas story in Luke.  Why had I never realized this before?

O come, all ye faithful

Verse 1:
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant	Call to the shepherds to see the baby Jesus.  But also a call to us – God’s faithful people
Come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.	Come to Bethlehem
Come and behold Him, born the King of angels	Come see Jesus was born
Verse 2:
True God of true God, Light from Light Eternal,	All descriptions of Who Jesus Is.  He is God!
Lo, he shuns not the Virgin's womb;
Son of the Father, begotten, not created;
Verse 3:
Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation;	Luke 2:13 – how the heavenly host appeared and started praising God
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!
Glory to God, all glory in the highest;
Verse 4:
See how the shepherds, summoned to His cradle,	Luke 2:15 – the shepherds went to see the baby Jesus.
Leaving their flocks, draw nigh to gaze;
We too will thither bend our joyful footsteps;	We, too, now, must humble ourselves before Jesus
Verse 5
Child, for us sinners poor and in the manger,	God Himself came to us , made flesh, who would eventually die for us, so we would live forever with God in heaven
We would embrace Thee, with love and awe;
Who would not love Thee, loving us so dearly?
Verse 6
Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;	Praise and adoration to Jesus, who was with God from before the beginning of creation
Jesus, to Thee be glory given;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.
Chorus:
O come, let us adore Him…..	Did you know that “adore” is nowhere in the Bible?  Yet it means to express reverence and homage.  To worship Him.
Christ the Lord.	Jesus Christ – the Messiah – God made manifest

 So we come to Bethlehem, not in a physical sense, but in a mental, spiritual sense.  We put ourselves in the Christmas story.  We reflect on the miracle of Christmas - that God Himself, creator, ruler, Alpha, Omega, no beginning or no end,  would love us so much that He would send Himself down in human form, sinless, to be a sacrifice for our sins, so that we could live forever with Him in heaven.

Have you accepted Christ as your Savior?  Do you accept the miracle of Christmas?