THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO ST. JOHN

Chapter Nine

THE FIFTH TRUMPET: Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the Earth. It was given the key for the passage to the abyss. It opened the passage to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the passage like smoke from a huge furnace. The Sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the passage. Locusts came out of the smoke onto the land, and they were given the same power as scorpions of the Earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the Earth or any plant or any 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 torment them for five months; the torment they afflicted was like that of a scorpion when it stings a person. During that time these people will seek death but will not find it, they will long to die but death will escape them.

The appearance of the locusts was like that of horse ready for battle. On their heads they wore what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, and they had hair like women’s hair. Their teeth were like lions’ teeth, and they had chests like iron breastplates. The sound of their wings was like the sound of many horse-drawn chariots racing into battle. They had tails like scorpions, with stingers; with their tails they had power to harm people for five months. They had as their king the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in the Greek Apollyon.
The first woe is passed, but there are two more to come.

THE SIXTH TRUMPET: Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the [four] horns of the gold altar before God, telling the sixth angel who held the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the banks of the great river Euphrates.” So the four angels were released, who were prepared for this hour, day, month and year to kill a third of the human race. The number of cavalry troops was two hundred million; I heard their number. Now in my vision this is how I saw the horses and their riders. They wore red, blue, and yellow breastplates, and the horses’ heads were like heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. By these three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths a third of the human race was killed. For the power of the horses is in their tails; for their tails are like snakes, with heads that inflict harm.

The rest of the human race, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, to give up the worship of demons and idols made from gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic potions, their unchastity, or their robberies.

One time, when I was still living in Pacific Heights, and I was so very ill with a bad flu, I did not want to miss some important Sunday on the Christian calendar, one of the big Feast Days, but I cannot now recall which? I dragged myself over to the nearest Church with my generous supply of tissue in my coat pockets... And the nearest Church was St. Luke's, the Anglican Church, and a beautiful one at that! And I went there because I was so weak and so ill that I knew not to try to make it all the way over to St. Mary's Cathedral in my condition!

And this is no slam on St. Luke's per se, but I sat in the very back pew all alone so as not to bother anyone and was not going down for Communion anyway, so I was fine back there... or so I thought? But this woman with a little girl, who were only two or three pews ahead of me, this woman called over an usher and told him that I was making them nervous. So he came back to see what I was all about and to let me know that I was bothering people with my presence there. And I said that I was very ill but wanted to make this Church Feast Day, and that I was too ill and weak to make it all the way to my own Church, so I came there that day.

But I had to leave because my presence and look of illness was a bother to other worshipers. So I returned home, with a broken heart and to bed!

What did Jesus say? "Whatever you have done unto the least of these My brothers, who have also done unto Me."

Also posted at: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/115609

This is a prayer that is similar to the one that Evangelists use to get Sinners Saved from their sins and onto the Jesus Path:

Dear Lord Jesus,

I know that I am a sinner, and that you died on the cross and shed your blood for my sins, to wash them all away and to make me as white as snow in my heart.

Thank you for saving me and for making me a new person! Amen!

Dear Father God,

I have received your son Jesus as my own personal Saviour, now I ask you for the infilling of your Holy Spirit as a baptism of your presence and love, so that I can be as holy and as fervant has the Apostles who founded your Church through the power of the Holy Spirit so very long ago!

In Jesus' name I pray, Amen!

Now if you have prayed these prayers, you should seek out a priest, a pastor, a minister, or other Christian who is willing to baptize you with water so that everyone will know that you are now a new person in Jesus the Lord! And join a church!

Streams in the Desert represents the blessing of grace that keeps you going in time of need or when things are rough. I have been in many 'deserts'... thank God for those streams that kept me going when times were rough!

I remember in my early ministry days when Brother Ed and I showed up at a scene in the night where a husband and his wife had been quarrelling and he took a shotgun after her and in front of their children and grandmother, shooting her and then falling onto his shotgun and blew off his face. It was all very sad and very messy. And I am not making light of it at all.

But there is more to this story...

I was a good looking young man, and a Christian who had just been 'discipled' for ministry life, and while Brother Ed was speaking with the family but left me near the body and emergency persons (firefighters and EMTs) who had been called to the scene, and that week had just been Gay Pride Week, with a parade and all...

So the emergency people, who were all men as I recall, started asking me if I wanted to kiss the body who had no face, and asking if that ruined my love life, and things like that, and they were being so cruel to me, and without reason.

Yes I was a good looking young man, if that meant anything to them? And yes, our city had just celebrated Gay Pride Week and with a parade and all; but what that or kissing a corpse without a face had to do with that or with me I will never know!

When Brother Ed returned to tell me what we were to do next, leave or whatever? I told him what the firefighter's and EMTs were saying to me and telling me to do, and he said to simply ignore them because they were obviously ignorant.

Streams in the Desert for me is that my life has been filled with many such experiences of viewing tragedy or of being misunderstood and abused, but God's abundant grace has always been there for me!

THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO ST. JOHN

Chapter Eight

THE SEVEN TRUMPETS: When he broke open the seventh seal, there was silence in Heaven for about half an hour. And I saw that the seven angels who stood before God were given seven trumpets.

THE GOLD CENSER: Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne.
The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with burning coals from the altar, and hurled it down to earth. There were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS: The seven angels who were holding the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

When the first one blew his trumpet, there came hail and fire mixed with blood, which was hurled down to Earth. A third of the land was burned up, along with a third of the trees and all the green grass.

When the second angel blew his trumpet, something like a large burning mountain was hurled into the sea. A third of the sea was turned to blood, a third of the creatures living in the sea died, and a third of the ships were wrecked.

When the third angel blew his trumpet, a large star burning like a torch fell from the sky.
It fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The star was called “Wormwood,” and a third of the water turned to wormwood. Many people died from this water, because it was made bitter.

When the fourth angel blew his trumpet, a third of the Sun, a third of the Moon, a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them were dark. The day lost its light for a third time, as did the night.

Then I looked again and heard an eagle flying high overhead cry out in a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth from the rest of the trumpet blasts hat the three angles are about to blow!”