Poem - I praise you

Lord,

I praise you for all Creation,
I praise you for the sunshine,
I praise you for the butterflies,
I praise you for the starfish,
I praise you for the octopus,
I praise you for the ocean surf,
I praise you for the salmon swimming upstream,
I praise you for the mother bear and her cubs that leave
I praise you for the jaguar in the tree,
I praise you for the lemongrass tea,
I praise you for the coconut palm on a beach,
I praise you for the stars at night,
I praise you for the bars of light,
I praise you for the rainbows so bright,
I praise you for the milk so white,
I praise you for the cry of a newborn,
I praise you for the smile of a toddler,
I praise you for the laughs of a child,
I praise you for joy and laughter
I praise you for the warmth of summer,
I praise you for the snow of winter,
I praise you for the leaves of autumn,
I praise you for the flowers of spring,
I praise you for the first light at dawn,
I praise you for the first step of a fawn.

I praise your heavenly hall
I praise you, Lord, most of all.

James 1

Who was James?  I believe it was James, half-brother of Jesus.  Another James, son of Zebedee, was the first Apostle to be martyred.  (Acts 12:1-2)

James writes to the entire church.  He does not seem to write in response to a particular problem.  Rather, he has general advice and wisdom for the church.

His advice in chapter one:

Rejoice in trials, for this leads to perseverance and maturity.

When we ask God in prayer, pray without doubt.

Blessing comes from following the word, I.e. walking the Christian walk.

"True religion" is action oriented - helping the widows and orphans and not being polluted by the world.

The final chapter of the Bible (Revelations 22)

The Bible concludes by first discussing a river of life in the New Jerusalem.  This water flows out of the throne of God.  On each side of its banks are the tree of life, which ties it to the beginning of the Bible in the Garden of Eden.  So, in at least one way, the Garden of Eden is reestablished.  

Verses 7-21 give urgency for people to hold on to the faith that Jesus is returning "soon".  What is "soon"?  We do not know.  Certainly soon to us is not exactly the same thing as soon to God.

Likewise, the people who hear the message are urged to wash their robes.  Revelations explained that this metaphor means to wash oneself in the blood of Christ.

Looking back at Revelations, it began with 7 messages to 7 different churches.  I wonder what their reaction would have been to the rest of the Revelations.

New Jerusalem (Revelations 21)

John sees a new heaven and a new earth.  A New Jerusalem also descends from the sky.  

To John, it appear as a brilliant beautiful city where the gates are made of single pearls.

The description of it reminds me of Ezekiel's vision of the temple.

1,000 years, resurrections, and the lake of fire (Revelations 20)

This chapter is strange.

Satan is bound in the Abyss for 1,000 years.  Then, he is freed and gathers an army.  Fire from the sky falls and consumes them all.  They then are thrown in the same lake that the beast and false prophet went into.

A central question is what to make of these 1,000 years.  Is that before or after the return of Christ?  Christ "returns" several times throughout Revelations, making a chronological sequence based on the order we find in the Revelations itself impossible.  

I think there are generally two accepted, but vastly different ideas of the Millennium.  

Literal (pre-Millennialist)  - the return of Christ will usher in a Millennium of peace accompanied by these various resurrections and judgments of people.  However, the text seems to suggest that the return of Christ will be after the Millennium.

Metaphorical - the Millennium stands as a metaphor, like much of the rest of what Revelations discusses.  One possible extrapolation is that the Millennium is the reign of the church in between Christ's victory on the cross and the ultimate return.  The binding of Satan in the abyss could also be a gradual process as the church and Kingdom of God expand across the earth until the ultimate return of Christ.

Finally, the chapter does speak of resurrections of the dead, when people receive whole bodies before final judgment.  

It distinguishes them into two groups, the first resurrection and the second.  (20:4-5).  One is before the start of the thousand years, the second after.

Christ's victory (Revelations 19)

Expounding the victory of Christ actually begins in Chapter 18 with the fall of Babylon.

The first part of Chapter 19 continues this theme with praise for the destruction of Babylon.

The Chapter then transitions to the man on the White Horse.  Verses 11-16 identify this individual as Christ, who has now become a composite of two images we saw before.  Earlier, we saw a White Horseman who was only described as a Conqueror, in contrast to three other Horsemen who caused death of people.  (6:1-2).  We also saw Christ ablaze with a sword in his mouth.  (1:16).  Here in 19:11,15, we have a composite of the two images as White Horseman has a sword coming from his mouth.

Using Revelations to interpret itself, this is why I think the earlier White Horseman from the first seal opening represents Christ.

What does this White Horseman do in Chapter 19?  His sword kills everyone who is aligned with the beast and the false prophet.  However, the beast and false prophet are captured and thrown into a fiery lake.  The text does not precisely specify who does this action since it is in the passive tense.  We can contextually infer that is the White Horseman that does this.

Finally, birds gorge on the flesh of everyone who has died.

Yikes.  I am not entirely sure what to make of the bird imagery. 

Babylon is destroyed (Revelations 17-18)

An angel comes and celebrates that Babylon is destroyed.  Another voice calls from heaven for the people to come out of Babylon.

This is a strange analogy.  I am not entirely sure what is going on here.

Taken literally, the destruction of Babylon happened centuries before the life of Christ.  Likewise, the return from the exile of Babylon happened centuries.

However, Revelations 17:5 links Babylon with the great beast emerging from the sea.  So, we can contextually infer that the angel is celebrating the destruction of the beast of chapter 17 and the sea beast took on a role analogous to that of Babylon.

Beyond that, I think it is hard to say what is going on without adding our own thoughts into the text.  From my own speculation, since I think the sea beast represents human governments at war with Christianity, chapter 18 celebrates a time when that will no longer happen.