Good mornin' everybody!...My Christian brothers & sisters, the irresolutors & the heathens!, how is everyone today on this fine, beautiful, Friday the 10th day of June?...I'm fine myself thankyou!

Let me start today with the Lord's prayer. For you irresolutors & heathens, feel free to join in. Ok let's bow our heads and pray.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.----Matthew 6:9:13

Praise the Lord Almighty!!

The Book of Amos

The author was Amos, written probably during the reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah (between 760 and 750 B.C.)

Amos was not someone normally considered prophet material. He was a shepherd and a sycamore-fig farmer, not an educated priest or a religious servant. But Amos was faithful to his calling, and he delivered God's message to the people. Amos was a contemporary of the prophets Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah. Like Hosea, he directed his message mainly to the northern kingdom of Israel. although he himself was from the southern kingdom of Judah. Amos begins his prophecy by pronouncing judgment upon the surrounding nations; then the prophecy focuses on Israel itself. Amos denounced the injustice, corruption, greed, and false worship that were running rampant in Israel. Amos's prophecy continues with a series of visions, and the book ends with the expressed hope that Israel will heed these warnings.

Praise the Lord Almighty!!

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Like ghostly spectres, the Four Horsemen pf tje Apocalypse appeared to the apostle John in vision at the close of the first century A.D. What do these four horsemen really represent? Were they merely a vivid nightmare of the elderly John's imagination? Or are they a living prophecy soon to unfold in our generation? Here is how Jesus Christ himself revealed the true meaning---for our day, right now---of the four mysterious riders of the book of Revelation!

The first five words of Revelation reveal two vital keys to understanding the book: that Jesus Christ is the Revelator; and that this book is a revelation. Ignoring these vital keys, men have viewed the 'revelation" as the opposite: a hidden, closed, cryptic, sealed document contrived from the angered and elderly mind of the apostle John in prison on Patmos.

The reason is clear: men have not let the Bible interpret itself! Turn to the inscription below the title of Revealation in your own Bible. It says, "The Revelation of St. John the Divine" in most versions. Men added those words! God's Word starts out by saying the direct opposite of man's words. If men cannot even compose the title correctly, it is no wonder they are confused with the contents! Because of this confusion among Bible scholars, the average Christian has assumed the the word apocalypse---the Greek word for "revelation"---means a hiden, dark, cryptic message of doom. In truth, "revelation" means just what the dictionary says, "the act of revealing; the disclosing to others of what was before unknown to them."

In the case of the book of Revelation, the "others" to whom truth is "disclosed" are "his servants" (Rev. 1:1), and the One who is able to REVEAL is Jesus Christ.

Interpretations of the Bible are plenteous. Millions of words of human thought about the Apocalypse have been written over the last 19 centuries. Most of these efforts have fallen far short of the truth. Notice the question asked by a "strong angel...with a loud voice" in Revelation 5:2. He asks, "Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?" Who has the right, the privelage?

The answer is that no one "in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon" (Rev. 5:3). If the book was thus closed to understanding, how then was it to be "revealed"? "Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book" (verse 5). Only Jesus Christ is "worthy" to interpret the book of Revelation---specifically the "Four Horsemen" which represent the first four of the book's seven sealed messages? How does the Bible interpret itself?

By parallel prophecies. Since Christ is the Revelator, we must turn to his own words as recorded in the scriptures. Since the Apocalypse is a prophecy of the future ("...things which must shortly come to pass..."), we must turn to the prophecies---future predictions---as Jesus himself spoke them.

The "Olivet Prophecy" is the longest and most pivotal prophecy uttered by Jesus Christ on earth. The apostle John himself was there---on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem, some sixty years previous to his experience on Patmos---when Christ gave his followers the signposts of his Second Coming and the end of man's government. It is the same time setting as the book of Revelation.

The book of Revelation is an expanded description in vision of the same series of events described in capsule news-brief format by Jesus in Matthew 24. There we find Christ's own revealing of Revelation, his very own words.

Good mornin' everybody!...My Christian brothers & sisters, the irresolutors & the heathens!, how is everyone today on this fine, beautiful, Saturday the 11th day of June?...I'm fine myself thankyou!

Let me start today with the Lord's prayer. For you irresolutors & heathens, feel free to join in. Ok let's bow our heads and pray.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.----Matthew 6:9:13

Praise the Lord Almighty!!

The Book of Obadiah

The author was Obadiah, date written uncertain, perhaps shortly after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

Often the most painful betrayals come from those who are closest to us. At least this was how Obadiah felt about the Edomites' attack on Jerusalem. In this short book, Obadiah foretold Edom's doom for treacherously plundering Jerusalem after its fall to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother, and so they were related by blood to the Israelites. Of all the people, the Edomites should have come to Jerusalem's aid. Instead, they took part in the destruction and gloated over Jerusalem's demise. The Edomites had failed to realize that their survival depended upon their humility before almighty God, not upon their "invincible" mountain fortress.

Praise the Lord Almighty!!