It's the fourth quarter

Revelation 11:15-19

When you’re at the top of your game, and it does not matter what the game is; it may be youth, or your beauty, or making money, being the CEO, the President of the United States, Speaker of the House, or an evil leader like Hitler, the Judge is coming, and you will stand before His judgment seat to account for your actions.  When the angel blew the seventh trumpet this is what John heard: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”  For it to have become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ, it is clear that the world was in someone else hands, before this event.  It is always wise to look at Scripture to see if God has opened a window of understanding for us, in Matthew 4:8 we have this account of the devil tempting Jesus in the wilderness after Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights; “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”  Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”  At no time in this encounter did Jesus tell the devil that it was not his to give, so John is seeing, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

If you had been an angel or one of the heavenly beings from the beginning of your creation, and had observed Satan destroying the lives of so many on earth, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for.  This is John’s report of what took place in heaven; “And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.  The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”  It’s like the fourth quarter and you have not put in your starting quarterback, everyone in the stands and even the other team knows that without him in the game, they win.  It’s down to the last minute and the coach says go in son it is time to regain our field, which is what is happening.  God is saying, it’s time Son, you’re going back to be the judge of nations, and of people and what they did with the knowledge and blessings I have given them.

This will be a time of blessing and curses for the actions of nations, and leaders, of kings, and of each person who has ever lived on this earth.  For all who have a relationship with Jesus Christ, it is beyond any words that I know, the joy of being in His presence.  For those who took the wide road, the road of self-destruction, there will only the reality of punishment.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice