What is the response of homosexuals and lesbians to anyone who says that homosexuality is a sin? They simply say this person is filled with hate; he or she is a homophobe; he or she hates homosexuals. Someone said this is like the Surgeon General’s putting this warning on each package of cigarettes: “Warning: Smoking may be dangerous to your health.” What did this prove? It proved only that the Surgeon General was a smokophobe and that he hated everyone who smoked cigarettes (James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe).
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96 A MAJESTIC VISION

96 A MAJESTIC VISION F O O T ================================

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READING

96 A MAJESTIC VISION

PRAY ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.’ Help me to worship you as you deserve. —————————————————————- READ Revelation 4:1-11. —————————————————————- THINK Try to write down how you feel after reading the words of chapter 4. —————————————————————- FOCUS A tapestry has two sides: there is the front, which everyone sees, and which tells a story in pictures. But if you look behind, at the reverse side, you see a confusion of different coloured threads with no shape or design at all. The Christians to whom John was writing must have felt that life was like the reverse side of a tapestry; evil powers were active in the world and Christians were being persecuted for the faith, and nothing made sense. So the Lord says, in effect, ‘I will show you the proper side of the tapestry of history – the scene in heaven, where god’s rule is supreme and his will is perfectly obeyed’. If we are sometimes tempted to wonder what is really going on in the world, we should remember that we can only see the reverse side of the tapestry; but there is another side, and that is where the meaning is to be understood. 1. GOD ENTHRONED (1-6). The twenty-four ‘elders’ probably represented the whole ‘church’, the total people of God (twelve Old Testament patriarchs plus twelve New Testament apostles). They are seated as victors already – and so, in a sense are all Christians (Ephesians 2:6), even though we may be suffering on earth. 2. GOD WORSHIPPED (7-11). The four living creatures can be taken to represent the whole of creation. If we see the world of nature as it really is, we see it as full of the life and power of God. —————————————————————-

PRAY Meditate upon verse 11 and then make it your prayer today.