We were created and given life by our Father God. HIS Heart’s Desire is for us to receive HIS Love, & to know all of the things about why and for what we have been created/given life. HE knew we would have rebellious tendencies from being born into a world infected with sin, & being tempted by HIS enemy (&ours) to snatch us away by entangling us with viral sin being deceptively weaved throughout our mind & heart->ultimately kidnapping us and holding us for a ransom price no one on earth could ever pay. This is why, before time began, Almighty God’s Heart for us planned to save us from sin, & even free us from it’s piercing talons that without God’s Saving Provision would hold onto us FOREVER. Almighty God knew the only POWER & AUTHORITY that could pry the piercing talons of sin off our lives and eternally pay our ransom from being kidnapped by sin was HIS RIGHTEOUS POWER & HIS RIGHTEOUS AUTHORITY...HE knew that HE has the only “CURRENCY” that could pay the full ransom for our lives, forever! That “CURRENCY” is the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross at Calvary that proved to be the only TRULY ETERNAL CURRENCY when Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven to sit on HIS Throne. On that Throne in Heaven, after all temporal time & things have passed away & FOREVER begins, is where Jesus says in Rev21:3-4, ”Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men (&women), & HE shall dwell among them, & they shall be HIS people, & GOD Himself shall be among them, & HE shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; & there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the old order of things has past away.” The Old Order of Things includes everything that sought to kidnap us from EVERYTHING that GOD’S AWESOME SELFLESS LOVE desires for us-> all the exhilarating joy and fulfillment that our Father God desired for us to have from the moment HE gave us life will be for those who have trusted in Jesus fully paying our ransom. Jesus continues in Rev21:5-7, ”....Behold,I am making all things new...It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning & the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost .He who overcomes (through trusting nothing but Christ->”the spring of the water of life”, to pay our ransom) shall inherit these things, & I will be his GOD & he will be my son (or daughter).” When Eternal Heaven begins, when all things temporal pass away, we who have trusted in Christ will fully delight in being God’s sons & daughters forever. Dear Lord, I do not think enough nor dwell enough on the reality that I am Your little boy! Because of this lack, I constantly act & think like a rebellious son that has little to no respect for You. I praise You for the eternal value of Your Mercy & Grace that continues to open the way for me to turn around and come back to be Your little boy that wants nothing but to know I am loved by You, and to live loving YOU.

It is said that we tend to think and act like we will live forever. Truth is, we will! And what we choose to REALLY BELIEVE in this life will determine our “forever life”! What we REALLY BELIEVE is revealed by how we think and live in our daily comings & goings, & what we do in the secret places of our heart & mind. George Barna wrote a book called “Maximum Faith” several years ago that stated less that 5% of those claiming to be Christian have lives that would reflect that  they REALLY BELIEVED the Words of Christ/and The Gospel of Christ, & thereby “convict them” of truly being Christians!. As humans we can have a disconnect with what we claim to believe and what we LIVE BY - what we truly worship/what we truly believe! We can say we believe in lots of things, but what we TRULY BELIEVE IN is revealed by what we think, what we do, and what we plan for. These reveal what is TRULY in our hearts...what we have chosen to occupy our heart! When every person to be born has been born, & Satan, the beast, & the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire & brimstone in forever torment, we will all be judged by Almighty God “according to our deeds” to determine where we will live forever->Revelation20:7-15,”...& the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire & brimstone...And I saw a great white throne and HIM who sat upon it....And I saw the dead, the great and the small before the throne...& the dead were judged...according to their deeds”. God is not saying that we will judged to see if our good outweighs our bad. HE is telling us that the only thing that will save us from the same judgement as the devil is our grabbing onto HIS Gift of Mercy through Christ, just as the one thief on a cross next to Jesus grabbed on to God’s Mercy through Christ just moments before he died. This thief had no time to do more good so he could “outweigh” all the bad he had done in his life....he did take a last opportunity to grab on to Jesus’ Gift of Mercy as his last breath approached, and his last actions and words were true indicators of him grabbing Jesus’ Gift and planting IT forever in his heart. The LORD says that it is what’s in our heart that matters. HIS judgement is Righteous & Just because HE looks to see what evidence there is in our lives that indicate what is truly in our hearts->whether or not we truly grabbed the free gift of God’s Mercy through Christ and took HIS Mercy into our heart,& made THIS GIFT the new CORE of who & what we are, or not. If we do, this GIFT slowly changes us from the inside out, as this GIFT grows, just as a seed grows into crop as it takes root and is nourished, watered, & protected. The thief next to Jesus had no time for much growth, but the time he did have were overwhelming evidence of HIS Belief in/Faith in Christ alone for his eternal salvation! These verses in Revelation 20:7-15 call us to be mindful of what our lives/our deeds indicate as to what is truly residing in our hearts. Is the Seed of God’s Spirit & Word living & growing in my heart? Or is the way I am thinking and living indicating that there is something in my heart challenging the Seed of God’s Spirit & Word in my life? Dear Jesus, I know for certain there are many things in the way I think and live that indicate there are things in my heart that do not line up with Your Word, nor Your Spirit. Thank You for the patient way You offer to help me with these, & I pray for this help, & I praise You for Your Spirit’s Help, & Your never failing Love and Patience with me. I pray for my heart to have the seed of YOUR GOSPEL grow so that everything I think, plan, dream, and do is changed more and more to be as YOU would think, plan, dream and do in my life…

After seeing the overpowering TRUTH of God’s Glory overcoming evil In Revelation 17:14, & then hearing the VOICE of God call for HIS people to come out from the influence of Babylon/Evil, there are still hoards of people that cling to their past riches ;pleasures; lusts; status; & things...so much so that instead of rejoicing because of God’s offer of Mercy & Grace to be saved from evil, they want to cling to their past stuff->Rev18:9-20,”...the kings of the earth...will weep & mourn...& the merchants of the earth weep & mourn because no one buys their cargoes....& the fruit you long for has gone from you....they threw dust on their heads & were crying out...woe the great city..all who had become rich by her...in one hour...has been laid waste...”! Their perspective on life has stayed in the temporal, where all things they value are never going to fulfill them with the kind of joy and peace that are ROCK SOLID through Christ alone, and these things they are valuing eventually all fade away! Their values are those that are built on the shifting sand that Jesus talks about in Matthew7:24-27 (“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”)! When we don’t build our days/live on a foundation of The Words of The Lord (as Jesus says,”words of mine”), we likely building our days/lives with the same stuff that these people in Revelation 18:9-20 had....,and instead of rejoicing over the Mercies & Graces God displays for us each an every day through Christ, we will have the same discouragement and long faces that these people had when things don’t necessarily go our way, or challenges come into our lives that threaten our pride; our status; our temporal security system; etc. In other words, we will have none of the STABILITY in our lives that only Truly Trusting in God’s Word can bring. Jesus promises STABILITY in the verses from Matthew above! WHEN we take to heart what HE says about taking HIS Words to heart and making them an integral part of who we are and how we live. Dear Lord Jesus, I know that many pieces at the foundation of my life need to be replaced by the SOLID ROCKS of Your Word...guide me to these places...and help me to permanently cement them into my life.

Almighty God gives us not only second chances, but HE gives us opportunity after opportunity to come to our senses and see the light of ABSOLUTE TRUTH, & The Light of HIS Glory revealed to us through Jesus Christ! Even though God knows who will ultimately receive The Mercy & Grace of Christ that is offered to everyone, GOD is persistent & perseverant in HIS pursuit to save all from the eternal torments of sin. In Revelation 17 GOD could’ve made that PERSONAL confrontation with evil the final “one and done” battle for all eternity! But HE gives the people another opportunity to consider what they just witnessed when HE wins the first war waged against HIM by just giving the enemies a peak at HIS Glory when HE just shows up at the war. The people saw that no forces gathered against Almighty God have any power nor authority that can even muster a real eternal threat against THE TRUTHS of Who & What HE is! Even though kings and nations see this, they STILL refuse to turn to The Lord because they are so “drunk with the wine of passions”->Revelation18:1-3, ”After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.” The people have become so drunk from their passions for things that make them “feel good” temporarily and never fully satisfy, & never truly bring them authentic joy & peace...that they still turn away from the TRUTHS about The Lord...even though HE just defeated all the things they have trusted in by just revealing a small bit of HIS Glory! God has always, & will always show us HIS Mercy & Grace in the midst of every war we will ever face, & grant us an opportunity to turn our lives over to a TRUST in HIM & HIS Ways versus those of the world->Revelation18:4,”I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;” !In our lives The Lord’s still small voice will always call out to us to save us from  from the temptations we are susceptible to, & into a vibrant relationship with HIM that is the only source of real joy & real peace that can save us from all the calamities and despair around us....and give us AUTHENTIC PEACE & AUTHENTIC JOY. Dear Lord,I know that I still have sections of my heart that are “inebriated” by worldly passions; desires; thoughts; motives; etc. THANK YOU for Your patience and perseverance with me. I pray for Your Spirit and Your Word to continue opening my eyes to these things and helping me to be forthright and honest with You about them...so I may have Your help in correcting these one by one in my life.

Revelation 17:14 says that “These will make war with the Lamb (Jesus Christ), & the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; & those who are with Him are called, chosen, & faithful.” This is the first of three final wars that Satan has been setting up for since he was thrown out of Heaven. God’s Word is clear about Satan’s ultimate demise, yet in his arrogance Satan denies the TRUTHS of God’s Word, even though every move he makes is declared in God’s Word! You would think when Satan has seen for thousands of years the fulfillment of every prophecy the Bible has revealed about Jesus, and what has continually unfolded throughout history that is God revealing Satan’s strategies...that Satan would come to his senses. Especially when more and more of what the Bible foretells is being “checked off” as TRUE throughout every moment of every day. You would think that over thousands of years of this, Satan would change his ways! But no! Satan has let his pride & his feelings getting stomped over the years build up a hardness & stubbornness that has further fueled his evil wickedness...and his evil & wicked desire to deceive humankind into succumbing to our personal pride; our personal arrogance; our selfishness; & what we think versus what God says! Satan actually thinks that this preparing to “wage war against the Lamb” has the potential to topple WHO GOD IS by deceiving an overwhelming number of the worlds kings and their kingdoms to agree with Satan and his ways & his lies. BUT all God does is SHOW UP at this battlefield and The Lord of lords & King of kings overcomes everything Satan can muster. The Awesome Lord of lords & King of kings just “shows up” in HIS Glory and all of HIS enemies are “overcome” by HIS Glory, while those that have chosen to honor HIM by seeking & following HIM are “WITH HIM”! After this, in later chapters, it is almost as if God gives Satan 2 more opportunities to change his ways. BUT Satan’s pride; arrogance; selfishness; & deception has obviously made it a forgone conclusion that he will never turn from his own lying and denying ABSOLUTE TRUTH/GOD’S WORD! You see, God has given all creation HIS WORD for our GOOD. Denying IT’S TRUTHS is really nothing but our pride; our arrogance; & our selfishness being used against us by the Enemy that wants to gather us to wage war against The Lord of lords, & King of kings for a battle that those not WITH HIM will ultimately lose! Dear Lord of lords , & King of kings...I pray for You to teach me more and more about Your Ways and Your Love for me..& I pray for YOUR WAYS AND YOUR LOVE AND YOUR TRUTHS to change me from the inside out, so that I may be always “with you, & called chosen & faithful”!