Today, two pictures caught my eye. They seemed to go together with a common theme. Change is the topic and understanding it is paramount to living in the 21st century. Check out the list in the first picture and compare it to what your life was like before you discovered the opposite sex. If its radically different, then you are probably a "baby boomer", if not, maybe "Generation X". If you have no difficulty in deciphering the binary calendar, then just classify yourself as a geek and deal with it. there are times when not being able to recognize something is a very good thing and the chapter from Revelation is a good example...
World English Bible: Revelation of John Chapter 12
[1] A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. [2] She was with child. She cried out in pain, laboring to give birth. [3] Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns. [4] His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. [5] She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God, and to his throne. [6] The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred sixty days.
[7] There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war. [8] They didn’t prevail, neither was a place found for him any more in heaven. [9] The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. [10] I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. [11] They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death. [12] Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time.”
[13] When the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. [14] Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, so that she might be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. [15] The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. [16] The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon spewed out of his mouth. [17] The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep God’s commandments and hold Jesus’ testimony.
One of my favorite blogs is "right truth" and last week they had a most provocative post about how government is controlling more and more of our lives and will approach Tyrannical status in the near future. From where I sit, its already there, with the EPA, IRS, INS and ATF exerting excessive control in most of our lives. As bad as these agencies are, they are nothing compared with the power the early Christians faced with the authoritarian government of the Roman Empire. Its no wonder that Revelation is couched in the prophetic symbolism of the Hebrew Prophets. If the Romans understood what was really being said, they would have radically increased their efforts to exterminate every last Christian. Its hard for those of us from the 21st century to understand Revelation, because to really get it, you have to adjust your thinking from literal to figurative, but once you do, bingo. Rome loses, Christians win. Its just that simple!!! I may never truly understand the 21st century, with all its new ideas, but I get that Christians win. Just don't ask me to convert it to binary and put it into a timetable calendar!!!