Guest Blog written by: Ethan Pettigrew

Last summer our youth group went to StudentLife at Lee University. The music leader was Matt Papa.  Today on my way home from school I was taken back to that trip when I listened to his CD that I bought there.  My favorite song on there is “The Lord is a Warrior.”  In the middle of the song is a rap about Revelation 19.  Its amazing how I wasn’t at all thinking about the blog when I skipped to that song, yet now that rap is about one of the things that grasped my attention in today’s reading.

In Revelation 19:1-16, John gives the baddest (in a good way) description of a man that I have ever read or heard.  He looks up and sees this horse coming down from heaven.  On this horse is the man called Faithful and True.  He judges in righteousness and makes war in righteousness.  His eyes are flames of fire. FIRE!!!! He had a name written that none know.  His robe was stained with blood.  He was the Word.  Out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword that he used to strike down the nations. He’s going to shepherd the nations with an iron scepter and trample the winepress of God’s fierce anger.  Then John notices a name tattooed on his thigh and written on his robe. They read, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”
In this passage, John was describing Jesus on the day of his return.  Not that Jesus will need it to destroy his enemies, but His intimidation level when He comes back will be a 1,000,000,000 on a scale that tops out at 1.  Its no question of who will win that battle because behind Jesus were the armies in heaven following Him on white horses and wearing white linen.
After John describes the beauty of heaven, we see Jesus give us one final message.  He tells us that that whoever stays true to the Bible will be blessed and each of us will be repaid according to what he/she has done.  He is before everything and after everything.  The Word tells us that we have the right to the tree of life once we are cleansed.  But the most important thing he has to say, he says 3 times in the last 15 verses of the Bible.
“I am coming quickly.”
Jesus wanted us to remember that we can’t at anytime slack off or put our guard down.  He’s going to come back at a time that no one knows, not event the angels.  With every passing second we draw that much closer to His return.  If we return to our old ways for a blink of the eye, we could miss it.  That’s why the Lamb stressed this so much.  When we know we’re not going to see a loved one for an extended period of time, we tell them what we want them to remember most…that we love them.  Jesus knew that we wouldn’t see him for a long time and he told us what matters most, that we need to be ready. 
There are some people that don’t enjoy reading Revelation because it’s scary, and it is an uncomfortable book to read times, but why do we feel that way?  In a video I saw the other day, the speaker said that the reason we go back to our sin might be because we aren’t sure in our relationship with Christ.  And I agree with the speaker.  So maybe the reason we don’t like reading about the demise of Earth is because we’re afraid it’ll happen to us.  And maybe the reason we feel uncomfortable in sharing the Gospel is because we’re not sure if God’s friendship is enough.  To these thoughts, I say we must fix these problems immediately!  We have to be diligent and we have to be confident in Jesus because if we don’t share Jesus with people then they will be “the dogs” outside the city gates that meet the lake of fire and sulfur.  Jesus told us what we need to keep on our minds the most…
“I am coming quickly”   

Guest Blog written by: Charley Goode

I have such a fascination with Revelation and all the bizarre sights and stories that are found within these texts.  It’s amazing to have a little peak into the heavenly realms that we will not see untill the day we meet our maker.  One of my favorite sights to imagine and passages in scripture lies in Revelation 4.  Revelation 4 tells us the sight that John had when he walked into ‘The Throne room of God.’  It describes flashes of light and rolls of thunder.  I always believed that thunder and lightning were always signs of power and described as that, they are in the throne room of the Lord.  He then describes something like a sea of glass, like crystal.  How beautiful that must be.  Here we are given sights of beauty and of power, two words I’d say we could use to describe some of Jesus’ many qualities.  This is where it gets really interesting, John describes something he saw that is so bizarre, he says in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind stood.  One he says was like a lion, another like a calf, a third creature like a man, and the fourth, was like a flying eagle.  Like, what?  These creatures have eyes everywhere and look similar to a wide variety of creatures.  How odd is that?  He’s not done, he then sees 4 living creatures with 6 wings, and they too are full of eyes.  If I saw these things, I’d probably think they were evil and out to get me but, they are not evil at all, they probably weren’t even scary.  I say this because these animals were sitting before God singing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.”  I don’t think that I’d love to have eyes all over my body or look similar to a calf.  But, to be able to sit before the maker and profess that he is holy and he is and was and is to come, would be amazing.  I live in the hope that one day, I will be able to be in these heavenly realms and do just what these creatures do every day.  For me, this Bible reading wasn’t ever about looking good for others, or having bragging rights to say, “I’ve read through the Bible.”  This Bible challenge for me was a way for me to grow closer to my Lord and my Savior.  So one day I’ll be able to be just like these creatures. Sitting before my God telling Him how worthy He is of everything.  What a glorious day that will be.

Guest Blog written by: Colin Raynor

As some of you know I am a Junior at Francis Marion University.  I am a philosophy minor at a secular school.  I will admit it is tough being a believer in Christ in those classes.  They demand tangible evidence and have rules to follow to prove if something is true or false.  Today in class the question was posed, “How can a loving God let people go to hell?” I am not here to give a theological answer, but….  As Christians, we have all heard that question before and think in our minds what we will say to someone when it happens, but to me it was just something to chew on and not argue about.  So today while reading the scripture, it’s like God spoke to me in 2 Peter 3:9.  This is the only answer to a question of that magnitude.  It says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”  In my opinion, non-believers won’t understand and can’t understand that God is a just God, but is also a loving God.  As this passage says, it is His desire that ALL people will be with him one day.  For me I find comfort in that knowing God isn’t like us.  We as humans would say your not cool enough, or athletic enough to come to heaven.  What is awesome is that God longs for all to be with him.