Yesterday as I traveled back from San Diego, my first flight was delayed because of mechanical problems and I missed my connection in Dallas. My second flight was into a storm, and we circled around Nashville skimming the thunderheads for an hour before the pilot found a little window through which we could land. I’ll have to say that I was nervous and prayerful. But we made it safely, praise the Lord.

My son-in-law Ethan is being crammed into cargo planes as he slowly makes his way home from Iraq. My daughter Victoria is on her way to Jackson, Mississippi, with half her kids (the other half are with Katrina and me). And our daughter Grace and her family are in Florida on vacation, and traveling later in the week to Roan Mountain for a few days.

As so many of us are on the road, I’m reminded of an old phrase once widely used among Christians: “Traveling Mercies.”

Let’s bring it back. Some of these old phrases from prior generations are still apt for us in the 21st Century. May the Lord grant us all “traveling mercies.”

Psalm 121 is called the Traveler’s Psalm.  It ends with the words: “The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”

God, grant it.

What a great writer is Jan Karon. But my favorite book by her is one she didn’t write and which, I suspect, has not received adequate attention. It’s a compilation of her (and Father Tim’s) favorite quotes, entitled A Continual Feast. Here are some samples I pulled from the book in the general category of thanksgiving, attitude, and contentment.

To live content with small means; to see elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common – this is my symphony. – William Henry Channing, clergyman & reformer (1810-1884)

Remember this—that very little is needed to make a happy life. – Marcus Aurelius

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has – Epictetus

Read quietly, slowly, word for word to enter into the subject more with the heart than with the mind. From time to time make short pauses to allow these truths time to flow through all the recesses of the soul.
–Jean-Pierre de Caussade, 18th-century French mystic

Here is something that I wrote for Turning Points Magazine that summerizes how I feel about the Word of God

What a remarkable book is the Bible. It’s just the right length — long enough to tell us all that God wants us to know, yet short enough to carry in our hands. Its verses are deep enough to puzzle scholars, yet simple enough for children to memorize. It’s the food of the soul.

The Bible as infallible in telling us about fallible people. It’s as high as the highest heavens, but as down to earth as David’s adultery, Noah’s drunkenness, or Paul’s argument with Barnabas. Without sugarcoating its heroes, it shows us how to live extraordinary lives as pilgrims in this world.

Though timeless, it’s timely. Though written over a span of ages, its message is consistent and cohesive. It’s without error, but it shows us our errors and helps us correct them. It reveals us the holiness of God, the mercy of Christ, the power of Calvary, the way to heaven, and the life that wins. It contains all the answers we need even when we don’t always understand the questions.

What a remarkable book is the Bible!

Here are my teaching notes from Revelation 8. You can search my journal for similar notes on the first seven chapters of Revelation as well.

Introduction: This afternoon my daughter Grace sent an e-mail about her five-year-old Elijah. Last night he had come to her bed about 4 a.m., in tears, saying that his stomach hurt and asking her to pray with him that he would feel better. She did so. A few minutes later, he came in again holding a small trash can and crying, “It didn’t work, the praying didn’t work.” Well, we all feel that way sometimes; and it’s true that sometimes the Lord says No or Wait. We have examples of “unanswered” prayer in the lives of Abraham, Moses, Paul, and Jesus. But the Lord has promised to answer all our prayers in His own way and timing, and Revelation 8 gives us one of the Bible most vivid pictures of our prayers and God’s determination to answer them.

Review: We can easily do a “thumb review” of Revelation. Just thumb through chapters 1-7. Chapter 1 is the opening vision of the glorified Christ.  Chapters 2 and 3 are the messages Jesus had to John’s congregations. Chapters 4 and 5 take us to heaven and show us the convocation of worship that will herald the events leading to the Second Coming of Christ. Chapters 7 and 8 give us the “seven seals” that launch the judgments of the Great Tribulation. Now in chapters 8 and 9, we have the next series of judgments or catastrophes, signified by seven trumpets. These judgments will essentially destroy a third of the world.

Verse 1: Silence represents reverenced awe. Habakkuk 2:20 says, “The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.” This is like the silence in a courtroom before the sentence is spoken. It is a silence of shock and awe, of dread and foreboding. This must be the only time in history when heaven is silent. Until now, heaven has been continuously ringing with the voices of ten thousand time ten thousand angels. So far in Revelation, we’ve had hymn after hymn, song after song. Heaven and earth has vibrated with rafter-rousing praise. But suddenly every voice is silent and every instrument is stilled, and for half an hour no one makes a sound. You can hear a pin drop as a new series of judgments are about to be unleashed on earth. One commentator described it as ominous anticipation. Another as the lull before the storm. Suddenly the blast of a trumpet breaks the silence and we come to the trumpet judgments of chapters 8 and 9.

Verses 2-5: Seven angels are dispatched to bring these judgments; but there is another delay as the prayers of the saints still alive on earth are delivered to the throne like incense in a container. In the Bible, incense is symbolic for our prayers ascending heavenward. The suffering saints are no doubt praying heavenward for deliverance and help and for judgment on those who are so evil and oppressive. In response to these prayers, the Lord takes the incense container, fills it with judgment, and hurls it to the earth. This is one of the most vivid pictures – maybe the most vivid picture – in the Bible of answered prayer. As the incense contains collides with the earth, it produces a massive global thunderstorm and an. And that sets into motion the next seven judgments.

Verse 6: The trumpet judgments begin.

Verse 7: The first in this series of cataclysmic events is a supernatural storm that descends on the planet raining hail down from the sky like machine gun bullets and filled with lightning strikes and fire. The Lord has used this plague once before, on Egypt in Exodus 9:22-26 (although the plague in Exodus 9 as only a mild preview of the one in Revelation 8).

Verses 8-9: This appears to be an asteroid that collides with earth, splashing down into the ocean somewhere. We’ve seen scenes like this acted out in movies, but this will be for real. It will contaminate a third of the ocean water. If you think the Gulf Oil spill is bad, just imagine if a third of all the seas and oceans in the world were contaminated. (Note another similarity with the plagues of Egypt—the water being turned to “blood”).

Verses 10-1: Another heavenly body, maybe a meteor, falls on the earth and contaminates much of the world’s fresh water.

Verse 12: Here we have frightening anomalies in the sky. It may be that the asteroid and/or meteor attacks create a sort of nuclear cloud.

Verse 13: The last three judgments are going to be so severe there’s a special announcement about them. This is delivered by an eagle flying through the sky. This might be a cherub, for they are described as having the face of an eagle in Revelation 4:7.

Conclusion: There is an alternate interpretation to this chapter and I’m inclined to think it may be true. While these trumpet judgments might represent asteroids and meteors and supernatural judgments from God as I’ve indicated above, it’s also possible that chapter 8 gives us a modern, scientifically-accurate picture of nuclear war. Read back through the chapters. Hurling objects falling from the sky on sea and land. Widespread contamination of the seas and fresh water. Sunlight being obscured and blotted out. Though the world never conceived of a global nuclear war until 1945, this chapter gives us a vivid picture of such an event. In my own mind, I wonder if the best interpretation of this passage is as a nuclear war that breaks out between nations during the Tribulation. Recently Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned, “The greatest danger to Israel, to the Middle East, and to all of humanity, is the encounter between extremist Islam and nuclear weapons.”  The highly respected editor-at-large of United Press International, Arnauld de Borchgrave, when asked if the world is more dangerous today than at the height of the Cold War, replied with a “resounding yes.”  He said, “Nuclear terrorism, unthinkable during the Cold War, is now the most immediate fear of the experts.” The world is preparing for the return of our Lord!

During a recent flight, I sat beside a man from the Department of Defense who was stationed in Key West. Among other things, he helps monitor the flow of illegal drugs from Mexico and Latin American into the United States. He also coordinates with his counterparts in central Asia. He told me that drug enforcement agencies are stopping about seven percent of the illegal drugs flooding into our country from the south.

Here’s the interesting thing. And according to his assessment, the war in Afghanistan is largely about the drugs that are flowing into Europe at unstoppable rates. So…

• In America, millions of people are living under the influence of illegal drugs from Latin America
• In Europe millions are doing the same on drugs coming from central Asia, especially Afghanistan. 

“The West has become its own worst enemy,” he said, “and things are getting worse.”

It wasn’t a very encouraging conversation, but it made me realize the priority of our Gospel mission to this sinking culture – and of the power of Christ alone to do anything about it.

 When I was a boy, my mother used to sing, “There’ll be bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover.” I never dreamed I’d have a chance to hike along those cliffs, along with my son-in-law, Eric Olsen. From the edge of the cliffs you can gaze over the English Channel and see the coast of France, and the scene of the famous Miracle of Dunkirk. But this is not a hike for childen — or for the faint of heart.

  There’s a curious message from God in Isaiah 22:15-24. It’s addressed to a palace steward named Shebna, who was apparently spending a lot of time and money building a magnificent burial plot for himself. The Lord said, “Go, say to this steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace: What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave at this height…Beware, the Lord is about to take firm hold of you….”  The lintel of this very tomb is in the British Museum. The picture is above and the explanation is below.

Also notice:

• The size of the slingshot balls excavated from Old Testament Israel, reminiscent of David.
• The reed pitched basket from Egypt, reminiscent of the small ark that held baby Moses.
• The golden wine goblet dating to the general days of Nehemiah, who was the king’s cupbearer.
• Artifacts from the ancient Hittite Empire. For years, critics said that there were no such tribes as the Hittites and that the Bible was mistaken. Now you can go to the British Museum and see evidence that the Bible was right all along.

  Want to see an actual picture of a biblical character? It’s engraved on the Black Obelisk at London’s British Museum. The portrait is of Jehu, who was anointed King of Israel at the direction of the prophet Elijah. In 1 Kings 19:16, the Lord told Elijah, “Anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel.” In 2 Kings 9, Elijah sent his associate to fulfill the command.

It didn’t take long for the newly-crowned King Jehu to start killing people, including wicked Queen Jezebel (2 Kings 9:30-37). But in 841 B.C., Jehu surrendered himself as a vassal to Assyrian King Shalmaneser III. King Shalmaneser commemorated his victory by directing that a small monument be carved out of black limestone. This Black Obelisk was discovered in 1845 and taken to the British Museum where it’s now displayed in Room 6. The Black Obelisk shows rulers in their national dress bringing tribute to the victorious Assyrian ruler. The kneeling figure is Jehu – an actual engraved picture of a biblical character, an old testament king with ties back to the propht Elijah.

  There’s a small object in Room 55 of the British Museum that’s overlooked by many tourists who don’t understand its biblical significance. It’s the clay cylinder of Nabonidus.

In Daniel 5, King Belshazzar was terrified to see a hand, writing on the wall of his banquet hall in Babylon. In anguish, he called for Daniel and said, “If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom” (Daniel 5:16). Daniel didn’t care for the honor, but he did interpret the writing. In response, verse 29 says: “At Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

But that night, the Persian King Cyrus defeated Babylon and the Babylonian Empire came crashing down.

Many scholars derided Daniel and used this story to attempt to disprove the Bible. Why third highest, they asked? Why not in second place? Furthermore the Persian inscriptions report that Cyrus defeated King Nabonidus. There was no mention in secular history of a king named Belshazzar. To top it off, there is no mention of a king named Nabonidus in the Bible. Critics claimed that Daniel was in error.

Then in 1854, J E. Taylor was excavating in Southern Iraq when he found a set of small clay cylinders – time capsules – that had been prepared at the request of the Babylonian King Nabonidus. On one of these cylinders, Nebonidus asked for a long life and for good health for himself and for “Belshazzar, my firstborn son, the offspring of my heart.”

Nabonidus spent most of the rest of his life on an oasis in northwest Arabia, and Belshazzar remained in charge of things in Babylon as co-regent and acting king. Thus there was a king named Belshazzar after all, the biblical and secular histories merged perfectly, and all Belshazzar could offer Daniel was third place in the kingdom.