Tag Archives: Revelation

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Sherri Shepherd’s 7 years at ‘The View’ & the Mysterious Meaning of No. 7

Hello World,

If you have read a blog post or two here, you know I am a big fan of Sherri Shepherd. Yesterday, Sherri, co-host of ABC’s “The View,” officially addressed rumors that she was leaving the daytime talk show while on the show…

“You know I’m a woman of faith, and seven is the number of God’s completion,” she said, alluding to the amount of years she’s been on the ABC daytime talk show.

“I’ve been here seven years, and my time with ‘The View’ is complete,” Shepherd continued.

Read the rest of the article at: nydailynews.com.

Her mention of the number seven in her official announcement, which happened on 7/7/2014, got me thinking about the number 7 and it’s significance in the Bible.  The number 7 in the Bible often denotes entirety or perfection. God created the earth in seven days. Seven churches were addressed in Revelation. The walls of Jericho came crashing down after they were marched around seven times. Mary Magdalene was possessed by seven demons…And there are many more references to the number seven in the Bible.

And the number seven is significant in my life, I was born on the 7th day of September. The first I book I wrote (which was never published) is my Christian journey from 1996 to 2003. It was only last night that I realized I chronicled the first seven years of my walk with God. In 2003, I began trying to get a book contract and prepare myself to meet my husband, and seven years later, both dreams were fulfilled….

In other celebrity and seven news, Pastor Rudy Ramus of St. John’s United Methodist Church of Houston revealed that Beyonce’, a member of his church, donated $7 million to the church. Her sizable donation enabled 42 homeless men and women to have homes…See a video of Pastor Ramus speaking about her donation below.

So has the number 7 been significant in your life? Or do you not believe that numbers are significant?

Any thoughts?

 

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Sacrifice Ain’t Cheap…Romero’s Story

Hello World!!!

I hope all y’all are doing well…I’m not soo bad although from some of my posts, you may think that I’m a tortured soul ruminating on the deeper questions of life twice a week on this blog…uhh not really…I am blessed and lead a somewhat comfortable life…I am healthy…I have a supportive family that I see several times a week…I am employed in the profession that I was trained for in college…I have a vast network of eclectic friends that keep my social calendar pretty full…I am involved in organizations that bring meaning to my life…I could go on…but most importantly, I know that God is leading me and loving me although I am soo not worthy…(Good gracious, thank goodness I don’t always reap the consequences of my actions…His mercy endureth forever…)

So here I am counting my blessings and what not until I go to Bible Study last Wednesday…We watched a movie, “Romero,” which our Bible study leader explained to us is a good example of the type of climate that could have led to the writing of Revelation. The book of Revelation was written when “Christian churches, particularly those in the province of Asia, were going through a difficult time of social and economic pressure and even of persecution.” In Revelation, John recounts a series of visions he experienced designed to give comfort to the churches even as they were suffering for their faith…(I’m such a good Bible study student…) Our Bible study leader also explained that the movie was an example of liberation theology. Justo L. Gonzalez, who wrote the guide that we used to study Revelation, is a champion of liberation theology.

As I watched the movie, I was reminded of the famous quote, “When all is said and done, more is said than done.” Ain’t that the truth?! Thankfully, we in America are not called to sacrifice our lives in support of our faith or even our moral ideals very often…But in other countries, if you call yourself a Christian and are truly committed to the principles in the Bible, you may be subject to death. Here in this country, we go to church on Sunday, praise the Lord, drive home and eat our Sunday dinner with nary a thought of anyone “calling us on the carpet” for our beliefs. Shoot, we may even hook up a few business contacts at church…It just doesn’t have to be that serious…

In the movie, Archbishop Oscar Romero lived a somewhat comfortable life as a top bishop in El Salvador in the late ’70s. He was admired and revered, but he was also seen as a non-threat to the powers that be in El Savador at that time. During this time, the country was engaging in a civil war, and the government was against poor groups of people organizing and working to attain civil and other rights for themselves…sounds vaguely familiar, huh?

Other priests were actually disappointed that Romero was appointed to the position because they did not feel he would be involved in the plight of the poor. And at first in the movie, that is what happened. When he wasn’t conducting Mass and blessing babies, he was hobknobbing with the rich and powerful. When priests tried to tell him the government was sanctioning the murder of innocent poor people, he dismissed them. However, when one priest, Rutilio Grande, Romero’s friend, was killed, he realized that what he dismissed was true. He could no longer ignore the terrorism of the poor.

During the course of the movie, Romero witnessed the torture of other priests and was even ridiculed and jailed himself. He saw scores of people getting slaughtered and realized that many were forced to live in deplorable and inhumane conditions. And in the final scene of the movie, Romero, himself, was assassinated while he conducted mass – a true martyr for Christ. So here is a question I have for you and me too: Is faith worth sacrificing your life for? Right now, I say yes, but it has never been demanded of me either…And I pray to God it never will…

Any thoughts?

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The End of Death…The Beginning of Revelation!

Hello World!!!

At long last, my Bible study class has finished studying the book of Revelation. Months earlier, I blogged about my anxiety in reading the Bible’s final and likely most mysterious book. So what are my final thoughts…Revelation is not as scary and cryptic as I once thought…However, I’m not sure if it will ever be the first book that I choose to curl up in bed and read just before nodding off to sleep. But the final words of the book fill me with a strange sense of joy…First of all, death itself will be killed…

11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.

 13 And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

 14 And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire.

 15 And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.  Revelation 20:11:15

And as a result, death will not be a part of reality as it is in Earth…

3 And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God:

 4 and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.

 5 And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he saith, Write: for these words are faithful and true.  Revelation 21:3-5

 It is only these words that give me comfort as I have heard about so many deaths recently…Now if you’ve been living on this Earth for any time at all and are old enough to pay attention, you hear about death every.single.day. There is just no getting around it…people cry and people die…One my favorite poems succinctly and eloquently illustrates this principle…

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. 

Robert Frost

And speaking of Eden, according to what I’ve heard, Adam’s original sin is what caused death to enter this world at all. I cannot pretend to understand all of this…so I will let the theologians debate about that…but I do know that death is part of Earth’s reality…but I have faith that death will not be allowed to enter Heaven…

But it is with a heavy heart that I tell you about some of the deaths that have happened recently that have got me asking, “Why God? Why God is there so much pain?”

Last summer, I was touched when I heard about the death of Rev. Timothy Wright’s wife and grandson as a result of  a car crash. The gospel singer, his wife and grandson were traveling home from a conference. It struck me because that very same week my father,  mother and nephew were also traveling home from a conference, but nothing happened to them at all. Since then, I’ve been praying for Wright and his family….I cannot imagine such a tragedy. I read on Friday that Rev. Wright has now died. From what I’ve read, he never fully recovered after suffering injuries in the crash. This man was known for singing God’s praises…why was he and his family allowed to die this way…

If you live in the Atlanta area, you’ve heard about the car crash that happened on Easter Sunday in which Delisia Carter and her whole family were killed…Carter was an inspirational speaker who had been abused by her father and first husband but was finally living the life of her dreams. She had recently married her second husband, and she gave birth to their first child in February. Delisia, her husband, her daughter from a previous marriage, their son and another child all died in that crash…What a senseless tragedy…

Merciless bullying led to 11-year-old Jaheem Herrera hanging himself. Apparently, the children at his school here in Atlanta teased him because they thought he was gay and a snitch. His 10-year-old sister discovered his body…Now I know that teasing is a part of childhood…but what makes children continue to tease someone after they realize they are clearly traumatizing a child…I don’t know who raises these type of children, but there must be something going on their home life to create these little monsters…I was mercilessly teased as a child, but even if I hadn’t been a victim, it would have never occurred to me  to treat others that way…just plain mean-spiritedness…

At any rate, why did God allow these deaths to happen…I certainly don’t know, and it saddens me…but I have to hold on to my faith that one day death will be no more, and the answers to my questions will be revealed…

Any thoughts?

P.S. Here is one of Rev. Timothy Wright’s  most popular songs, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” which he wrote about the victims of Hurricane Katrina…