November 20, 2022 – John’s Writings – Choices and Consequences

Choices and Consequences

Ezekiel 25:1-7 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them. ³ Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Sovereign Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you said “Aha!” over my sanctuary when it was desecrated and over the land of Israel when it was laid waste and over the people of Judah when they went into exile, ⁴ therefore I am going to give you to the people of the East as a possession. They will set up their camps and pitch their tents among you; they will eat your fruit and drink your milk. ⁵ I will turn Rabbah into a pasture for camels and Ammon into a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the Lord. ⁶ For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet, rejoicing with all the malice of your heart against the land of Israel, ⁷ therefore I will stretch out my hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations. I will wipe you out from among the nations and exterminate you from the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the Lord.’”

What does the Lord tell Ezekiel to do to the Ammonites (verses 1 and 2)?

Whose word is he to tell them to “hear” (verse 3)?

What three things had the Ammonites said “Aha” about (verse 4)?

            1)

            2)

            3)

Who were the Ammonites to be given to (verse 4)?

When will the Ammonites know that “I am the Lord” (verse 5)?

What was in the Ammonites hearts “against the land of Israel” (verse 6)?

What will happen to the Ammonites (verse 7)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about the consequences of choosing God or choosing the world?

John 7:1-9 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. ² But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, ³ Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. ⁴ No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

⁶ Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. ⁸ You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

Where did Jesus move around (verse 1)?

Why did He not want to “go about” in Judea (verse 1)?

What festival was near (verse 2)?

Who told Jesus to “leave Galilee and go up to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do” (verse 3)?

How did they say that a person who wants to be a “public figure” should not act (verse 4)?

What did they think Jesus should show the world (verse 4)?

Who did not believe in Jesus (verse 5)?

In your opinion, what did Jesus mean by “my time is not yet here; for you any time will do” (verse 6)?

Why does the world hate Jesus (verse 7)?

What does Jesus say “has not yet fully come” (verse 8)?

Where did Jesus stay (verse 9)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about the consequences of choosing God or choosing the world?

In your opinion, how do Jesus comments about the world hating Him in John 7:1-9 help us understand the reason the Ammonites (relatives of the Israelites) celebrated the punishment that the Lord was bringing on Israel in Ezekiel 25:1-7?

1 John 2:28-3:10 – New International Version (NIV)

²⁸ And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

3 ¹See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ⁵ But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. ⁶ No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

⁷ Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. ⁹ No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. ¹⁰ This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

What does John say the “dear children” must do to have confidence before Christ when He comes (verse 28)?

What does everyone who does what is right have in common (verse 29)?

How are we called “children of God” (verse 1)?

Why does the world not know the “children of God” (verse 1)?

What has not “yet been made known” (verse 2)?

Who purifies themselves (verse 3)?

What is sin (verse 4)?

Why did Jesus appear (verse 5)?

How are those who live in Jesus transformed (verse 6)?

In your opinion, why does John issue the warning “do not let anyone lead you astray” (verse 7)?

Who is in the one who does what is sinful of (verse 8)?

What remains in the one “who is born of God” (verse 9)?

Who is the one “who does not love their brother and sister” of (verse 10)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about the consequences of choosing God or choosing the world?

In your opinion, what does the division of people into those who are children of God and those who are of the devil in 1 John 2:28-3:10 help us understand about the people of Ammon in Ezekiel 25:1-7?

In your opinion, how is the contrast between the world’s hatred of Jesus in John 7:1-9 and the love of the Father for His children in 1 John 2:28-3:10 enable us to better understand who we are as siblings of Christ in the eyes of the world?  In the family of God?

Revelation 9:13-21 – New International Version (NIV)

¹³ The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. ¹⁴ It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵ And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶ The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.

¹⁷ The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. ¹⁸ A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. ¹⁹ The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

²⁰ The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹ Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Where did the voice come from when the sixth angel sounded his trumpet (verse 13)?

Who did the voice want released (verse 14)?

In your opinion, what does it mean that they “had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year” (verse 15)?

What were they to do (verse 15)?

How did John know the number of the mounted troops (verse 16)?

In your words, how would you describe the horses and riders (verse 17)?

What killed “a third of mankind” (verse 18)?

Where was the power of the horses (verse 19)?

What did the “rest of mankind who were not killed by the plagues still” not do (verses 20 and 21)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage show us about the consequences of choosing God or choosing the world?

In your opinion, how is the punishment of Ammon prophesied in Ezekiel 25:1-7 and the prophecy of the events that occur after the sixth angel blows his trumpet in Revelation 9:13.21 similar?

In John 7:1-9 Jesus said that the world hates Him because He testifies that “its works are evil”; in your opinion are the sounding of the trumpet and horrors that follow in Revelation 9:13-21 a part of this testimony of Jesus? 

In your opinion, how do the acts of the people in Revelation 9:13-21 demonstrate which of the choices that John outlines in 1 John 2:28-3:10 they have chosen?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezekiel, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us how Christians fit in to the choose God versus choose the world equation?  (This can be a more complicated answer than a quick reading of the question will prompt)?

In your opinion, how can the Christian family, which is hated by the world, invite people who have chosen the world to choose Jesus?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

November 13, 2022 – John’s Writings – Accepting the Bread

 Accepting the Bread

Ezekiel 24:15-24 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁶ “Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears. ¹⁷ Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Keep your turban fastened and your sandals on your feet; do not cover your mustache and beard or eat the customary food of mourners.”

¹⁸ So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I had been commanded.

¹⁹ Then the people asked me, “Won’t you tell us what these things have to do with us? Why are you acting like this?”

²⁰ So I said to them, “The word of the Lord came to me: ²¹ Say to the people of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to desecrate my sanctuary—the stronghold in which you take pride, the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection. The sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword. ²² And you will do as I have done. You will not cover your mustache and beard or eat the customary food of mourners. ²³ You will keep your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep but will waste away because of your sins and groan among yourselves. ²⁴ Ezekiel will be a sign to you; you will do just as he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.’

Whose word came to Ezekiel (verse 15)?

What will happen “with one blow” (verse 16)?

What was Ezekiel not to do (verse 16)?

How was Ezekiel commanded to act (verse 17)?

What did Ezekiel do on the morning after his wife died (verse 18)?

Who ask Ezekiel “why are you acting like this” (verse 19)?

What is the Sovereign Lord about to do to His sanctuary (verse 21)?

How do the people view the sanctuary (verse 21)?

What will the people no do when their sons and daughters “fall by the sword” (verses 21 and 22)?

Why will they “waste away” even though they are not mourning or weeping (verse 23)?

What will the people know (verse 24)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how have people in this passage strayed from God?

John 6:60-71 - New International Version (NIV)

⁶⁰ On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

⁶¹ Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! ⁶³ The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. ⁶⁴ Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. ⁶⁵ He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”

⁶⁶ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

⁶⁷ “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

⁷⁰ Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” ⁷¹ (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)

After hearing about eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus, who said “This is a hard teaching.  Who can accept it?” (verse 60)?

Who said “Does this offend you?” (verse 61)?

In your opinion, what difference would it make to see “the Son of Man ascend to where he was before” (verse 62)?

What are the words that Jesus spoke to them full of (verse 63)?

What did Jesus know “from the beginning” (verse 64)?

Who can come to Jesus (verse 65)?

What did “many of his disciples” do (verse 66)?

Who did Jesus ask “you do not want to leave too, do you” (verse 67)?

What words did Simon Peter say that Jesus had (verse 68)?

Who was the devil (verses 70 and 71)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how have people in this passage strayed from God?

In your opinion, how are the people of Jerusalem that Ezekiel told “the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to desecrate my sanctuary—the stronghold in which you take pride, the delight of your eyes, the object of your affection” and the disciples who found Jesus’s teaching hard and left Him in John 6:60-71 alike?

1 John 2:18-27 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

²⁰ But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. ²¹ I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

²⁴ As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is what he promised us—eternal life.

²⁶ I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. ²⁷ As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

What have the “dear children” that John is writing to heard (verse 18)?

How does John say that “we know it is the last hour” (verse 18)?

Where did the antichrists go out from (verse 19)?

What would they have done if “they had belonged to us” (verse 19)?

What anointing do the “dear children” have (verse 20)?

Where can “no lie” come from (verse 21)?

Who is the liar and the antichrist (verse 22)?

Who acknowledges the Father (verse 23)?

What has Jesus promised us (verse 23)?

How are believers taught (verse 27)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how have people in this passage strayed from God?

In your opinion, how are the people who took delight in the Lord’s sanctuary in Ezekiel 24:15-24 similar to those who go out from believers but then deny that Jesus is the Christ in 1 John 2:18-27?

In your opinion, what does 1 John 2:18-27 help us understand about how the Father “enabled” disciples to come to Jesus in John 6:60-71, and also enables us today?

Revelation 9:1-12 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. ² When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. ³ And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. ⁴ They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. ⁶ During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

⁷ The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. ⁸ Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. ⁹ They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰ They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. ¹¹ They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

¹² The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.

What was the star given that fell from heaven when the fifth angel sounded his trumpet (verse 1)?

When did smoke rise “like the smoke from a gigantic furnace” (verse 2)?

What was darkened by the smoke (verse 2)?

What power were the locusts that came out of the smoke given (verse 3)?

Who were the locusts allowed to harm (verse 4)?

How long could they torture them (verse 5)?

What will people seek and not be able to find during that time (verse 6)?

In your words, how would you describe the locusts (verses 7 through 10)?

Who was the king over the locusts (verse 11)?

What is yet to come (verse 12)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how have people in this passage strayed from God?

In your opinion, how is wasting away of the people of Jerusalem because of their sins in Ezekiel 24:15-24 like the people of Revelation 9:1-12 who do not have “the seal of God on their foreheads” and seek death but can’t find it?

In your opinion, how are the decisions that people are making about God in Revelation 9:1-12 similar to the decisions that Jesus’s disciples made in John 6:60-71? 

In your opinion, how is the anointing received by the believers in 1 John 2:18-27 similar to the “seal of God on their foreheads” that protected some people during the first woe in Revelation 9:1-12?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezekiel, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about how accepting the “hard teaching” that Jesus is the bread of life for ourselves can change our understanding of what is happening in the world around us?

In your opinion, how can we acknowledge Jesus in our lives today?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

November 6, 2022 – John’s Writings – Loving God Forever

 

Loving God Forever

Ezekiel 24:1-14 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ In the ninth year, in the tenth month on the tenth day, the word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, record this date, this very date, because the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day. ³ Tell this rebellious people a parable and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“‘Put on the cooking pot; put it on
    and pour water into it.
⁴ Put into it the pieces of meat,
    all the choice pieces—the leg and the shoulder.
Fill it with the best of these bones;
⁵     take the pick of the flock.
Pile wood beneath it for the bones;
    bring it to a boil
    and cook the bones in it.

⁶ “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“‘Woe to the city of bloodshed,
    to the pot now encrusted,
    whose deposit will not go away!
Take the meat out piece by piece
    in whatever order it comes.

⁷ “‘For the blood she shed is in her midst:
    She poured it on the bare rock;
she did not pour it on the ground,
    where the dust would cover it.
⁸ To stir up wrath and take revenge
    I put her blood on the bare rock,
    so that it would not be covered.

⁹ “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“‘Woe to the city of bloodshed!
    I, too, will pile the wood high.
¹⁰ So heap on the wood
    and kindle the fire.
Cook the meat well,
    mixing in the spices;
    and let the bones be charred.
¹¹ Then set the empty pot on the coals
    till it becomes hot and its copper glows,
so that its impurities may be melted
    and its deposit burned away.
¹² It has frustrated all efforts;
    its heavy deposit has not been removed,
    not even by fire.

¹³ “‘Now your impurity is lewdness. Because I tried to cleanse you but you would not be cleansed from your impurity, you will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided.

¹⁴ “‘I the Lord have spoken. The time has come for me to act. I will not hold back; I will not have pity, nor will I relent. You will be judged according to your conduct and your actions, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

When did the word of the Lord come to Ezekiel (verse 1)?

What else happened on “this very date” (verse 2)?

Who is Ezekiel to tell the parable to (verse 3)?

In your opinion, what is the meaning of the parable (verses 3 through 5)?

Where did the “city of bloodshed” pour the blood it shed (verse 7)?

Where will the Lord pour “her blood” (verse 8)?

How will the Lord pile the wood (verse 9)?

Why will the pot be put “on the coals till it becomes hot and its copper glows” (verse 11)?

When will Jerusalem “be clean again” (verse 13)?

How will Jerusalem be judged (verse 14)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what can we learn about the consequences of our choices in this passage?

John 6:53-58 - New International Version (NIV)

⁵² Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

What were the Jews arguing sharply about (verse 52)?

What did Jesus say the Jews would not have if they did not “eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood” (verse 53)?

Who has eternal life (verse 54)?

What will Jesus do for those who have eternal life on “the last day” (verse 54)?

In your opinion, why does Jesus say “for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink” (verse 55)?

Where will the one who eats the flesh and drinks the blood of Jesus remain (verse 56)?

Where will Jesus remain (verse 56)?

Why does Jesus live (verse 57)?

Why will those who feed on Jesus live (verse 57)?

What is the difference between the “bread that came down from heaven” and the manna (verse 58)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what can we learn about the consequences of our choices in this passage?

In your opinion, how are those who refused to be cleansed in Ezekiel 24:1-14 and those who refuse the bread from heaven similar?   

1 John 2:12-17 – New International Version (NIV)

¹² I am writing to you, dear children,
    because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
¹³ I am writing to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
    because you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁴ I write to you, dear children,
    because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
    because you know him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
    because you are strong,
    and the word of God lives in you,
    and you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Why is John writing to the “dear children” (verse 12)?

Who do the fathers know (verse 13)?

What have the young men done (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what is the same for the children, the fathers and the young men (verses 12 and 13)?

Who do the “dear children” now know (verse 14)?

Who do the fathers still know (verse 14)?

What is added to what the young men know (verse 14)?

What is not in the one who “loves the world” (verse 15)?

Where does “everything in the world” come from (verse 16)?

Who “lives forever” (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what can we learn about the consequences of our choices in this passage?

In your opinion, what does 1 John 2:12-17 help us understand about the people that Ezekiel is writing to in Ezekiel 24:1-14?

In your opinion, how is the transformation of the “dear children”, fathers and young men in 1 John 2:12-17 a result of the choice to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus as presented in John 6:53-58?

Revelation 8:1-13 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

² And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

³ Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. ⁴ The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. ⁵ Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

⁶ Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.

⁷ The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

⁸ The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, ⁹ a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰ The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— ¹¹ the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

¹² The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

¹³ As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”

What happened in heaven when the seventh seal was opened (verse 1)?

Who was given the “seven trumpets” (verse 2)?

What was the angel with the golden censer given to offer (verse 3)?

What went from the angel’s hand and up before God (verse 4)?

In your opinion, why are the “prayers of all God’s people” presented to God before the bad things started to happen on the earth?

What did the angel do with the censer after he filled it with fire from the alter (verse 5)?

Who prepared to sound the seven trumpets (verse 6)?

What happened when the first angel sounded the first trumpet (verse 7)?

Where was the “something like a huge mountain” thrown (verse 8)?

What was the name of the star that fell on “a third of the rivers and on the springs of water” (verse 10)?

When did a third of the day and a third of the night become “without light” (verse 12)?

Why did the eagle cry “Woe! Woe! Woe!” (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what can we learn about the consequences of our choices in this passage?

In your opinion, how are the woes to the “city of bloodshed” in Ezekiel 24:1-14 similar to the sounding of the trumpets in Revelation 8:1-13?

In your opinion, will the terrible things that happen when the trumpets sound in Revelation 8:1-13 have any effect on the promise of Jesus from John 6:53-58 that whoever feeds on His flesh and drinks His blood has “eternal life” and that He “will raise them up at the last day”? 

In your opinion, how is the statement in 1 John 2:17 that “the world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” beginning to be fulfilled in heaven and on earth by what in revealed in Revelation 8:1-13?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Ezekiel, John, 1 John and Revelation teach us about what is eternal and what is not?

In your opinion, how can we move from troubles to loving God forever?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)