When we exchange the lies of the world for the truth of the gospel we find freedom in a whole new way of living. It's not a life without boundaries though. We'll see how proper boundaries provide amazing freedom!

As John sees the end of all time the images get increasingly disturbing. Here the water is on fire and plagues are on the horizon and yet all of it is promised to bring us relief and aide in just the right time.

Today we look at the imagery of the end of the world from a 30,000 foot view. It's very low on detail and the next few chapters will unpack this picture with even more vivid imagery.

John here is painting the picture of the helpers that the dragon calls upon to accomplish his work. The two beasts have the same function but using different tactics. One will use the political system to lead us astray while the other will infiltrate the spiritual things of the world to mislead us to following the dragon.

The story of the shepherds is one of humility and grace. They didn't deserve or expect to hear the message from the angel. Their lives were totally changed after hearing this message of grace and hope. We can learn a lot from this shepherd's story.

John is going to describe the past, present and future realties all in one story of a woman, child, dragon and wilderness. We are the ones journeying in that wilderness. We are susceptible to the trouble yet not overcome by it.

Throughout the end times we'll see highs and lows, good times and bad, but in it all we'll see God providing for us as we remain reliant on him.

In our time through the book of Revelation things can be fairly daunting. We struggle with what all of this means and honestly it's hard to hear of some of these devastating events. This chapter gives us a brief pause from these events and shows us a little something different.

We often want to eliminate the sad and challenging parts in life. We want to get rid of tears and mourning and grief. We want the feelings of loss to go away forever. But what happens if those elements of sadness and loss are there to give us a better understanding of real joy?

A quick explanation of how the book of revelation is written and how we can understand it.