This calls for the endurance of the saints, who keep God’s commandments and keep faith with Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Favored are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they can rest from their labors, because their deeds follow them.” Then I looked, and there was a white cloud. On the cloud was seated someone who looked like the Human One. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Another angel came out of the temple, calling in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud: “Use your sickle to reap the harvest, for the time to harvest has come, and the harvest of the earth is ripe.” So the one seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested. Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. Still another angel, who has power over fire, came out from the altar. He said in a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle to cut the clusters in the vineyard of the earth, because its grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle into the earth, and cut the vineyard of the earth, and he put what he reaped into the great winepress of God’s passionate anger. Then the winepress was trampled outside the city, and the blood came out of the winepress as high as the horses’ bridles for almost two hundred miles. (Revelation 14:12-20, CEB)
The time has come and is now here and the earth was harvested.
And when the harvest was reaped the winepress was trampled and blood flowed as high as the horses bridle for 200 hundred miles!
That’s a lot of blood. And that calls for endurance.
Stay the course and do not let what is coming or what is happening deter you from saying what needs to be saying and being who God created you to be.
As I write this I think about a call I just got from a pastor at a local congregation, of a different denomination than mine, where I am playing for their 4th of July concert. He said someone came to him after our rehearsal and said that I had a pride flag on my bass case and he asked if I would make sure I didn’t bring that into the sanctuary on the day of the concert. I told him I usually kept my case backstage and would not bring the case into the sanctuary. But I looked at my case and I did not see a pride flag. I saw several things that probably made some blood boil in that congregation but no pride flag. Also, I will have in my rainbow earrings and my rainbow bracelet, and those have never been an issue, or I haven’t heard about them. But that is what we need endurance for. I will not remove the stickers from my case, because they are obviously making a statement, and I will not change who I am because someone doesn’t like it. This may be the last time I play in this church because of this and if so, that is their loss. We need to endure and stand up for those who do not have the rights and liberties the rest of us do. Endure. For the sake of love.
Loving People. Loving God.
aSacredRebel 