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December 29 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
2 Plays41 seconds ago
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Today we will continue reading the Book of Revelation with Chapters 18:1-18, 21 and 19:1, 4-16, and 19-21. We will also read Matthew 6:19-33 in relation to Revelation 18.
Today we will read and discuss the symbolism that Babylon has in Revelation. Babylon is the way of the world that focuses on materialism, buying more and more things, and the love of money and things. In contrast, we read in Matthew 6 Jesus telling us not to store up for ourselves treasure on earth, where it simply does not last, but rather, store up for ourselves treasure in heaven, where it will last forever. God eventually brings judgment on the world's way and warns His people to come away from Babylon so that they will not sin with her or have the troubles she will have. Jesus warns us in Matthew 6 that we cannot serve both God and money. We need to choose who we will serve.
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose of Session
00:00:03
Speaker
Hello, hello, everybody. Today is December 29th. My name is Robin. I'm with In the Family Way Coaching. And together we are here for our daily Bible reading through the Day by Day Kids Bible, written by Karen Henley.
00:00:18
Speaker
I am so glad that you are joining me again, whether you are following along on the podcast or whether you are watching the video. I hope that you are enjoying this event just as much as I am. And I want to invite you to continue to listen along with me next year. We're going to be having ah different topics as relating to our spiritual growth.
00:00:39
Speaker
I am an appreciative Christian coach, and so I am going to be utilizing those skills to help us in the goal of creating lasting spiritual lifestyle changes, which is what we've been actually doing this whole year by learning about our daily application in the Bible.
00:00:59
Speaker
It shows us how we can use everything that we learn about each day and how it's always relevant.
Gratitude and Spiritual Growth
00:01:05
Speaker
So we're going to be talking about things and i am going to be encouraging the use of a gratitude jar. I am going to be putting together a gratitude jar and i will ah be sharing that with you in the next day or two and encouraging you to start one of those because we want to be growing gratitude in 2026 or whatever year you are listening to this the following year.
00:01:33
Speaker
We are looking to grow gratitude. It's become really evident ah to me that people like people in my family, I'm very frustrated with. And that's because there is a lack of gratitude. When we are grateful, it changes our attitude so that we are not so upset about things. We are not unhappy about things.
00:01:58
Speaker
And I want us to remember to grow gratitude this year. so I'm going to be putting together a gratitude jar. And I'm going to have those available where if you'd like, you can purchase one preset up from my website or you can make one on your own.
00:02:15
Speaker
You just need to get some kind of a container, like a 32-ounce mason jar. Now, I find these on Amazon. You can Amazon a gratitude a type of thing like a journal. A journal, I think, is a little too much.
00:02:30
Speaker
There's too much to do in that. It implies a big project. But when you have a little card that looks like a business card, and you're just dropping it into a jar or a box,
00:02:43
Speaker
and you do it every single day, then it's, I have not found one like that. I've only found like 52 weeks. So there are like 52 cards.
00:02:55
Speaker
This jar is going to have 365 cards so that you write something you are grateful for every single day. Because I think that if you are only doing something once a week, you can forget and you may have too many things. But when we focus on the fact that gratitude needs to happen every single day, that's where we build the habit of growing gratitude.
00:03:22
Speaker
And so I really want to encourage that in the coming year. And so I am putting together a gratitude jar. So i was out shopping today for cardstock that I will be cutting into business card size. And I'm going to be using as a temporary, ah well, as my example, I should say, not temporary, but as my example, just a glass mason jar. It's actually not even a mason jar. It's just one I picked up at Walmart and I chose that one. It's a 32 ounce jar because it has no writing on it
00:03:53
Speaker
Mason jars have writing on them. Ball jars have writing on them. And I don't want anything to detract from my gratitude jar. So I actually found some plastic ones that look exactly like the glass jars with no writing on them.
00:04:08
Speaker
And I really like those. and So I have found those in quantity. I'm not sure about individual. So I'm going to be putting those together and I will be showing that to you in the coming day or two when I have a chance to get around to building all of that and putting it together. And then I want to encourage you, even if you make your own, to make sure that you put something that you are grateful for every single day. Okay.
00:04:34
Speaker
Now, I know people do this, and they we usually do it like once a week or whatever time period they use. And then they make it a custom that on December 31st, they pull out that jar and they open it and they read through the cards that are in it.
00:04:52
Speaker
Now I know 365 is a lot, but we're looking to grow a lifestyle change. And so in order to build a good habit, we need to do it a lot.
00:05:05
Speaker
So that's why I'm encouraging you to do this on a daily basis. And then you will have a beautiful jar where you have grown gratitude. And each card is like a seed that you are planting.
00:05:19
Speaker
So I hope that you are excited to see and hear about that. And I hope that you accept that challenge as we go forward into the next year and will join me for our continuing podcast next year.
Reflection on Revelations
00:05:32
Speaker
So before we get going in our reading today, let's take out our calendar. What's left of it anyway. i enjoy saying that. but And let's get ready to cross off our day today because we are about to hear the Bible.
00:05:47
Speaker
We are going to be picking up in Revelations chapter 16, 17.
00:05:56
Speaker
i think we did 17 yesterday. I have so many numbers in my head. 18 and 19 today. And we are going to be seeing more about...
00:06:08
Speaker
Babylon. Now we touched a little bit on Babylon regarding her golden cup that she was holding. And the golden cup that Babylon was holding is filled with blasphemies, which is bad things to say about God. And it was full of all the dirty, ugly things that she had done.
00:06:27
Speaker
And we talked about how we touched a little bit on how Babylon in ancient times was always a very troublesome place. And so it is actually a symbolism in Revelation for world commerce.
00:06:44
Speaker
Commerce is the buying and selling of things. Just like today, back in what we would might say biblical times, it was still very common for people to be concerned about acquiring material items.
00:07:02
Speaker
People wanted more things. This was this is not a new problem. This is not a new temptation. This is not a new sin. And so what we are seeing is actually the destruction of the world economy.
00:07:20
Speaker
God is not pleased with how the world focuses on materialistic things and trying to amass wealth for one another, ah for oneself, I should say, not one another, but to amass wealth, to to accumulate wealth for ourselves. There are all these books about how to think about money, how to make the most money. Everything we do is money, money, money, money. money and That is contrary to what Jesus teaches us in Matthew chapter 6.
00:07:52
Speaker
And so that's what we are going to be seeing today is we're going to contrast what Jesus taught us in Matthew chapter 6 versus what the world economy is like and what God is going to do in his judgment of it.
Teachings on Materialism and Spiritual Focus
00:08:07
Speaker
We saw a little bit of that judgment yesterday, and we're going to see what happens in that judgment today. So before we do, let's look at Matthew chapter 6, starting with verse 19.
00:08:22
Speaker
Jesus is speaking, and he's actually just given us the Lord's Prayer in this chapter. And then he goes on to say, Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
00:08:44
Speaker
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. And why do we want to do this? Why is it important?
00:09:00
Speaker
Jesus tells us, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
00:09:11
Speaker
The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore, if your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your body will be full of darkness.
00:09:25
Speaker
If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! He explains by telling us that no one can serve two masters.
00:09:39
Speaker
For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stick by one and look down on the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
00:09:53
Speaker
So Jesus says to us in verse 25, Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear,
00:10:06
Speaker
Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? Just look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your Father in heaven feeds them.
00:10:21
Speaker
And are you not of more value than they are?
00:10:26
Speaker
Skipping down and going into...
00:10:32
Speaker
Well, we'll go ahead and add it. Yes, down to verse 28. Why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
00:10:43
Speaker
They don't work or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
00:10:55
Speaker
Now, if in this way God clothes the grass, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith?
00:11:08
Speaker
Therefore do not worry, saying, What will we eat? Or what will we drink? Or what will we wear? For the people who do not believe in God eagerly pursue all of these things.
00:11:21
Speaker
Yet your Father in heaven knows that you need all these. And here is the takeaway as well. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, which means all of the right things to do.
00:11:37
Speaker
And all of these things shall be added to you.
00:11:44
Speaker
So we're going to be seeing that in contrast, where in Revelation today also, we are warned to stay away from those things because we don't want to be contaminated with the things of Babylon.
00:11:59
Speaker
And we are also going to be reading, as I mentioned yesterday, about the great battle and that Jesus wins the battle. I didn't want us to forget about that, but that is not our daily application. We know that he is going to win. We have definitely talked about that. But to today's daily application is to not be materialistic and to not be concerned with the things of the world because those things do disappear.
00:12:29
Speaker
What does not disappear is our treasure in heaven, nor our eternal life.
00:12:38
Speaker
So with that frame of mind, frame of reference, let's head into our reading today.
00:12:46
Speaker
Then another angel came down from heaven, and his brightness lit up the earth. He shouted with a strong voice.
00:12:57
Speaker
He cried, "'Fallen! Great Babylon has fallen! Now bad spirits live there. She turned nations away from God.
00:13:09
Speaker
Earth's kings followed her. Buyers and sellers got rich off of her. She had things she didn't even need.' Do we have things that we don't even need?
00:13:23
Speaker
Do we pursue things we don't even need? Another voice came from heaven. Come away from her, my people, and then you will not sin with her.
00:13:34
Speaker
You will not have the troubles she will have. Her sins are piled as high in the sky. God remembers the wrong things she has done.
00:13:49
Speaker
Do to her what she did to the others and pay her back two times as much and it's all because of what she did. She made herself great.
00:14:02
Speaker
She took much more than she needed. So give her that much pain and sadness. She brags to herself. She says, I am the queen. I rule and I will never cry.
00:14:19
Speaker
Do we try to make ourselves great? We've been learning throughout the year that we need to try and make Jesus the most important one in our lives and to not think that we are better than others, but to make others greater than us.
00:14:36
Speaker
And Jesus explains this by saying that those of you who want to be the greatest need to be the least. We need to be servants of one another because even Jesus did not come to serve but did not come to rather be served, but to serve. Sorry about that. I misspoke that.
00:14:55
Speaker
So if Jesus himself did not come to be served, what right do we have to make ourselves so great in the world? We do not have that right.
00:15:06
Speaker
And God does not look favorably upon that. God tells us to come away from that line of thinking. Come away from wanting more and more things. Come away from having and taking more than we need.
00:15:22
Speaker
God gives us everything we need. We don't need to worry about more and more things and chase after them like the people who do not believe in God. Our Heavenly Father knows what he needs, what we need, and he will provide us what we need when we seek him first.
00:15:44
Speaker
Trouble will come over her and all in one day, there will be death, there will be crying, There will not be enough food and she will burn up in fire.
00:15:58
Speaker
And that is because the Lord God judges. He has all power. Earth's kings who followed her will see the smoke.
00:16:09
Speaker
It comes from Babylon burning. The kings will cry about it and they will be afraid too. They will stand back and cry. How terrible for Babylon, the strong city.
00:16:24
Speaker
Your end came in one hour. Buyers and sellers will cry about it. And that's because nobody buys what they sell anymore.
00:16:36
Speaker
No one buys their beautiful gold and silver, shiny stones. No one buys their purple and red cloth. No one buys their wood, ivory,
00:16:49
Speaker
metal or marble. No one buys their cinnamon or spice. No one buys their wine, their oil, flour or wheat.
00:17:00
Speaker
No one buys their cows, sheep, horses or carts. No one buys the people they sell as slaves. They will say, your riches and beauty have left you and you can't get them back.
00:17:19
Speaker
Buyers and sellers will cry out, all these riches were torn down in one hour. Notice how the people are concerned about the loss of material goods.
00:17:35
Speaker
All the sea captains will stand back. Sailors and sea travelers will stand back too. They will see the smoke and they will say, There was never a city as great as this.
00:17:51
Speaker
Then a strong angel picked up a huge stone. It's called a millstone. It's like a big stone that smashes wheat at the mill.
00:18:02
Speaker
And the angel threw that stone into the sea. And he said, this is how hard Babylon will be thrown down.
00:18:15
Speaker
Then I heard a roaring sound and it was like a great crowd of people in heaven. They shouted, praise the Lord, show God's greatness.
00:18:27
Speaker
He is strong, he saves. And the 24 leaders and the four living beings bowed down and they worshiped God, the king.
00:18:40
Speaker
They cried, yes, amen, praise the Lord. And then a voice came from where the king sat. All his servants cheer for God. People who worship him, cheer for him. Small and great, cheer for him.
00:18:59
Speaker
can i get a hallelujah out there? Hallelujah! Then I heard a big crowd again. and they sounded like a roaring waterfall.
00:19:12
Speaker
They sounded like loud, rolling thunder. and they shouted, Praise the Lord! Let's be glad! it is time for the wedding, for the lamb's wedding.
00:19:25
Speaker
His bride is ready, and she is wearing fine linen, clean, bright clothes. And the fine linen clothes stand for the right things that God's people do.
00:19:42
Speaker
Our good things that we do are like the fine bright linen that is worn by the people at the wedding supper for the lamb. Then the angel told me, write this.
00:19:57
Speaker
Some people will be asked to come to Jesus's wedding supper. God will bring good things to them. Then I bowed down at the angel's feet.
00:20:10
Speaker
I was going to worship him, but he said, do not do that. Make sure you do not do that. I am a servant like you, and all who follow Jesus worship God.
00:20:23
Speaker
Jesus is the reason for telling God's plans. Our Big Bible says, Jesus is the spirit. the Oh, I'm sorry. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
00:20:39
Speaker
I'll say that again. In our Big Bible, it says, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. God speaks through Jesus and everything he tells us is in the spirit of prophecy.
00:20:56
Speaker
Everything Jesus told us will come true.
Revelation's Vision of Judgment and Hope
00:21:02
Speaker
I saw heaven. It was open and there was a white horse in front of me.
00:21:09
Speaker
Do you know who's going to be on that white horse? Can you guess? The horse's rider is called The true one.
00:21:20
Speaker
He is called the one who keeps promises. He judges fairly and he goes to war. His eyes are like burning fire.
00:21:34
Speaker
There are many crowns on his head. There is a name written on him, but only he knows what it is. And he wears clothes that were dipped in blood.
00:21:48
Speaker
His name is the word of God. Heaven's armies follow him. They also ride on white horses and their clothes are white and clean.
00:22:02
Speaker
A sharp sword comes out of his mouth. He can cut the nations down with it. He will rule them with power. There is a name on Jesus' clothes and on his leg.
00:22:17
Speaker
It is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Then I saw that the animal, Earth's Kings, and their armies got together.
00:22:30
Speaker
They went to fight against the horse rider and his army. But the horse rider and his army caught the animal. They caught the lying prophet.
00:22:41
Speaker
He had tricked people who had gotten the animal's mark. So the animal was thrown into the lake of fire. And that is where the lying prophet was thrown to.
00:22:55
Speaker
All the others were killed by the sword. The sword that came from the mouth of the horse rider. And then the birds swallowed them.
00:23:08
Speaker
And that is the end of our reading today.
00:23:14
Speaker
How do you like that contrast between the people on earth who were worshiping materialistic items and were so sad about the loss of them versus the contrast of worshiping God?
00:23:28
Speaker
Do you see the difference? We cannot serve both God and money. We need to be sure who we are worshiping. Money and things which are idols or God.
00:23:44
Speaker
We need to be careful because in in every society, whether it was then or now, there is a great deal of peer pressure and a great deal on emphasis to buy clothes that have somebody's name on them because they are famous.
00:23:59
Speaker
There is emphasis on buying expensive brands of clothes so that we can show that we wear the most expensive clothes. Things like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Lululemon.
00:24:12
Speaker
Expensive things. And all they are is clothes for the body. And Jesus tells us, isn't the body more than clothes? Isn't life more than just getting food?
00:24:26
Speaker
Our Father in heaven knows what we need these things. What we need to be doing is the good work that God gave for us to do using our spiritual gifts to build one another up.
00:24:42
Speaker
And the good things that we do are represented by the linen, fine, bright clothes that are worn. Isn't that lovely?
00:24:54
Speaker
We don't think that what we are doing right now is affecting things in heaven. But it is. Instead of building up our treasures here, where people can destroy them, where people can steal them, where they just eventually wear out, we need to be focusing on the things that are eternal.
00:25:18
Speaker
Things like our treasures in heaven. And we don't know what those treasures in heaven are going to be, but we we know that we will get them because Jesus said we are. So I am so excited. I want to know what those treasures in heaven are going to be. And whatever they are, we want to amass those where nothing can destroy them, where they don't ever wear out.
00:25:42
Speaker
And since God does not place a great deal of value on things like money, I don't think we're going to be suddenly rich in heaven. Jesus tells us that, or the apostles actually told us that we are rich in Jesus. We are rich in spiritual gifts.
00:26:00
Speaker
So the things that we receive in heaven as treasures will be far greater than the material items we can imagine to down here today. I can promise us that. I'm sure of that.
00:26:13
Speaker
I don't know what they are, but I'm sure they will be far greater. God would not place materialistic value on things in heaven and not place it here because we are supposed to have, a supposed to do down here, have God's will down here the way that it is in heaven. So the way that things are are mirrored,
00:26:34
Speaker
is by the way things are in heaven. i let As God's will is in heaven, let it be done down here. So we will see. Well, I hope that you found today's reading very exciting. We saw the downfall of the earth's economy.
00:26:51
Speaker
And it will happen in a very small period of time, it says. And so everything will be destroyed in terms of being able to buy and sell.
00:27:03
Speaker
And if we think that the great stock market crash in the 30s was a terrible thing, or when we have a recession, um we read today that there would not be enough food.
00:27:17
Speaker
So just like things happening ah what like they were before the Israelites experienced exile, It's going to be similar to that. There will be, we see the judgments and a lot of what we read today is ah paralleled with things that were spoken of in Jeremiah and other prophetic readings. So the they're not entirely new. They are affirmation that what God prophesied about a long time ago, he is telling us again that they will happen in the same way that he kept warning the Israelites who who said that, oh, we will never be exiled. That's not going to happen. And there were those false prophets that said this was never going to happen. And God said they are lying.
00:28:10
Speaker
It will happen. And it did. And there will be people who say, oh, Revelation is just a crazy book and it doesn't make any sense.
00:28:21
Speaker
It makes sense to God. He gave it to us the way he gave it to us. And we know some we and we can understand some things, but it is difficult. And that does not mean that it's not going to happen.
00:28:33
Speaker
It just means that it may not look how we think it will look in some areas. But it will happen. God's judgments will occur. And so we know the basic outline, such as things like the economy will crash and there will not be enough food. And we know that it is because of judgments. And we know that the one who saves is Jesus.
00:28:54
Speaker
So we need to make sure that people know that they need to turn to Jesus. not to the earth and their rulers and to not say bad things about God and refuse to repent. Even though we've read that that is what is going to happen. People will not be sorry for what they did and they will receive the judgment for that.
00:29:16
Speaker
God warns us today to come away and to not be part of that economical society, to not be a part of wanting more and more and more things.
00:29:28
Speaker
So we need to be sure that we are different in the world, that we are lighting the world with Jesus's light, not lighting the world by our brand names on our clothing and other things.
00:29:41
Speaker
Well, thank you very much for joining me. I hope that you are excited about finishing the book of Revelation soon. We have two more days. We have the 30th and the 31st. So I do hope that you will be hungry for more of God's word and that you will come back with us and finish reading the last two days of the end of the year.
00:29:59
Speaker
And soon I will have a gratitude jar to show you, a growing gratitude jar to show you. I'm not sure about tomorrow. Tomorrow I have an early shift. I work 6.30 a.m. to 3.30 So woh it's going to be a tough one
Conclusion and Community Engagement
00:30:13
Speaker
tomorrow.
00:30:13
Speaker
but So thank you very much for joining me. And i will be sure and get those videos out for us, though, or those podcast audio versions available so that you definitely don't miss out on it. ah We are all faithful here. Well, I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day, wherever you are and whatever version you are listening to the podcast or the video and whatever day you get around to watching or listening to the December 29th daily reading out of the Day by Day Kids Bible.
00:30:44
Speaker
Please remember to click your light button before you go. That's the one that looks like a thumbs up. It looks like a heart. It looks like a follow, a share, a subscribe. It's not too late. I know it's December 29th. I know we're at the final hours for this particular reading, but it is not too late to subscribe or follow or click that light button.
00:31:06
Speaker
We want to encourage people to hear the word of God. And so we are spreading the word about reading God's word. And until we see until I see you again, i hope you have a fantastic, blessed day.