Then I saw another angel, who had the seal of the living God rise up from the east. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were empowered to harm the earth and the sea: 3 “Don’t harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we seal the slaves of our God on their foreheads.” Every year, some time before Resurrection Sunday, we see people walking around with a cross marked on their forehead with ash. It is strange to some but growing up in the Roman Catholic church it is less peculiar to me. According to this article by catholiceducation.org,"In our present liturgy for Ash Wednesday, we use ashes made from the burned palm branches distributed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. The priest blesses the ashes and imposes them on the foreheads of the faithful, making the sign of the cross and saying, "Remember, man you are dust and to dust you shall return," or "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." So this mark is one to remind "the faithful" of their own mortality and/or the forgiveness found for those who turn from sin to Jesus for salvation. In today's portion of Revelation we read that others will be marked as well. These are called "the slaves of God". If you remember, we talked about this before. The book of Revelation is about the rightful authority of Jesus to rule as King of Kings and His subjects are appropriately called slaves. They will show their allegiance to the Lamb of God who paid for their release from sin, death, shame and guilt with His blood. Do you belong to the Lamb? Have you been purchased by His blood? Are you ashamed to call yourself a slave of God? These are good questions to wrestle with no because when times get difficult or even impossible it's good to know who you belong to. Thank God I've been washed by the blood of the Lamb. Have a great day Loved Ones and God bless you real good! Memory Verse of the Week And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb! Revelation 7:10
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