The Book of Life

Turn to a scripture that you will hear in a few more days again, but I'm going to preempt your speaker wherever you are. Read a scripture in Revelation 20 that we all know that tells about something that we read about all our lives.

Revelation 20 in verse 12, a scripture that will be read on the last great day of the feast. I should say the last great day. It's not of the feast, it's a separate feast. It reads here that he saw the dead small and great standing before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.

I've read about the Book of Life all my life. That I've been reading the Bible, so have you. The scripture tells us that there will be a time when people will have the books of the Bible opened, and then the Book of Life will be opened, and they'll be judged by the things that are written out of the books. In verse 15, it says, anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. These two verses, 12 and 15, that reference the Book of Life here in Revelation 20, really sum up what we find in the entire Book of Revelation about the Book of Life.

It's mentioned seven times in the Book of Revelation, this phrase, the Book of Life. It's mentioned one other time in the Book of Philippians. So eight times in the New Testament, seven times in the Book of Revelation, it references this thing called the Book of Life. And though the other references essentially say the same thing, as I said, these two verses kind of sum up what really is important that we know about the Book of Life.

And that is, you want your name in it, number one. And if you don't get your name into this book, you'll be cast into the lake of fire. So, we all want our name in the Book of Life. Anyone who ever lived will have a chance to have their name written into this Book of Life. But what is the Book of Life? I have imagined it over the years, like maybe some of you have, to try to get a picture in my mind's eye of what this is.

And I've imagined one of these huge archival-type ledger-type books that you would see in a courthouse that would be opened up on a big podium, you know, one of these tilted-type stands. And, you know, they're full of all kinds of lines. And, you know, you'll find birth dates and marriage dates and death records in these types of books and county courthouses as they keep records. And certainly the imagery fits. But I've kind of imagined that, you know, your name will be in the Book of Life.

And I've kind of imagined, you know, just one, you get one line for your name. Now, and whoever's writing it, you know, you imagine somebody stooped over on a stool and inscribing it and doing this and kind of, you know, a big judge of some sort, as it is portrayed here in the Book of Revelation. Now, I don't think about it that way anymore. Here's how I think about it.

I think of the Book of Life as your life, as my life. You know, you've been said, you know, I can read you like a book. My life is like a book. I could, you know, when we talk about writing chapters of episodes in our life, you know, as if it's a book. And the imagery fits, doesn't it? Because our whole life's experiences, in a sense, could be a book. Some of them could be pretty racy books. Some of them could be pretty exciting books. Colorful. Others of our books might just be kind of rather short and not so eventful. But regardless, and I don't think any of us are all that uneventful, because quite frankly, everybody's got something to say.

Everybody's got something to write into their story. So I think of the Book of Life as the story of my life. All the events, all the days, all the years, and particularly when it comes to the life of God, because this is really what this book is talking about here, when does that name begin to be written into the Book of Life?

Well, for simplicity, I would say that it begins to be written, let's say, at the time you're baptized. And God gives us that spark of life, His Holy Spirit. Would be the time when our names begin to really be inscribed in indelible ink in this Book of Life.

And at some point, we come to the last point of the name. We would say it at the end of our life. So where are you right now? Has your first name been written? Into your second name? Into your last name? Where are each of us, as we could imagine ourselves, having our name indelibly written into this Book and scrolled in? Where are we in the process? Because when our life is done, at our death, or at the resurrection, we live to that moment, our name then will be in that Book. And it will be there for eternity. We can hope and have that promise. That's how I look at the Book of Life today. It's not just something we look at on the day, the last great day, and think about as it applies to the people in the great white throne judgment. It applies to us right now. Our names are being written into this Book by every aspect of everything that we do. Let's say the children of God, the members of the Church of God, the firstfruits, this collective body of people that make up the body of Christ through time, and all who will be there, and then others will be added into it later on in a spiritual sense into that Book. God is writing us into His Book, and it is important that we get it right. Not that we do so much, but that we get our understanding right. That we get it right. We are not writing God into our Book. He's writing us into His Book. That's what we're being told in this imagery of the Book of Life, and it's a very important imagery.

It's mentioned several times in this interesting Book of Revelation. God's world, the Kingdom, the world of salvation and redemption, and the world of restoration, is a great and wondrous story, and God is writing us into that story, and that's what we need to get right. That's what we need to really get our minds around and understand that God is writing us into His story. So that when we read this Book, we read ourselves into it. That's what reading the Bible is all about and what it should accomplish.

This is God's story. This is the most important story that matters for salvation, for redemption, for restoration, for eternal life. It is the words of this Book. They are the words of our life, and there's some that is worked off of that through the Scriptures. These words are spirit, and they are life, it says. They are our life. As we pray, God works with us. We talk to God. As we read the Bible, He's talking to us. And through that process of prayer and reading the Bible, thinking it through, working it through, we read ourselves into this story that is this Book.

This, if you will, is the Book of Life for us to make sure we understand. It's why it's so important. It's what we've based our life on. That we get it right, and we read ourselves into this story. So that we know that they're not just stories of men and women who've long since died. They're not just stories of a nation called Israel that's come and gone, or of apostles and things like that.

They are stories that are there. They are teachings that are in this Book that impact our lives. And when we come down to this day here, this day of atonement, as we stop and pause for one day and fast and observe this very solemn occasion, among all the other holy days that God has given, we recognize that from the Days of Unleavened Bread all the way to the last great day, we have a story that is told of this salvation story, this time of how God is going to bring His family, His kingdom, into existence upon this earth.

We know from the time we observe the Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, to Pentecost, to Trumpets, to a Day of Atonement, to the Feast of Tabernacles, to the last great day, that eighth day festival. We know what it's all about when we walk through those every single year. And as we do so, we are reading ourselves into the story.

And it's important that we get that right and understand it. We read ourselves into the story. God is not wanting to be read into our story. His is what's most important. And that is what the Book of Life, I think, means to me as I have come to certain conclusions. And it's what we should think about as we are here on this Day of Atonement. Because this day is full of a great deal of symbolism and imagery that is very, very powerful in its own right. Every one of the holy days has its own imagery that we talk about. But on this one, there is a unique set of events that take place, that took place, that is taking place, that will happen, that is an important part of the story for us to understand about ourselves.

And so I'd like to talk a little bit about what it is that we learn from this Day of Atonement that's important to this story that we're being written into and we're reading ourselves into with the obedience of our life.

You know, I always try to tell people at the feast sites that I attend, that I will do it again this year, but I'll tell all of you as our congregation here, you're doing the right thing by going to the feast. It takes work, it takes a lot of effort, it takes sacrifice, and there are always, always, things that come up that could keep us from going.

Physical sicknesses and disturbances and situations and unexpected matters, just our own attitudes could keep us from going to the feast. And so it takes a lot of effort to pack that suitcase and make those plans and get in the car or on that plane and go. A lot of effort. You're doing the right thing. You are doing the right thing. It is the thing to do. I hope that, you know, as you've come to this point in the year, you know that and you'll be doing it again this time next year, only a few days earlier next year. But it is the right thing to do.

Despite all that we have to go through, because it's by those things that we write ourselves into that part of the story of the kingdom of God. Let's go back to the day of Atonement. Let's come back to this day. One of the things that this day tells us is this. Number one, things are not what they seem.

Things are not what they seem. When we keep the day of Atonement, we have some stark reminders of that. There's more going on in this life and in this world than meets the eye.

All we see is the physical. But the state tells us that there is a major spiritual dimension of life. We live in a world with really two parts. The world we see, which is the flesh and blood, here and now, the air, the food, everything. That's what we see. But there's another part to this world, this life, that we don't see. Things are not what they seem. On the day the high priest was to observe this day of Atonement, in Leviticus 16, I'm not going to turn there, I'll just tell you the story this year. Leviticus 16 is the story of what took place on the day of Atonement, under the Old Covenant, when there was a temple with a priesthood. On this morning, the high priest, the chief religious leader of the people, got up and was very careful on this day. He was very extra careful as to what he did, because if he made a mistake on this day, he could die.

He could die with a bolt of lightning, just like that. And so he made sure that he got his rest and he was alert.

He put on a special linen garment for the day, and he went out into the temple complex, and everyone was already gathered there by the time he would have made his appearance. Choirs and other Levites and people filling in the the court to observe what took place on this day. The fires were ready, because on this day, he had to make several special offerings. There was a there was a ram and there was a bull ready to be offered. He had to make an offering for himself, first of all, so that he was even prepared ceremonially and clean spiritually to do an offering for the rest of the people. And there were two goats standing there, already specially selected, and they were essentially identical with their markings, their size, and their age.

And one of the first things that he would do was to cast lots over these two goats, because one was to represent the Lord and one was to represent Satan, or as they would have referred to him there, as the Azazel. One was to be killed then, and the other was to be let out of the camp, out of the court, and let go into the wilderness alive. But the reason he cast the lots was because God had to make a determination between the two as to which one represented the Lord and which one represented Satan, because, as we know today, we can't see the difference. Not even the high priest could see the difference then. And without God's direction, without God revealing it, by, in that case, he did it with lots, we don't do that today, we have the Holy Spirit to reveal. But without that revelation, they would not have been able to tell which one was which. God had to make that determination and show the people through the priest. They couldn't see, because things are not what they seem. Things look alike. And in our world, as we go about our life, unless we're using God's Spirit, unless we are using the law of God, the way of God, and unless we are using the Word of God to understand, we think this is all there is.

We just see the physical. And we can't tell the difference between true and false, righteousness and unrighteousness. We would begin to blur the lines. We can't tell the difference between what is truly God's truth and what is a deception perpetrated by the devil. God has to show us that. That takes a miracle of the mind.

We should never forget, because things are not what they seem. And so on that day, under the Old Covenant, that the temple lots helped them to make that determination. And then those goats would be kind of put off to the side, while the high priest went through the ritual. He'd kill a bull. And then he would have to take some of the blood of that and some coals in a pan. It's of incense. And he would have to march himself through the gates into the temple, into the large inner court of the temple. And he would be headed straight toward the back, just like he'd be going down this aisle, to the back of the part of the temple where a veil separated the back end, which was called the Holy of Holies. And he had to have blood, and he had to have coals, and he had to have incense to go through that veil. This was the only day of the year that he went into that area. Nobody went in that area at all throughout the year. The priests would do their things out in the outer court of the building, but nobody went beyond that veil. Except the high priest, and he only did it once a year on the day of atonement. Lest you die would be the conclusion. And any smart high priest in those years always understood and remembered the lesson learned from the sons of Aaron, who tried to do something that wasn't theirs, and were consumed by fire. So if they remembered that lesson, they didn't want to become toasty marshmallows. Marshmallows. I'm not eating them, so I can't pronounce it.

And so he wanted to make sure he had everything done right. And he would go through that veil, and he would create the incense, which would cover the the ark in there, the caribs that covered that ark, and he would sprinkle blood in there. And he'd had to have already done that for himself to be able to do that. And he was in there at least twice. He came and went through that veil at least twice on that day to make the various offerings. And if everything was according to the law, he survived. You know, I've often thought, I wonder if you, since it was only once a year, if you had a room that you only went into once a year in your house, wouldn't you kind of pause and look around and say, hmm, everything's still the same? And I always wondered, I wonder if the high priest was tempted to lift that lid on the ark. Just to make sure that the pot of manna was still in there, and the butted rod has still had some almond leaves on it, which was errands. And just to kind of, and especially if he was he was a brand new rookie high priest. First time going in. Can you imagine the rookie high priest first year going in and doing that? He'd really be extra jittery. But I just can't wonder, wouldn't you have been tempted to open that and just, I've always heard that. Yep, two tablets.

Maybe they did. Maybe they didn't. I don't know. Just something to think about. But if everything was done right, it worked. And he came, would come back out, and I can imagine the people holding their breath and wondering, you know, is he still alive? And if they were watching their watches or watching the sun and the shadow of the sun, if he's a little bit late, you know, is he going to come? And he comes back out, and finally, in the last ceremony of the day, he took the goat that was the Lord's, and he confessed the sins over it, and he would kill that. And then they would take the one that was the Azazel goat and lay upon it all the transgressions of the people for that year, and affixed to that all of their problems, all of the sins. And that would have had to have been a very special moment for everyone to realize that, in a sense, this burden was lifted off of the people through this ceremony as they understood it for another year. And they could expect God's blessing. They could breathe a sigh of relief. Things were okay. Their world order was okay for that day, for that time. I don't know how long they remembered it. Probably by sundown, they were back into, some of them were back into, you know, the routine of life and had forgotten it. But I like to imagine that even for the Israelites, as they were, that there was a magic. There was a moment created through all the ceremony and the music and the light and the fire and the smoke and the offerings and this ritual and this pageant that was being acted out in real time before them. And they came to that moment and they knew that it was all good and well for another year, that they breathed a sigh of relief. And then they just went about, you know, the ceremony was over. Sundown occurred and they could eat. And I would imagine they were ready to eat, just like you and I will be ready to eat in about four hours ourselves. You think the day of atonement, one day that God at commands us is rough? Think about the Arabs, the Muslims. They keep a whole month of this, you know. You ever heard of Ramadan? 30 days of fasting in the Muslim religion. They had just completed. I saw a picture where they were kind of rejoicing that it was all over with. And the Ramadan moves through the year. It's right now kind of in the fall, but it could be in the spring, summer, it could be in the middle, winter, because of the way their calendar is.

But it just completed. The way the Muslims fast is they fast through the daylight hours. They don't fast during the nighttime hours. They fast from sunup to sundown. 30 days. That's how they keep Ramadan. But let me tell you, having been to Jordan a couple years for the feast, when sundown comes on every day, it is party time. And they are gorging themselves. And they have they feast all through the night. And then they fast the rest of the day. There were articles I read in the paper as people were lamenting the lack of spirituality during their Holy time. People actually put on weight during Ramadan. They do. They spend more than they normally do on food. Their food budgets go through the ceiling, and they put on weight during Ramadan. 30 days of fasting. Go figure. To observe it firsthand is that you finally begin to see it and get a picture of it. So one day is not all that bad. If you want to look at it that way, and it has far better ... well, there. I may not say anything there, but it is far different.

Things are not what they seem. In Luke 24, Luke 24, the disciples got some firsthand experience of this, and this is a remarkable story that is left for us.

After the death of Christ, there were a few disciples walking on the road, two of them. Luke 24, verse 13.

And it says, Behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus. This was after the crucifixion and the resurrection, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they walked together, they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

Jesus was already dead and resurrected. He had already appeared to some of the apostles.

But now to two other disciples, he makes this appearance and this story is recorded.

And you just realize that there's a different world.

There is another reality.

It's not necessarily an alternate reality in a science fiction term, but there is another reality if you want to understand the world, the space, the time, and there's not really anything such thing as time and God's world as we measure it. But let's just call it God's space.

It's a different reality. He just appeared.

He just appeared and he went with them. He walked up behind them and suddenly he was there.

But he just kind of walked through a slit in space and appeared.

And they did not know in this story. They didn't know who he was. They did not recognize him.

Things were not what they seemed.

And they traveled on and they turned out to go into a home and they invited him in.

And it was not until they were sitting in the home that they had their eyes opened. In verse 30, when they were sitting at the table, he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them.

Then their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight. He just dematerialized, walked back through that slit in space. Whatever he did, he wasn't there as far as vacancy.

We can describe it in any way. We have some pretty good science fiction minds in our time that have tried to figure out how matter can materialize and dematerialize. As we all know, as we've watched Star Trek over the years, you step into a little chamber and give a signal and whatever.

And those are interesting and fascinating.

I don't know how God does it. I just know that he does it. But when he does it, it's important that we recognize that we are being told that things are not what they seem. And on this day of atonement, we have to recognize that there is another dimension of reality, a spirit world that is at work, good and bad, and it is a part of life.

That's a major, major matter for us to remember and learn as we observe the day of atonement.

They did get the full benefit of it in the Old Testament, even though it was right there before them.

We see it now because of the revelation that we have, but we cannot forget that. Things are not what they seem in this life.

And God has called us and is writing us into his book of life, and he is writing us into a spiritual story, a spiritual story as to how this takes place.

I know that you can see us. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, which many have read, and movies have been made about it. And I guess the operative scene there is when they fall through back of a wardrobe into this other world.

And C.S. Lusz, who was an atheist who became a Christian and tried to write it all down and make sense of it himself in his own way, did an interesting job.

And there have been many other attempts, whether from a religious point of view, to tell stories like this, or just from a pure fantasy or science fiction point of view, I still maintain that they get their best material from the Bible.

And the best story is in the scriptures.

Read the beginning of the first verse of Revelation 4 sometime when you get home. Or if you get bored and check out with me here, you can go ahead and read it now.

But it tells you right there that John went through a door in heaven and what he saw.

Duh! Where did everybody else get the idea for it?

The best ideas have already been written here in the book.

The problem is Narnia and all the others, their myth and fantasy. This is real. This is real. This is the book of life.

Now, the second thing that we learn on this day of atonement that is very important about this is that we are at war.

As Ryan said in the sermonette, the victim doesn't know he's beaten yet.

And we are at war.

We are on a great journey.

We go to the Feast of Tabernacles and if we're not careful, we miss the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles as we get into our nice luxury condos and hotel rooms and rental houses and whatever it is we keep our feet the Feast in.

We miss the meaning of Tabernacles because quite frankly some of us could live 365 days a year in some of the places we've stayed at at the Feast in. You know, we made service every day. Great, you know, restaurants. We'd love that. Tabernacles is a temporary dwelling.

The Feast of Tabernacles is a was and is a pilgrim feast. We go... the Israelites went up to Jerusalem. They went up to Shiloh from their homes and they traveled many days. We would have to do that just as we traveled many days. We go up to a temporary spot and location and tabernacle with God. And we learn that essentially this whole life we are tabernacling in a temporary dwelling on our way to the Kingdom of God. And so this life is really a great journey.

If you want to really get dramatic, okay, it's a great quest.

But that's what it is. However you want to read yourself into that.

And I mean, you know, well, I hope some of us... some of you are really into computers and some of these things. You know that people get caught up in the alternate realities of a computer generated world or science fiction or whatever else. Debbie and I had anniversary dinner two or three years ago downtown in a restaurant and it happened to fall at the time they were having this computer convention that comes to town every year, ComputerCon or whatever it is, where all the young people and adults and young adults, you know, that their world is computer fantasy stuff.

And we were sitting at the table, had a window table, and we were watching. They were coming and going outside of the... up down on the street. They all look alike. I won't tell you all my observations, but some of them were in the restaurant with us and it's real to them.

It's real, okay? Right down to their dress, their actions, it's real. It's their life.

And it's, you know, William Shatner made fun of people who got caught up in Star Trek, you know, made a joke off of that, but people do need to get a life.

That's not real. The real is right now, here, when you go home, when you start packing up, you go to the feast, when you come back and you go back to school, you go back to your job, when you have to deal with some unfortunate situation, that's real.

That's life. And life is a war. Life is a struggle. Life is a battle.

Let's talk a minute about that part of life, because that's what it is. And we are dealing with that. And this other world, the spirit world that is out there as well, is something that is very much in play in Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5, verse 14. In verse 8, just to set the thought of this section, it says, You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

We've been called out of darkness into light. Down to verse 14, therefore, he says, he makes this very strong statement, Awake you who are asleep. Awake you who sleep. Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you life. See that you walk not circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. That is one side of the message of the Bible, the story of the Bible, that we must always keep in mind, even though we don't need to focus every waking moment of our life on it. But we have to remember and realize that there is a spiritual war that takes place, especially for the called of God, the children of God. It is a struggle.

In Daniel chapter 10, we have this marvelous story of Daniel seeking some understanding and wisdom, and he goes on a three-week quasi-fast. Daniel chapter 10.

This was after Babylon had fallen during the reign of Cyrus.

Daniel had a message, and he had understanding. But in verse 2 it says, I was mourning three full weeks. Daniel 10 and verse 2.

I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine, came to my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. This was kind of a quasi-fast. I liken it to what we read about in chapter 1, where he and his friends went on a special diet to prepare themselves. In that testing period, that seems to be what the commentators say as well. He didn't have a steak every night. He didn't have a bottle of wine. He probably ate very simple food during this period of time, and less of it than normal as he fasted and devoted himself in prayer and fasting for some understanding. What was taking place at this time was the Jews that had gone back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple had let down on their work, if you remember the story from Haggai and Ezra. They let the opposition cause them to stop work on the temple. Daniel probably heard about it, and he was upset that these people were not going to fulfill their mission.

That could be a very real reason why he went through this period of fasting. That's not necessarily the point at this time, but it was not until after three weeks was passed that, verse five tells us, he had this vision. There was a man in front of him that had a magnificent appearance, a body like a barrel, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, and his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision for the men who were with me, did not see the vision, but a great terror fell upon them so that they fled to hide themselves.

He was probably in a palace, one of the palaces of the government that he had for himself at this time, and he had his retinue with him. They didn't see what he saw, and they got out of there.

Something just moved them to leave. And I was left alone, and I saw this great vision, verse 8, and no strength remained in me, for my vigor was turned to frailty, and I retained no strength. Yet I heard the sound of his words, and while I heard the sound of his words, I was in a deep sleep on my face with my face to the ground. And so, after three weeks, Daniel begins to get contact in this particular way with this angelic being. And so, he was touched, and he stood up, and this angel said to him, O Daniel, man greatly beloved. Verse 11, Understand the words I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.

And while he was speaking this word, I stood trembling. And he said to me, Do not fear Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words. And about this point, Daniel is saying, Why did you take so long? Which is kind of what we say about God, too. God, why do you take so long in giving me an answer to my prayer? Why did you wait so long? Why did he wait until Adam and Eve took of that fruit? Why did he wait? That's a long question here. The reason, as the story goes on, that he waited, he said, I was come from that first day because of your words. God did begin to answer, but we have a little revelation of an understanding of a different world. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days, and Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I have been left alone there with the kings of Persia. And now I've come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come. What this tells us is a very important matter, is that even as you and I pray for God's answers, God's help, God's understanding, God's intervention, there's delay.

And sometimes, maybe not in every case, but sometimes that delay is because of spiritual matters far beyond what our ability to see. This story tells us that a servant of God was praying and asking for understanding, and the answer was sent, but it was held up because of a titanic struggle in the spiritual realm between opposing forces. A war. Angels, it seems, war and have obstacles in bringing answers to the servants of God. Now, this answer was given, and in verse 20, the angel says, Do you know why I've come to you? And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia. And when I've gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come.

Oh, so he's going to go back, you know, slip back into his space, his reality, but there's going to be another struggle with two other archdemons that represent the kingdoms of Greece and Persia.

And so it goes on. This gives us just a little bit of understanding of the reality of the world, and of the rise and fall of nations and kingdoms and empires, and of world events and of the headlines on our news. Of the confusion in places like the United Nations, of the obstinance and the intransigence between nations that have hostile motives like Iran, against other nations like Israel or the United States. That antagonism reaches into another world.

This is a reality that we have to understand. Now, you don't get this from your history books. You don't get it from Fox News.

Shepard Smith doesn't cover it because it's not understood.

But this world and our life in it is far more involved, far more dramatic in one sense than we might realize. Now, by saying this, folks, I'm not saying go out and start looking for a demon under every rock or some great, you know, fantastic story behind every episode, behind every event. That's not necessarily the way you want to approach it. You take this, you understand it, you tuck it away, and you recognize that God has given us a dimension of understanding how the world works on a global scale. But what's important is that you and I bring it down to a smaller level as well.

Because just as God's answers and timing sometimes is maybe actually held up, not prevented, but even held up, so it happens in our lives.

What if Daniel had given up in his efforts after 14 days, or 15, or 17, or 18?

He had to go three weeks. I don't know that there's any magical number in the three weeks, but he had to keep on at it. And evidently, he was intent on just staying with this effort to gain understanding as long as it was necessary, which is a lesson for you and I.

As we also understand that the problems that are taking place with us, the challenges that we have take place because of spiritual issues, sometimes beyond our control, sometimes because of stupid mistakes that we make as well. That's the reality. But this understanding makes our lives far more interesting, makes this world far more understandable than anything we could ever realize, more dramatic than we might realize. Without it, without this understanding, you know what? Life just boils down to punch in the clock, 30 years and out, pensions and health care, and Facebook, and dancing with the stars.

Oh, I'm sorry. I offended somebody. Okay. Survivor.

I took care of... just about the rest of you. I better offend myself. Okay.

NCIS. Okay. I've offended myself, too.

Those are the things that we get up for. We get up to punch the clock.

We want to know what somebody else is doing. So we look on Facebook and we want to watch Tom DeLay on Dancing with the Stars. That was a sight and a half. I have to tell you if anybody saw that one. Life is more than that.

We are on a journey to the Kingdom of God. And there are episodes along the way that happen in our lives. And our job is to read ourselves into the story and understand why.

Why these left-hand turns, these dead-end roads we get into, these holes we fall into, these struggles that we work with, why do they happen? And how do we get out of them?

Because the third thing that we learn from this Day of Atonement picture is that God has given us a key role to play in this story. We have a part to play in this story. In Ephesians 2, Ephesians 2, Verse 1 tells us, we've been made alive when once we were dead in trespasses and sins.

In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Spirit who now works in the Sons of Disobedience.

That's a precise scripture that explains how Satan works. He is called the Prince of the Power of the Air, a Spirit that works in the Sons of Disobedience. I remember hearing that explained and it made sense. And it was explained for the first time with the clarity I'd ever heard on the Day of Atonement by Mr. Armstrong. To explain how human nature works and how this evil spirit broadcasts, like a television or a radio beam through the air invisibly, and we get tuned into it. Our channel wavelength latches onto it and we'll experience the anger, the envy, the greed, the frustrations that can be churned within us as a result of the Prince of the Power of the Air working as he does. And that explains how it works. Paul goes on to say, we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and mind. We were children of wrath, just as others. But God, who was rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us set together, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up together and made us set together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is the place in the role God has called us to in this story. We have been raised up together to set in heavenly places to understand the spiritual dimension and which side is at our power and there to work for us and how that works.

And then verse 10, he says, his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

This whole world goes off in a different direction, however.

With the Spirit in God in us, we can see this world as it is and our story as it fits within this world and begin to make sense of it. After all, quite frankly, when it all comes down to it, I think that's why that's probably one of the biggest things that humans we ultimately want. We want to make sense and we want to know why in our lives and make sense of what it is, why it has happened this way, and how we got to this point.

I've come to think and realize that that's why as you get older, you don't think about this so much when you're a teenager. You don't think about it in your 20s or 30s so much, maybe not even into your 40s, but when you round the corner at 50, you begin to think about a few things. And people want to connect always to the past, to their family, and that's when they go searching people out. Because there's an understanding and that's when family reunions become more important. Because there's, I think, there is this deep desire to know why. Why did it happen this way? Why am I like I am? Why am I family? Who am I? Where did I come from?

What is our story? That's why there will always be a market for reminiscing family histories and genealogy. It is a part of the fabric of life. And if you don't relate to it now, stick around long enough, you will. Because we want to figure it all out. Deep down, we want to figure it all out.

And we want to know why the story took the road that it did.

That's it. That's why you want to know who your grandfather was, how your parents met, or whatever it is that you don't know, that's why you want to know it. Because you want to know how you got to this point in this particular story of our life.

And that's fine. I have those desires, too. I've said it a few times. I'd like to have one more day with my dad. Would you believe this last trip? I'll tell you something, but I won't tell you the rest of the story. I found out for the first time in my 58 years, the day my parents were married.

I just found that out a few days ago. The day and the month when they got married.

I never knew that. I never knew the day my parents got married.

Now that for some of you, I know you guys, I can see your, huh, duh? I know, I know.

If I forget the day I was married on, it's curtains for me.

I never knew. I saw the marriage certificate. I lived with my parents' house 19 years. I never saw the marriage certificate, and I never knew. You can read whatever else you want into it. There's a lot to read into that, but I won't go there today. We don't have it. It would take another week. Those are things that we all need to know, or whatever else you need to know, about your life, your family, and your wives in the house, because that's our story.

This is the real story, though. The story that God has called us to, the story that we're talking about a part of it here on the Day of Atonement, this is the story we are called to. This is the story of the family of God.

All the answers are right here. All the hows and the whys are right here. We spend a lifetime figuring it all out and reading ourselves into this story, this book of life. We've got far more knowledge here about this story and about this life than any of us will ever have about the whole genealogy of our own physical existence. Some of us will die without the questions answered about your families, about your past. It will happen. God gives us every answer that we need about the real family and the real life that is going to last forever right here. This is the story. This is the life we are called to. Don't let anyone take it from you. In John 10 and verse 10, Christ beautifully explains the dual-edged sword that we live with. John 10 and verse 10. John 10 and verse 10. He says, The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. That is Satan. Satan is a thief. He steals. He will kill. He killed Christ. But yet he lives. He will destroy by lies, half-truths, innuendo, because his intent is to steal the plan of God, the joy of God, the life of God from any and all who ever come near it. That is his mission.

That's the thief. Christ went on to say, I have come that they may have life.

I have come that they may have life, the real life, the spiritual life of the kingdom and of eternity, and that they might have it more abundantly. That's why he has come.

That's why he lives his life within us. And that's what he will bring at his second coming.

But today he lives that life in those that are the called and converted children of God, and he gives us that abundant life. Yes, a life with struggles, disappointments, unfulfilled hopes, dashed dreams, challenges and struggles. But that's the life. That's the life we have. No matter what choices we've made, however good and bad they've been, that's the life we have. And he gives us the ability to even rise above that and to live it abundantly because that is the role that he has given us. But we don't want to let Satan steal it.

That's what we learned from this day. On one occasion, Christ told Peter, he said, Satan, his love would have desired... he did desire to sift you, Peter, but I've prayed for you.

Strengthen the brethren. Christ wouldn't let Satan do that. And he won't let him do it to us. That doesn't happen. That doesn't mean there's not a struggle that goes on that we don't see, just like the struggle between Michael and the Prince of Persia, in the background, off screen, but it's there. But God shields us from that.

But he gives us enough to know that it's going on if we have eyes to read and the ability to understand. But he's given us the opportunity to live in a more abundant life than anything that we could ever imagine.

And we have come into a great, wondrous story for ourselves.

More than any human could imagine, create, or write is the story we have. And we are to write ourselves into this story. And we have a high priest who is doing it for us.

In Hebrews 8, verse 1, he says, This is the main point of the things we are saying. We have a high priest, such a high priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord erected and not man.

And so there's no longer any ceremonies on the day of atonement at a temple with a priest to it. That's been done away. But there is still a day of atonement and a great message within the day, as we've talked about here.

But the good news is that we have a high priest on duty 24-7, Jesus Christ.

He is there working for us. Down in chapter 9, verse 6, he says, That way was not ready, but it is now. It was symbolic for the present, and now the reality has come. And down in verse 24, chapter 9, verse 24, For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but unto heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Not that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with blood of another. He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now once, at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, as it is appointed for men to die once. But after this, the judgment. So Christ has offered once to bear the sins of many, to those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. Christ's work as our high priest is what these verses describe. And he takes your life and mind, your needs, your struggles, your challenges to the throne of God as our high priest.

His blood has already made it possible for that to be done, and our prayers and our needs are carried there. We have that high priest. That's what he was to do.

The high priest on the day of atonement had to go through everything just right for the sake of the people. The high priest stood for the people before God. Christ stands in that role today, and he fulfills that role that the priest did on the day of atonement every day. And he has already conquered Satan. But within his plan, Satan has been left on the scene, and is alive and well, and is yet to be removed. But he will be when this day is fulfilled.

When that angel comes down with the key to the bottomless pit and binds Satan and the devil for a thousand years, and that influence will be cut off. And in large part, that war, that struggle will shift. It will downsize. There will be different and other matters to have to work through for those that live on into the world tomorrow, the kingdom of God, those that are born there, and all that time that will be built. There will be enough then to deal with. But that influence will be gone, and that part of the struggle will be gone.

And the book of life will enter another chapter, and it will have a whole different meaning than anything that I can begin to create and think up and try to explain in my own mind or you and yours.

But it's important that we make sure that we are there, that our names are in that book.

They're already being inscribed.

It started on the day that you were baptized.

And I don't know where we are in the process, with my name, with your name.

But I know that when it all comes to an end, if we have held fast to the faith, true to the Word of God, understood all the elements that we are to understand, then our names will finally come to a conclusion.

The last little flourish will be put in there, and it will be finished.

And our names will be there indelibly in the book of life, for the Lamb of God, on that day.

So let's make sure we are reading ourselves into the story of that book.

And that book, this Bible, becomes our story, our place.

Let's make sure that is the book of life that we are becoming a part of.

Enjoy your feast. We will see you in a few weeks on the return. God bless all of you.