These are the ones who have not been defiled with women.  They are virgins.  These follow the Lamb wherever He goes.  They have been redeemed from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.  And no lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.  Rev. 14:4, 5.
 
    If God has redeemed the 144,000 from among humanity, they are certainly not blameless in the absolute sense.  Every human being, except one, has sinned in the past and continues to fall short of the fullness of God's glory (Rom. 3:23).  The community they have achieved is not based on a perfect record from the past, but rather on the way God relates to their record and the way they respond to each other's past.
 
    Brennan Manning tells the story of a Catholic woman rumored to have had visions of Jesus.  These rumors eventually reached the archbishop in that area, and he decided he had better check her out.  It seemed that often a fine line separates the genuine mystic and the lunatic fringe.  The archbishop asked her, "Is it true, ma'am, that you have visions of Jesus?"
 
    "Yes," the woman replied simply.
 
    "Well," he said, "the next time you have a vision, I want you to ask Jesus to tell you the sins that I confessed in my last confession."
 
    The woman was stunned.  "Did I hear you right, Bishop?  You actually want me to ask Jesus to tell me the sins of your past?"
 
    "Exactly.  Please call me if anything happens."
 
    Ten day later the woman notified her spiritual leader of a recent apparition.  "Please come," she said.  Within the hour the archbishop arrived.  He trusted eye-to-eye contact.  "You just told me on the telephone that you actually had a vision of Jesus.  Did you do as I asked?"
 
    "Yes, Bishop.  I asked Jesus to tell me the sins that you confessed in your last confessional."
 
    The bishop leaned forward with anticipation.  His eyes narrowed.
 
    She took his hands and gazed deep into his eyes.  "Bishop," she said, "these are His exact words: I can't remember."
 
    Whether or not the story actually took place, it still illustrates a great truth.  When we accept Jesus as our Savior, God treats us as if we had not sinned (Isa. 43:25).  Genuine community can happen when people gather in the name and spirit of the one who cannot remember the sins of the past.  When we learn to do the same thing with each other, our communities will become places of healing that truly "follow the Lamb."
 
Lord, help me to forgive others as I have been forgiven.

And they were singing, as it were, a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one was able to learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.  Rev. 14:3.
 
    The pastor of a congregation near Alexandra, Virginia, went to a music store to buy a digital piano for the youth chapel at his home church.  The pianist of the youth chapel planned to meet him at the store to make sure he got the right piano.  Arriving before the pianist did, the pastor noticed the piano he had seen in the magazine the pianist had given him.  He decided to go over and test it out on his own, to see how it would sound.
 
    His hands moved over the keys for a bit, but he didn't hear anything special.  The pianist had praised the instrument, and the reviewers in the magazine had rated it highly.  But the pastor's ear suggested that the piano might be overrated.  As he stood there hitting some of the notes, the pianist walked in.  Coming over, he began to play.  Instantly the sound changed!  The pastor blurted out, "Man!  That's a good piano!"  What made the difference was the masterful hands of the musician.
 
    The difference between the two men that day was one of experience.  The pastor had little experience with pianos.  He was just making random sounds.  The pianist, on the other hand, was not sitting down in front of a piano for the first time.  Having played for years, he had taken lessons and spent countless hours practicing without an audience so that when the pews were filled, God would be praised in the music.
 
    Our text says that the 144,000 had to learn the new song.  What qualifies them to sing in heaven is what they went through while on the earth.  While the song is new, it wasn't thrown together on the spur of the moment--they had been practicing for years already while on earth.
 
    Life today is a rehearsal.  We are practicing this song.  If the boss is getting on your nerves, remember that it's a rehearsal.  You don't have to respond in kind.  When you find out that people are talking about you behind your back, you can hold your peace, because it's a rehearsal for that new song.  And when something has hurt your feelings, you don't need to strike back--make a rehearsal out of it instead!
 
    When you sing this song in heaven, you will be harmonizing with people who hurt you, people who lashed out at you in their own pain, people who were difficult for you to get along with.  If you can't "bury the hatchet" today, how will you sing then?  Remember, rehearsal starts now!
 
Lord, help me to start rehearsing today.  As I keep my eyes on You, I can let go the hurts that bind me to this earth and begin learning that new song!

 And they were singing, as it were, a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one was able to learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.  Rev. 14:3.
 
    The song is new, not just because the experience is new, but because the people who sing is are also "new."  Each of them has known sorrow and pain and abuse and rejection.  They have struggled with physical, mental, and emotional handicaps.  And they have known the bitter consequences of sin.  But God will make all things new, including His people.  He is the Master Craftsman.
 
    Imagine a king who leaves his throne and goes down into the city in disguise.  He enters the slums of the city and walks down a dark alley.  There he sees an old, homeless man playing a beat-up trumpet, trying to raise a few coins by repeating the same old tune again and again.  It sounds terrible.  A broken song coming from a broken trumpet.
 
    The king approaches the man and says, "I'd like to buy that trumpet of yours.  I'll pay you enough money to live in a mansion."
 
    "You mean this trumpet?" the homeless man replies.  "This beat-up, rusty old thing, dents and all?  You want this trumpet?"
 
    "Yes, that trumpet."  The king purchases it, takes it home, gives it to his son, and says, "I want you to fix this trumpet up for me." 
 
    The son takes the instrument to his workroom.  He puts a new mouthpiece on it, hammers out the dents, and installs new valves on it.  After scrubbing it clean, he then uses wax and a buffing cloth to polish it.  The Bible says that God will make us like gold, polishing and refining us, cleaning us up, getting the dents out.  He is working on us right now!
 
    Finally the day comes when the trumpet is ready.  The son brings it to his father with the father's name inscribed on the trumpet.  The king accepts the trumpet and comments, "Looks great, son.  I can't wait to try it out."
 
    The king takes the trumpet, nice and shiny now, puts it to his mouth, and blows.  And this time it is not the same old song--it isn't a broken melody.  It isn't the kind of music this trumpet has played before.  A new song emerges from that trumpet--a glorious and grand one.  Both instrument and song have been made new!
 
    Our lives today may be rusted with selfishness and pride or corroded with lust and envy.  We may feel dented and warped.  But the Master Craftsman already has us in His workroom.  And when He's done with us, we'll be singing a new song!
 
Thank You for hope and a future, Lord.  May that future shape my life today.

 And they were singing, as it were, a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one was able to learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.  Rev. 14:3.
 
    I'll never forget a dream I had as a teenager.  I was at my parents' house near New York City.  It must have been a fairly deep sleep, because, as I started dreaming, I was totally unaware of reality and was totally immersed in the dream.  In it I found myself in the New Jerusalem.  Looking around, I saw the streets of gold crowded with happy people and an aura of glory shining out of everything around me.  As it sank in that I was actually there--that the battle was over and that my salvation was secure--the first emotion that swept through me was a sense of total unworthiness.  "I can't believe God accepted me--me of all people!  Unworthy as I am!"  A sense of amazement that this could actually happen to me washed over me.
 
    Then a more powerful emotion replaced the sense of unworthiness.  An overwhelming sense of joy and gratitude filled me.  Wanting  to shout and sing praises to God, I felt as if I would burst with thankfulness.  I couldn't imagine doing anything else for all eternity!  I just wanted to pour out my gratitude to Jesus, who made it all possible.  Jesus, what a wonderful name!  What a wonderful person.  And I praised the glory of His grace until I woke up!  Now I'm learning to praise Him in advance of heaven--for what He has already done for me.
 
    The concept of a "new Song" does not begin in the book of Revelation.  It is a common theme in the psalms.  But the interesting thing is that wherever the concept of a new song appears, it is always a response to God's great salvation.
 
    Psalm 40:3 declares, "He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God" (NIV).  But in verses 1 and 2 he tells us what inspires the new song: "I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand" (NIV).  That is what promoted the new song.
 
    Psalm 98:1, 2 says, "Sing to the Lord a new song."  Why "For he has done marvelous things....The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations" (NIV).  The psalmist sings a new song because of the wondrous things the Lord has done--particularly, making his salvation known throughout the world.
 
    The psalms often repeat this pattern.  Whenever the concept of a new song appears, it is always motivated by the mighty saving actions of God.  When we arrive at the New Jerusalem, it is God's salvation that will inspire a new song.  And we will sing that song with power because we will finally realize just how much we have been saved from.
 
May Your mighty works for me inspire the first notes of my "new song" today.

And I saw, and behold, the Lamb already standing on Mount Zion, and with Him are 144,000 having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.  And I heard a sound out of heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of massive thunder.  And the sound which I heard was like the sound of harpers harping with their harps.  Rev. 14:1, 2.
 
    The chief characteristic of the 144,000 in today's passage is that they are a people in close contact with Jesus.  They follow Him wherever He goes and have His name written on their foreheads, which means that they align their characters with His.  In every way possible they seek to become like Him.
 
    I have a friend who accepted an invitation to teach practical ministry at the Adventist graduate school in the Philippines.  No sooner had he arrived in the Philippines than he began to take long bike rides through the beautiful countryside.  The back roads wind through tropical jungles, open grasslands, and small towns.
 
    Since the weather is almost always pleasant in the Philippines, he constantly sees the hospitable Filipino people hanging about outdoors, ready to greet anything and everyone that passes by.  He imagines that he presents quite a sight to people.  After all, the appearance of a rather tall White American lumbering up the road is an event to notice and remark upon.  Almost everyone he meets will yell out one of two phrases:  "Hello, Joe!" or "Where are you going?"
 
    The "Hello, Joe!" greeting is a holdover from World War II when the GI "Joes" were in abundance in the Philippines.  The "Where are you going?" greeting is far harder to respond to, because, unlike most Filipinos, Jim is not biking around to go anywhere in particular--he is out for the exercise and the fresh air.  Not having a map of the area, he ends up taking whatever side road comes along in order to see what adventure it might hold.  Since he really doesn't know where he is going, he generally responds to the question by shouting, "I don't know!"
 
    Do you know where you are going with your life?  Or do you think it doesn't matter so long as you just trust God?  Yes, God certainly calls upon us to trust Him at every step, but this does not preclude us from making careful and concrete plans about our future that He can then bless or redirect.  Not knowing where you are going on a bike ride is one thing.  Leaving life to chance is another.
 
Lord, I'm grateful that You have provided a map for my life in the Bible.  Beginning today, help me to pay it much closer attention.

Here is wisdom.  Whoever has a mind, let him count the number of the beast, for it is a number of a man, and his number is six hundred sixty-six.  Rev. 13:18.
 
    Through the centuries teachers of prophecy have attempted to fit many names into 666.  Nero Caesar was a popular choice during the early centuries of Christian thought.  Hitler was certainly a character that many sought to tie to this prophecy.  Some have even tried to associate this number with the name Ellen Gould White even though applying 666 to a person also requires that individual to be a "man."
 
    Among the more creative suggestions was the recent association of the number with Ronald Wilson Reagan, because he had six letters in each of his three names.  After leaving the presidency, he moved to a home in Los Angeles.  Evidently the numerology bothered him enough that he had the address changed from 666 St Cloud Drive to 668!
 
    One recent favorite is the allegation that 666 appears on some international product codes.  Since this related to buying and selling (Rev. 13:16, 17), some think it significant.  As far as I know, however, no one is talking about printing these codes on the forehead or the hand yet.
 
    One California resident fought in court to prevent his daughter from being assigned a Social Security number.  He somehow had the impression that Social Security numbers were associated with the 6-6-6.  Since a couple each has a Social Security number of nine digits, together they have 18, which totals 6+6+6!  Do you see how creative this gets?  (Of course, the biblical number is six hundred sixty-six, not six plus six.)       
 
    If we adapt the rules to make names conform (say multiply by seven, add four, then divide by three) we can eventually make any name fit 666.  Bible scholars, scientists, and labor unions have all surfaced as candidates for the antichrist. Some have even speculated about the children's TV character Barney.  If one adds up the Roman numerals of "Cute Purple Dinosaur" you get a total of 666.  Hopefully, someone did that one as a joke!
 
    More seriously, through the centuries many Christians suffering intense persecution supposed that they were experiencing the final tribulation before the Second Coming.  It is not surprising that they wondered if Stalin, Hitler, or some Muslim ruler not be the final antichrist.  While they may have been wrong in thinking they were the last generation, they gained courage from grasping the larger principles of the book of Revelation.  And in quality, if not in time, they tested in part the final struggle with the forces of evil.
 
Lord, I pray that speculation will never distract me from the challenge that Scripture presents to my way of life.  Help me to be true to the realities of Your Word.

And he [the land beast] controls everything; the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free and the slave; so that he might place a mark upon their right hands or upon their foreheads, so that no one might be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name.  Rev.  13:16, 17.
 
    The time will come when a worldwide confederacy of religion and state will seek to impose its will on true believers.  At that time it will not allow those who refuse to go along with the system to buy or sell.  But what if this text provides a clue to how we should choose to live all of the time?  What if our buying and selling gives tacit approval to a system that coerces and harms people?  Are there times when choosing to buy and sell is like giving allegiance to the mark of the beast?  Consider the following.
 
    The beatings are routine.  The supervisors allow only two bathroom breaks in a 14-hour workday and search every opening of the body before and after work.  Pregnancy is ground for dismissal.  That's why Isabel has more than once found fetuses on the bathroom floor as women sought desperately to keep their jobs in this grueling and demanding sweatshop.  The jeans she and her colleagues make sell for more than $30 in popular clothing stores.  The women, however, get paid 20 cents a pair.
 
    This is not an isolated case.  In a turbulent corner of Africa children as young as 3 years of age get lowered into the dark heart of diamond mines to harvest the expensive gems.  Called conflict diamonds, the stones come from areas controlled by factions opposed to the government.  They sell the diamonds to finance military insurrections.
 
    Although the stones they find are worth thousands of dollars, the lives of these children are dispensable.  Poor air and tainted water causes sickness, and rebel soldiers often maim, abuse, or kill the young workers.  Children who do not work receive severe beatings or dismemberment.  Such children trade in their lives to provide the world with the modern symbol of forever.
 
    As children of God, we need to be aware of how our lifestyle choices affect others, particularly those who cannot speak up for themselves.  God calls us to defend the defenseless.  Sometimes a bargain for us gets purchased through the deprivation of others.  Loving things more than people is not pleasing in God's sight.  Perhaps the time has come to ask hard questions about our buying and selling.
 
Lord, I cannot solve all the world's problems, but I can make a difference.  Open my heart to make a real difference today, one choice at a time.

And he [the land beast] controls everyone; the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free and the slave; so that he might place a mark upon their right hands or upon their foreheads, so that no one might be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name.  Rev. 13:16, 17.
 
    The economic temptation in this passage is not only an event of the end-time--it has been relevant to real life throughout Christian history.  For example, John Chrysostom regularly criticized the wasteful use of wealth.  He lived simply even as bishop of Constantinople.  In the process he alienated other powerful bishops and the political elite, ultimately leading to his banishment and death.  The wealthy Olympias freely gave her money to the poor despite opposition.  Her continuing support for Chrysostom and his positions finally led to the seizure of the remainder of her wealth.
 
    Economic compromises are common in our society.  One Christianity Today interview suggests that bankruptcy rates are 18.6 percent higher in counties with casinos.  Suicide rates are four times higher in heavy gambling areas.  Nevertheless, the government gets major benefits from gambling, and the gambling industry gives money to churches and charities to keep them quiet.  Money talks and many people listen, even to the compromise of their souls.
 
    Local church boards in many denominations hire, fire, and pay ministers.  In such an environment every sermon has financial implications.  For example, a young man found Christ by talking with a street preacher.  He went back to his home church and asked his pastor why he had never explained genuine conversion from the pulpit.  The pastor noted that he had to be careful what he preached lest he offend the deacons.  When our economic livelihood is at stake, it is hard to look the truth in the eye.  It is easy to make adjustments to our message in order to keep the salary flowing.
 
    Do we dare take this a step further?  When we buy something we don't need because our neighbors have one, are we compromising with the world's value system?  Can we be frivolous in our spending when we know that 40,000 people die every day of starvation? when we find out that 50 cent can provide food for a child for a whole day in some famine-stricken countries? when we realize that the overtime we worked for that squandered money we could have spent instead with our children or sharing Christ with a neighbor?
 
    Revelation does not allow for divided allegiance.  We have to decide between God and the world and between what each side values.  As Christians we are citizens of a different kind of kingdom.
 
Lord, I place all I have at Your disposal.  Teach me how to use it to Your honor.

And he [the land beast] was permitted to give breath to the image of the beast, in order that the image of the beast might speak and might cause whoever does not worship the image of the beast to be killed.  Rev. 13:15.
 
    Have you ever heard people say that you look like your mother, or that one of your brothers or sisters strongly resembles your father?  People who sit around examining baby books often exclaim over the similarity between one generation and another.
 
    "Look who got Momma's nose!"
 
    "Yeah, but notice who passed the dimple on!"
 
    "I always wondered where the curly hair and the green eyes came from!"
 
    Look-alikes are basic to the movie industry, and the Internet is full of advertisements for celebrity doubles and impersonators to cover any occasion.  Saddam Hussein was known to have many doubles for security.  The comedy film Dave explores what might happen if the president quietly had a stroke in the back room while a security look-alike was waving to the crowd.  Power-hungry subordinates keep up the sham that the president is fine, all the while finding the double hilariously uncontrollable.  This is nothing new.  Charlie Chaplin look-alike contests were popular as far back as 1915.  (Charlie himself failed to make the finals in one of them.  How's that for an identity crisis!)
 
    The image of the beast is a puzzling symbol of an enemy who at the end of time will powerfully impersonate the sea beast of Revelation 13.  Part of a pattern of deception, this image of the beast comes to life and seeks to convince the world that the beast is alive and well, even though out of sight (Rev. 13:12).  The key to the deception is likeness--if the image did not look like the beast, the deception could not occur.
 
    Whom do you look like?  Can the people with whom you interact tell who your Father is?  Do you have the mannerisms of your Brother?  Do your reactions to difficult situations remind people of the Lamb or of the Beast?  Whom do people think of when they really get to know you?  Do you have your Father's eyes?
 
    Should you not be proud of your image, ponder how you spend your time.  By beholding we all become changed.  If the major focus of the day is to follow the hottest celebrity, or download the latest hit song, or see the latest show, you are becoming a "look-alike" whether you know it or not.  But here's the good news: While we had no control over our appearance in baby pictures, in the spiritual realm we get to decide whom we look like.
 
Lord, I choose to become more and more like You.  Help me to see through the deceptive alternatives today.

And he [the land beast] does great signs, so much so that he causes fire to come down out of heaven to earth in the presence of men.  And he deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs that he was given to do in the presence of the beast, saying to those who live on the earth that they should make an image to the beast who was fatally wounded by the sword and came back to life.  Rev. 13:13, 14.
 
    Emiko Okada was 8 and playing in the yard with her two little brothers when she saw the blinding light.  Then came a loud boom and a blast that knocked her unconscious.  As she came to, she recalls, "I felt like the sun was falling toward me."  Her brothers wailed beside her, their bodies swollen with burns.  Neighbors stumbled by, naked, skin hanging off them in shreds.  Corpses littered the road.
 
    It was August 6, 1945, in Hiroshima.  No one in the southern Japanese city had paid much attention to the distant buzz of three American B-29 bombers overhead.  But one of them was the Enola Gay, and at 8:14 a.m. it dropped a single bomb that unleashed the "rain of ruin" that President Truman had promised if Japan did not surrender.
 
    An estimated one third of the city's 350,000 residents--including Korean conscripts and imperial army units--perished instantly.  Many thousands more would die from its radioactive poison during the coming years.  The bomb turned glass into liquid, buildings to dust, and people to mere shadows etched in the ruins.
 
    A black rain fell.  It looked like oil to Seiko Komatsu, then 9.  The boy saw the rain soak his wounded grandparents.  He had been having breakfast in their house when the bomb fell and gutted it.  Three days later another atom bomb destroyed the city of Nagasaki.  Japan announced its unconditional surrender on August 14.  Thus the greatest and most terrible of wars ended in an event that was far more horrible than the war it sought to end.
 
    Nothing can minimize the horror of that day when fire rained down from heaven on an unsuspecting Japanese city.  It would be easy to condemn President Truman and all others involved as the first mega-terrorists.  But it is a historical fact that two atomic acts may have saved millions of lives and years of suffering for all involved in the war.
 
    The land beast of Revelation 13 uses "fire from heaven" to assert the authority of the unholy trinity (dragon, sea beast, and land beast).  That fire from heaven will increase evil and suffering rather than decrease it.  But the One who did not shy away from the cross will find a way to end a war far more universal and more terrible than World War II.
 
Lord, I long to see an end to suffering and fear.  As You wrestle with the end-game of the great controversy, help me to trust in You no matter what may come.