from the Pastor’s Heart

Muse with me. “What type of person will be open to taking the mark of Revelation 13:17, 14:11, 16:2, 19:20? Would they be a fallen from grace or a never alive person? Would they already be enmeshed in the antichrist spirit of the age?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~What if the mark of the beast were not a barcode, computer chip, black Magic Marker, or any of the other things we imagine it could be? What if it wasn’t noticeable or observable at all? What if it wasn’t even the single point of “making a decision?” What if the “mark” was simply the residue of the life you and I have lived?

What if it only became visible (exposed) around the ninetieth-chapter of Revelations? What if “the mark” is something like a “badge” of allegiance and felicity revealing one’s involvement in the World System of Antichrist, or, in its absence, evidence of one’s wholehearted loyalty to Christ?

What if, instead of an obvious “crisis moment of choosing”, receiving the mark was nothing more than a testimony to the combined choosings between a “normal life,” or a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit, separated from the world’s involvements, and a life lived noticeably in the Light of Christ?

Perhaps perdition isn’t a “jump off a cliff” but more of a  “slow slide down a slippery slope?” The type of person who will be open to taking the Mark of the Beast will have done their choosing through a lifetime of seemingly insignificant, half-hearted attempts to live for Christ, but actually desiring a Normal life like everyone else.

What if, a person desiring and succumbing to involvement in a Normal life, was to die?

What if, a person desiring involvement and striving to follow hard after Christ, was to die? What if people have been getting “marked” all along? What if I have already been marked!? What type of person have I been? ….Alas! I awoke, for it was only a dream.

You know what they say about assumptions. -Pastor Gary