The cauldron where prophets are made, as well as every other ministry, is the local church. We need all of the irritations and frustrations of local church life to mature in Christ. Those who run from these challenges have their growth and potential usefulness stunted at best.

     As we also see throughout Revelation, as well as other biblical prophecies of the age to come, there are positions of authority in heaven. Many Christians are under the delusion that in eternity we will all be the same, but that is well-refuted in Scripture and in Jesus’ teachings about the age to come. In places like The Parable of the Talents, Jesus taught that those who are a better steward with what they are given in this life determine how much authority they will have in the age to come.

     We continue our study with Revelation 1:8:   

     "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

Today it seems as if those who have the most rock solid values are lacking in vision. Likewise, many who have vision are lacking in values. It must be our goal to have vision with values. We want to sink our roots deeper and deeper into sound biblical truth, with a genuine commitment to the moral standards and integrity that are clearly mandated by Scripture.

        As we pursue understanding the greatest Christian life, one thing we must dispel is that the greatest Christians were the most famous ones. Those who are most well-known on earth may be least known in heaven. Those who are the most highly esteemed in heaven may be little known on earth. Having great spiritual authority with men is not as high as having great authority with God.

      Then God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed,
      and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, on the earth"; and it was so.

      And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind,
      and trees bearing fruit, with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.
      And there was evening and there was morning, a third day (Genesis 1:11-13).

         Every worldview has an ideal society as its goal. What is the Christian worldview of the ideal society?

The Da Vinci Code is an important book that we need to understand. This book may be a well-written suspense thriller, but for historical accuracy it is hard to imagine one that has so twisted and distorted the facts. Even though it is a compelling read, it is taken too seriously by many, which is a statement about our times that we need to understand.

          The American Founding Fathers believed that tyranny could come from either the government or from the people. Because of this, they built a brilliant system of government that had firewalls to protect against the tyranny from either direction. They warned that if these firewalls were torn down, the Republic could not last. In the last century, we tore both firewalls down, and the system has been crumbling since.