On Sunday, I shared that I expected there would be folks who did not go along for the ride on the New Testament Challenge, but who were holding out for the reading of Revelation. If you are one of those, step off. Seriously. This is a book filled with signs and wonders and it has been used to abuse people over the centuries. If you haven't settled in your spirit the linkage between God and love, and you're looking for a blueprint for the end times, go back to Sunday's reading and reread it for the next 6 days. Seriously. Be a responsible reader of God's Word and don't seek to use it to manipulate God or others. Love them both instead and approach the world with an attitude of worship of God--it's affect your view...and it will result in both urgency and joy. Here we go...
A revealing of Jesus, the Messiah...written to the seven churches in Asia...so to churches, not to individuals, not to the whole world...to churches, to followers of Jesus Christ...
Made us a Kingdom, Priests for his Father forever...people from all nations and all times will see him. So from above and below the earth...living and dead...all will see him.
We assume the beginning was good...and that the end will be good, too, a new creation. A to Z. The middle can be challenging, and the middle is where we live. Along the way there are disappointments, contradictions, not-to-be-explained absurdities, bewildering paradoxes...each one reversing our hoped for expectations.
Last things. Eschatology. Pastoral...shows us how the ending affects the present in ways that the truth of the gospel can be put to use "in the middle," in the now, in the present.
Sunday I was in the Spirit praying...write this down...send it to the seven churches...I turned and saw the voice.
Fiery furnace...purifying, penetrating, transforming. The holiness of Christ gets inside us, and it changes us. Christ looks into us. That's the hope of our exposure to him in the pages of Revelation. It is a transforming hope that keeps us from shielding our eyes and looking away.
Don't fear. I've got the keys to unlock everything: death, hell, more. Start writing.
Ephesus. Hard work, endurance, tenacity, purity, courage, but you've walked away from your first love. Turn back and remember. Let your light shine. You do hate what I hate. That's good. Listen. I'm spreading a banquet. Both blessing and curse. You did well here. Could have done better here...you agree with me here. Come and eat. Not banished. LOVE.
Smyrna. Pain, poverty and wealth. Deception in the ranks. Don't fear. Don't quit. Don't stop believing. Listen. You are safe from devil-death. SUFFER
Pergamum. You didn't deny my name even under pressure. You did give in to some of my enemies. I'm coming soon. Listen. I'll give sacred food, a clear, smooth stone, and a new name. TELL THE TRUTH.
Thyatira. Love, faith, service, persistence. Deceived by Jezebel--idols. Appearances don't impress me; I can see right through. Hold onto the truth until I get there, and you'll rule the nations. Listen. BE HOLY.
Sardis. You're busy on the outside but you've got nothing on the inside. You're doing your work, not God's work-nothing is God's work. You're wallowing in the muck of the world's ways. A few of you do get it-they'll come with me. The rest of you ought to wake up and listen. BE AUTHENTIC.
Philadelphia. I've opened a door no one can shut. I'll strip off pretensions and expose pretenders. You kept my word in passionate patience. You'll be safe in the time of testing. Hold on tight. You'll be a pillar in the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, and my New Name. Listen. BE IN MISSION.
Laodicea. You're lukewarm, right in the middle, and this isn't Goldilocks; it's not a good thing. Stale. Stagnant. Bragging, unaware of your actual state. Half-naked. Get dressed by me. Get some eye medicine so you can really see. "The people I love I call to account-prod and correct and guide so they'll live at their best. Get up. Run after God! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I'll come in and be with you." Listen. WORSHIP.
Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.
"Prayer is the desire to listen to Christ firsthand, to speak to him firsthand, and then setting aside the time to do it. Prayer issues from the conviction that the living Christ is immensely important to me and that what goes on between us demands my exclusive attention. Christ knocks, hoping you will open the door and invite him to share his life with you, and your life with him. Prayer is the shared meal where that happens. If we fail to recognize that and don't open the door, we leave him standing outside, hungering for fellowship with us." EP
"The church is the place we come to find out what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. It is a place for correction and a place for hearing the promises of God. It's a place of motivation. We need affirmation, correction and motivation. Trained in the all cap/bold letters above. Church is the community who explicitly and consciously submit themselves to the direction and training of the Holy Spirit so that excellence is pursued in these seven areas. Strengths are recognized and developed; weaknesses are exposed and corrected. We get encouragement (no one is all bad); we get correction (no one is all good); we get motivation, acquiring the energy to endure the pain of growth to the joy of maturity.
"John neither complains about his churches nor glorifies them. He accepts them as facts. They are God's means for calling people together so they can realize who their Lord is and who they are, and develop the relationships that are coherent with those identities. Churches are messy family rooms. Things are out of order, but that's what happens when spaces are lived in. There's no evidence that churches were better or worse then, or today. Churches will be an embarrassment to the hard to please, and an affront to the holier than thou. They are a place where the light of Christ shows, but they are not the light themselves. A corrupt church still functions as a church."
What are some of your disappointments with the church at large? With your own church in particular? What are your disappointments with yourself as an individual member? How do you see the patient yet persistent grace of God at work in these areas?
A door into heaven opens. Deep worship. One throne circled by 24. 7 torches. Four animals: lion, ox, human face, eagle. Each winged with six wings. All eyes. Holy, Holy, Holy...Isaiah 6 all over again. Animals gave glory, Elders fell on their faces. Deep worship. Deep worship created by God, for God.
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