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Revelation 2:1-7,12-17 — Do these symptoms of spiritual decline match your spiritual symptoms?

I am blessed to be reminded of a few basic things in my reading of this passage again:

• I need not succumb to these symptoms of spiritual decline.
• God still claimed these churches as His own, even in their state at the time of receiving God’s messages. That didn’t make their various states safe. Neither does it mean that if my church can achieve to their good, God can live with their bad among us. Theirs were perilous states!
• God notices everything — both bad and good. He doesn’t become so incensed at and offended by the wrong that He misses or disregards the right.
• The good does not counterbalance or make up for the bad. No matter how much right I do or how much holiness I manifest, it does not make amends for my wrong. I must repent of my sin and return to Christlikeness in that area of failure.
• God reaches out to His people who slip or wander. His loving faithfulness and redemptive grace will not leave me alone. It behooves me to heed the concerns and corrections of those whom He sends to me with His message. I must not respond with a counterattack as though that will somehow lessen my guilt and my need for repentance. That is a contemptible, unrighteous, self-justifying, damnable response for it takes the place of and reveals a lack of godly sorrow and repentance.
• My first love for God is something to guard and cultivate. It is something to grow in, but never outgrow. It is something to build on, not walk away from. It is something to cherish, not replace and abandon.
• The solution to having left my first love is not to do more good, to somehow be more faithful otherwise. The solution spelled out by the Lover of my soul is a repentant return. Otherwise, I lose my place with Him and find myself on the wrong side of universal conflict…no matter how nicely my deeds seem to burnish my resum‚.
• God also clearly spells out the result of overcoming all that detracts from my first love:

• “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7).
• “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it” (Revelation 2:17).

I sit here and still remember how I sat there in stunned astonishmentRead it all

Revelation 1:4-18 — John, who saw the Word of life in the flesh, tells about seeing our glorified Lord in Heaven!

Here is how to read and respond to the Book of Revelation: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand” (Revelation 1:3). “Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book” (Revelation 22:7). We must obey our glorified Lord!

John began his first epistle by stating, “we have looked upon…the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). Day after day he had been around Jesus in His normal body. Then one day he got to see Jesus in a glorified state on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:2; Luke 9:29). He also saw Jesus after His body had been lashed and crucified. And several days after that awfulness, he saw Jesus in His resurrected body. Now in verses 13-16 of Revelation 1 John describes Jesus as he saw Him in an entirely different state. I wonder how that compares with what Stephen saw before he died (Acts 7:55).

Notice in verses 16 and 17 that Jesus touched John with His right hand…the one in which He held seven stars. I don’t know that there’s any significance to that; I just find it interesting. Read it all

Ezekiel 3:1-6,17-27 — the prophet’s call

It was around 597 BC. Thousands of dejected Hebrews were making the long trudge to Babylon. Among these vanquished exiles walked Ezekiel, a descendant of Levi and Aaron likely in his mid-twenties. As Daniel in the first Babylonian deportation less than ten years earlier, Ezekiel and other righteous suffered for the judgment of God on His idolatrous people. The destruction of Jerusalem loomed eleven short years in the future. Would Ezekiel heed the prophet’s call?

In the fifth year of his captivity, God called Ezekiel into prophetic service as a watchman for God’s people in exile. His duty would be to warn the people, let them know that God is the LORD, and point them to the coming restoration and renewal. God wanted His words to find lodging in Ezekiel’s heart. He wanted Ezekiel to listen in such as a way as to make God’s message his own.

God made very plain to Ezekiel the responsibility he had for the souls of his fellow Israelites. God put on Ezekiel the burden of the watchman: Your life for the life of your people. If Ezekiel failed to deliver God’s warning, God would require their blood at his hand. If Ezekiel faithfully delivered God’s warning and they ignored it to their death, Ezekiel was free before God. Read it all

1 Timothy 5:1-8, 16-25 — sound church administration and relating to others in the church

Relating to one another in the church

• Show respect to those of any age group, but especially older Christians.
• Provide for widows who have no family to support them.
• Respect church leaders and support them financially.
• Respectfully address failures.
• Do not show partiality.

Parakaleo (Strong’s 3870) means “to call near” and can be translated by words such as admonish, beg, comfort, encourage, exhort, or teach. Or intreat, as in verse one of today’s Scripture text.

In this chapter we see the word rebuke twice. It is forbidden in verse 1 and commanded in verse 20! We can explain this apparent contradiction by consulting Strong’s Concordance and its Greek dictionary.

• verse 1 — epiplesso (Strong’s 1969) = “to chastise”; ie (with words) to upbraid — used this time
• verse 20 — elegcho (Strong’s 1651) = “to confute, admonish” — see other ways rendered in KJV

From that mini word study, we can safely conclude that we shouldn’t upbraid an elder or speak harshly to him. Even if we must confront him about sin, we should admonish him respectably and with proper honor. Read it all

1 Timothy 2 — serving the Lord acceptably with prayer and thanksgiving

Nobody should be beyond our prayers. I struggle with this: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions…be made for all men” (1 Timothy 2:1). With more than six billion people on the planet, how do I respond to this exhortation?! Even if I cut the numbers back to my church family alone (and I don’t think God wants me to limit my praying that way), I don’t see how I can pray for everyone.

That’s why I say, “Nobody should be beyond our prayers.” When I become aware of my need to pray for a particular individual, I should pray. No matter who he is. No matter what she’s said about me. No matter the state of our relationship. I must pray for that person. Period.

Nobody should be beyond our thanksgiving. Here is the missing piece from the above verse: “and giving of thanks.” Oh my! Give thanks for everyone and anyone?! That strikes me as even more impossible than praying for everyone! But that is what the Bible says, so what’s in this clause for me?

No matter who, no matter what — purposefully find something for which to give thanks. Is this a call to feel thankful? No, it seems to be more of a call to give thanks, without regard to my feelings. I do believe, though, that giving thanks can eventually lead to feeling thankfulness.

Regarding some people, this takes more Read it all