Good day dear friends.
Prayers for a safe holiday weekend are in order. I would ask for rain but the last time we did that we had severe flooding and we don't need that! If you're traveling, please be safe. Enjoy the freedom to travel but don't neglect or take for granted your freedom to worship.
Here is our continuation of our study on Jesus' "I AM the resurrection and the life" statement.
Thursday: Read Revelation 7:13-17 and 21:1-7 In this “uncovering” as the title “Revelation” mean, what is “uncovered” about the life after this one? What are the continued promises revealed to the author of John? How do they speak to you?
The Book of Revelation means "the uncovering" or "revealing" as shared with John the Apostle. In it we find this first text from chapter 7:
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?" 14 I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. 16 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; 17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
And from that same last book of the Bible, chapter 21:
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." 5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6 Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
Leave it to God to share with us one last book just in case we didn't believe His Son. Leave it to God to share a book where the "final things" are uncovered and revealed to one of the believers. Both passages are similar in that they speak of life beyond this world. The entire book, even with some of its confusing passages, shares what John saw while exiled on the Isle of Patmos. On a "Lord's day," while remembering he would have been in worship, was allowed this vision of what lies beyond. The promises of a place where we could be with Jesus is mentioned. A place where life is present is what is shared in this book. A place where where hunger, thirst, heat, tears, death, mourning, crying, pain, etc. will be NO more; this is shared with John as he's told, "Write this down."
It is still our choice to believe, as Jesus asked Martha back in John 11. You don't have to believe either. Your choice. What do you lose by believing? Nothing really. What do you gain? A whole new perspective on life that no one can take away. It's here where it doesn't hurt to have a childlike trust in what our heavenly Father has shared with us about the neverending care He has for us. If you stop and think about the wonderful blessings that have come in the form of loved ones, dear friends, close colleagues, etc., would you want to believe in a God whose powers are so limited that you would never see these folks again? I think not. My faith says we live a better life right now trusting in a God who has already provided for a great life in the hereafter.
PRAYER: God of neverending life, we praise You and thank You for what You have shared in Your word. Speak clearly to us today the message of hope and love that is ours. Keep constant in us the memory and joy of those who have passed on to be with You, and let us live our lives in ways that show our faith in You. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day!
e.v.
