Revelation #2

Revelation 1:4-5



4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:



Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood



As we continue on today in our Revelation study please remember to open them Bibles! In verse 4 we start out by being reminded that John is penning these words. These verses today are part of the greeting to the seven churches that are in Roman Asia. Seven is a number of completeness in the Bible so this means he is addressing the whole church. John give us a greeting from God who is the "him" in verse 4. Remember Exodus 3:14 here:



Exodus 3:14



14God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"



and also Jesus in Hebrews 13:8:

Hebrews 13:8



8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.



The seven in verse 4 refer to the the complete Holy Spirit....remember seven means complete. In the book of Isaiah the seven qualities of the Holy Spirit are listed:



Isaiah 11:2



2And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and might,

the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.



The greeting also comes from Jesus. The it lists some characteristics of Jesus..."faithful witness" of all things from God since Jesus has always been! "the first born of the dead" refers to Jesus being the first resurrected from the dead. "the ruler of kings on earth" reminds us that Jesus in King of kings and Lord of lords and one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess this fact!



Verse 5 closes by reminding us of a very important truth HE LOVES US and has proved that love by freeing us from our sins by shedding His blood on the cross for our sins! Oh thank you Jesus!



Wow this is some good stuff to grasp onto! To God be the glory!



Tom

Revelation #1

For a few weeks I am going to look at The book of Revelation. I want to give a shout out to Harold Hunter whose book has helped me understand Revelation better than any other. I hope these posts may also help you understand the book better too!



Revelation 1:1-3



1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.



First, I want you to look at the title of the Chapter in your Bible. Please use your Bible during this study!!!! It may say "The revelation of John" or something like that. That is NOT a correct title! Why do I say that? Look at the first verse. It is the revelation of Jesus! Who revealed it to John! Very important to know that. Verse one goes on to say God gave Jesus this revelation to show his servants the things that MUST take place soon. Servants are those who have given their lives to Jesus! The word" must" shows us that the following Words in Revelation WILL take place...it is a promise from God! God made these things known to John by an angel. Verse 2 tells us the angel brought forth to John what he had seen and heard from God and Jesus. Verse 3 tells us those of us who read this book, listen to this book, and uphold what is in this book will be blessed!! A promise from God! Then Jesus reminds the time of these prophecies are near!



A couple of other things I want you to see as we get started:



#1 Revelation has two main themes: A. Who Jesus is and B. Where we are going!

#2 Chapter 1 talks about the past. Chapters 2+3 talk about the present. Chapters 4-22 talk about the future.



Now that should give you something to think about this morning. I hope you enjoy this study as much as I know I will!



God bless and share this with others!



Tom

Reflections from Ecuador. #5

This will be my last reflection from Ecuador. God taught me so many things there. What I share today may be the one thing that has continued to keep coming back to mind. So here it is:



Have you ever wondered why you were chosen by God to live here in the USA while others were chosen to live in various other parts of the world? If you have never been to a different country this may be hard for you to understand. You still can think of pats of our country where folks are not as blessed as you. Why has God blessed me the way he has and others have to struggle so much? Now I am not rich by any means....in my eyes anyway. BUT if you were task folks in other areas around the world they would say with out hesitation that I am rich. Have you ever thought about that? I have a great responsibility with the life God has blessed me with and so do you. God has blessed me so I can bless others. God is very clear in scripture that we are not to be hoarders of things and not to be putting our trust in things moths and rust can destroy. God has blessed us with the expectations that we will use those blessings to bless others in HIS name to bring HIM glory. Are you doing that???? Am I? In Ecuador we had three teachers that held a teaching clinic for teachers in Ecuador to encourage them and to give advice on how to be a better teacher. We could not believe the amount of teachers that showed up! It was a huge success and they want them to come back to share with them more! What really left a mark on me was we had gift bags for each teacher...simple stuff like erasers, pencils, pens, glue, markers, and calculators. Many who received these bags had tears running down their checks in appreciation. WOW! If we gave something like that away here at home.....well you know what the reaction would be!



God has put you where you are at for a reason. The question for each of us this morning is are we doing all God wants us to with blessings He has given to each of us....think very hard about it!



Tom



P.s. The picture is of the teacher gathering in Ecuador.

Reflections from Ecuador. #4

While in Ecuador our Missionaries, Jared and Elisabeth, shared with us one night. They used this verse in telling us about their call to Ecuador. It has stuck with me and I wanted to share it with you. Here it is:



1 Thessalonians 2:8



8 So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.



As followers of Christ this should be a verse for all of us to grab onto. God has placed us where we are for a reason. The main reason is to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we talked about yesterday, if we love our neighbors as Christ commands then this verse should fit perfectly into our lives. We should have a deep desire to bring folks we come into contact with the good news of Jesus. The best way to earn the right to share Jesus is by pouring ourselves into people with our lives and love them unconditionally. All people should b dear to us because they were created by God. This verse sums up what God expects from us!



So this morning take a close look at the verse and then your life and ask yourself if you are meeting up to the expectations of Jesus!



Tom

Reflections from Ecuador. #3

Today let's take a closer look at the second part of what Jesus said are the two greatest commandments.



Matthew 22:39



39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’



The first thing I would like to point out is you can not do this second greatest commandment if you are not doing the first. You can try but to fulfill it like Christ desires we must have God first. We must be loving God with all out heart , mind, soul, and strength! Loving others is not easy. Matter of fact is is very hard. When Christ talks about our neighbors here He is referring to anyone we come in contact with each day. They are our neighbor. Now think about that. Do you love everyone you come in contact with as much as you love yourself? No you don't unless you are walking with the Lord and you are filled with the Holy Spirit. We must have that super natural power because we can not do it on our own. Jesus loves everyone and He expects us to do the same. Do we? Jesus even tells us to love our enemies. Do we? Remember who He prayed for when on the cross? The very people who put Him there...that is love and our example.



In Ecuador our team loved the people. It seemed easier to do when you don't see them everyday. At home it is much harder to love those whom you know much more about. We can not make excuses....we are to love our neighbors like Jesus loves us!



Tom

Reflections from Ecuador. #2

While in Ecuador I was studying this verse over and over. I asked you yesterday to spend some time thinking about all of the verses in Matthew 22:37-40. Look at this verse again:



Matthew 22:37



37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’



As we were ministering to the people of Ecuador I had to ask myself ....am I living this verse everyday of my life? It is easy to do on a mission trip. But when I am at home and in the everyday routine, do I give everything to God? Is all of my heart into serving God? If I was honest I would say some days yes and some days no. God has blessed me so greatly and He deserves all of me in Ecuador and at home! What about my soul? It longs for heaven but some days it longs for the things of the world. It hurts to say that but it is true. When I take my eyes off of Jesus, that is when I mess up and my soul desires the things of the world. The solution is easy....stay focused on Christ! What about my mind? My mind wants Christ and desires Christ but yet again if I don't keep my thoughts in check, my mind wanders to worldly things. When this happens I am not loving God the way He desires! I pray this morning I will stay faithful and love God the way He deserves.......with ALLLLLL my heart, mind, and soul.



I found myself in Ecuador feeling sorry for the things they do not have that we have here. As I know think about it, it may be a blessing not to have many of the distractions we have here as it tends to pull us away from God not closer.



Tom

Reflections from Ecuador. #1

I have just returned from a mission trip to Ecuador. I was able to see many of my friends from a previous visit and made many new friends. My wife and I were talking about how hard it is to leave there because of the love we have for our friends and the people. Our hearts hurt in love for our friends. God laid some things on my heart there that I want to share the next few days....I pray they will speak to you also.



I was reading a book called "What Jesus demands from us." By John Piper. On of my days reading really spoke to me. It was reflecting on what Jesus says are the two greatest commandments. Here is the scripture:



Matthew 22:37-40



37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”



For today I just want you to read these verses very slowly and think about them. Let God speak to you through them. Evaluate your self. What is the key word or words in these verses?????



Tomorrow we will break them down! And I will talk about some of the things God revealed to me in Ecuador!



Tom