Planes, Trains and Automobiles - Rev 2

OK so this morning is somewhat less comfortable then yesterday morning.

This morning I had to slot myself in between two gents. My elbow room is nil. In fact it's actually less then nil. Now I’ve leant back in fact I don’t think that I’ll be able to get up again until they move.

But hey… they can still probably read this over my shoulders so I think I’ll write about something else.

If I’m not mistaken, this morning is November 1^st… which means that last night was Halloween. What a ridiculous invention that was. Unfortunately we didn’t have anyone knocking on our door asking for trick or treats… That’s a lie… we didn’t have anyone knock on the door when I was there. My mum, the poor unsuspecting soul that she is, answered to one lad, only to turn the lad away empty handed. Fortunately we didn’t have any tricks played on us.

*E* came round last night. I have to apologise to her as last nights romantic activities comprised of me tidying my room and her being bored senseless. On the plus side, I did show her some card tricks that I had found. And I also moved my drawers back to their rightful place at my right hand of my desk…

Down to proper business now however. It’s time for the Revelation!

Revelation 2

To the Church in Ephesus

¹“To the angel^£ of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: ²I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

⁴Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. ⁵Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ⁶But you have this in your favour: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

To the Church in Smyrna

⁸“To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. ⁹I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

¹¹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.

To the Church in Pergamum

¹²“To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. ¹³I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.

¹⁴Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. ¹⁵Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

To the Church in Thyatira

¹⁸“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

²⁰Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²²So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. ²⁴Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): ²⁵Only hold on to what you have until I come.

²⁶To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—

²⁷ ‘He will rule them with an iron sceptre;

he will dash them to pieces like pottery’^£—

just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸I will also give him the morning star. ²⁹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Whoa… that’s a lot right there. I remember when we had this Revelation book expounded at church. They took a different Angels’ message each week. I am therefore not going to try to go into the detail which would often be necessary when looking at these things.

Rather I’m just going to comment on a couple of things that are quite interesting (to me at least).

Firstly, Nicolations… these were well… if you go to this link…

http://goodnewschristianministry.org/footnote_R101.htm

you’ll exactly why there is a problem here…

Now if anyone wanted proof that God is prepared to search out His wandering sheep, here it is. Those at the church in Ephesus have wandered from their first love. Yet God reminds them prior to removing their lampstand, giving the church an opportunity to re-focus on where they were heading and straighten up their operation.

Just like this for believers now! Read this passage as a wake up call to centre yourself back on the calling you have received! This is a battlefield, it has been said. Following that analogy, a soldier who is facing the wrong way is not useful, and will be removed from duty. Only the punishment in the case of Ephesus is far more grave. The removal of their lampstand, a symbol for the church itself, is clearly something that should be fought for.

Secondly then, Smyrna appears to be the only church which doesn’t have something against them… This doesn’t mean that they are a perfect church by any means. It shows God’s compassion, and caring Shepherd like nature, the church at Smyrna was clearly undergoing some kind of pressure and they needed to be picked up and held by a comforting hand. Check out the reassurance – “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer” It doesn’t pull any punches. God states there will likely be something to suffer. And yet, reminds that there should be no worrying! Not only because of who has got their back, but also reminds the church of the future prize. Something we often lose sight of these days. We often get bogged down in, “Oh, it’s ok to suffer, as Jesus suffered, so should we…” we often lose sight of a couple of things, opposite in their nature.

1 – We lose sight of the future glory that has been promised! This Promise is just as real as the air in your lungs or the screen that you are reading this on.

2 – We lose sight of the fact that even in these last days we have the very same God who was issuing the comfort to the church in Smyrna, working for us on our behalf these days.

Recently we had the privilege, hope he doesn’t blush, of having Andrew King preaching at our congregation in little old Haywards Heath. His sermons on Jacob were fantastic. One sermon was on Genesis 28 verses 10 to the end. The account details the dream Jacob had at the newly named Bethel. And in particular God working through His angels to work all things for the good of those who love Him. This was a great sermon and those of you who want to hear it really should, and I'm trying to find out when we are going to get the sermons from our services on the internet so you can all listen to it. Jacobs ladder was renamed Jacobs staircase though it was discussed that this still did not do justice to the concept being portrayed of Angels being constantly sent back and forth, a very active turnover of beings sorting thongs out. Wow! How good is that?

Right, matter at hand...

Basically I had to keep writing this at home because the computer battery died on the train. I'm real tired and gonna have to go to bed...
I may finish my writings tomo... probably best as there's so much going on in this passage! and it keeps relating to other things I wanna write about.

So I bid you all a fond farewell and hope that you all read and post replies back.
Take care one and all!

[listening to: Jason Mraz: various short songs]
[contemplating: how tired I really am]