the Lord has been working wonders in my life recently, i’ve been seeing him move around me so clearly and it’s such an honor. but my favorite part is what he shows me when i’m studying his word. there has been so much on my heart and mind regarding what God calls us to and what he wants for and from my life recently and as i’ve spent this year reading the bible cover to cover i have caught glimpses of what he’s trying to teach me in this season. but as i’m finishing up my reading in revelation he’s wrapping it up all so clearly to me. it all seems so simple yet so hard to really grasp.
i feel as though hes been truly revealing to me so much of his character that i’ve never been able to honestly grasp. slowly revealing to me how much he actually loves me and allowing me to hold on to it, showing me how much he adores and and calls me worthy, showing me how intentionally he made me exactly the way i am and has such perfect plans for my life. i’ve read revelation before, but reading revelation 1:13-18 this time caught my attention in a way different than before.
“and standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. he was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. his head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. and his eyes were like flames of fire. his feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. he held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword came from his mouth. and his face was like the sun in all it’s brilliance. when i saw him, i fell at his feet as if i were dead. but he laid his right hand on me and said, ‘don’t be afraid! I am the first and the last. i am the living one. i died, but look—i am alive forever and ever! and i hold the keys of death and the grave.'”
read it again. and again. it’s hard to stop reading it. to take my eyes off of the wonder that is the Lord we serve. the one who created us and loves us and holds us perfectly in his hand. his voice like the ocean and his eyes like fire. his face like the sun in all of it’s brilliance. and someone that mighty and incredible and terrific thought we were worthy enough to give up his life for, to take our place. i have a very hard time comprehending love like that, because it’s so far from what is normal in our world today. where love is self-centered and conditional. we have a hard time seeing God as who he really is, because our minds can’t comprehend any more than what we physically see. we make him small in our minds and under estimate him because we don’t know how to understand something bigger than us. in our heads, we are the biggest and most important. but Jesus wants us to understand something; we are not the biggest or most important, in fact we are the smallest and dirtiest and least important. but we are to stand confident and humble in the fact that someone as brilliant and powerful as Christ has found us worthy, not because of anything we did or could ever do, but because he made us and loves us and sees us as beautiful, and he has taken our place so that if we want, we can spend eternity in heaven worshiping and sitting alongside the one whose face shines like the sun. i don’t know about you, but that’s a deal i want to take.
but there is a condition that we also see in revelation, Jesus doesn’t want half of us or our leftovers or to live on the sidelines of our lives, he wants everything. read chapter 3:15-21
“i know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. i wish that you were one or the other! but since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, i will spit you out of my mouth! you say, ‘i am rich. i have everything i want. i don’t need a thing!’ and you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. so i advise you to buy gold from me–gold that has been purified by fire. then you will be rich. also buy white garments from me so you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so you will be able to see. i correct and discipline everyone i love. so be diligent and turn from your indifference. look! i stand at the door and knock. if you hear my voice and open the door, i will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as i was victorious and sat with my father on his throne.”
here Jesus is literally telling us he would rather us be cold and against him, than be lukewarm and give half of ourselves to him. thats harsh being that most of american christians these days live lukewarm, putting Jesus into their sunday mornings and maybe some of their friendships, but not into their every day and all the time. giving him full control and glory in their lives. what would it look like if we all started living completely for him? giving up our lukewarm comfort and giving him our all?
but theres more to see about Christ’s character in this passage too, he is naturally welcoming and nurturing. he’s telling us were wretched and miserable and naked, but he’s offering us everything we could ever need. he’s offering us white robes, clear sight, and gold, so that we can be truly rich in him. he’s asking us to simply just answer his knock so he can clean us all up and put us back together and fulfill our hearts and souls.
the best part of this story are his promises for those who follow his requests. the ones who answer his knock and give him full control in their lives and follow his word and commands, the promises are simply incomparable to anything the world could ever give us. listen to this.
“i know all the things you do, and i have opened a door for you that no one can close. you have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. look, i will force those who belong to satan’s synagogue–those liars who say they are jews but are not–to come and bow down at your feet. they will acknowledge that you are the ones i love. because you have obeyed my command to persevere, i will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. i am coming soon, hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown. all who are victorious will become pillars in the temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. and i will write on them the name of my God, and they will be citizens in the city of my God—the new jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. and i will also write on them my new name.” revelation 3:8-12
do you see these promises? he is opening a door for us to spend eternity with him in paradise. he is making satans people bow at our feet before us and admit that we are the ones Christ loves (the idea of people bowing at my feet seems very uncomfortable to me but the very fact that Christ thinks i am worthy to have people bow before me is incredible). he will protect us from testing and trial and everything that those of the world have to endure. he has given us a crown and doesn’t want anyone to take it away from us. he has called us victorious and is giving us a place in God’s temple. he is going to write the name of God on us so that the Lord knows we are worthy to enter his city. and he is going to give us a new name, making us a new creation in him.
remember the God we read about in the first passage, with fire eyes and hair as white as snow and a voice like the ocean? this is what he wants for us. victory and a life in paradise. this is what he offers us, if we will give him our all and answer his knock. it seems easier said than done for sure, but also beyond worth it. i know i am far from worthy of this kind of love and life with Christ, but i am going to do my best to take his gift and offer with delight because i know he gave up everything to love me like this and to wash me clean. i don’t want to waste it.
theres one more command we find in revelation, or i suppose we could call it command motivation. we’ve all heard the great commission, we are called to go to the ends of the earth and to make disciples. but if we’re honest, we hear that and think “sounds nice, someone else will take care of that.” but revelation cuts that excuse right down the middle, because this is what those who do not know the Lord and do not answer his knock will have to endure.
“then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and i saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. when he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke. then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions. they were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. they were told not to kill them but to torture them for five months with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting. in those days people will seeks death but will not find it. they will long to die, but death will flee from them! the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. they had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion. they wore armor made of iorn, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle. they had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people. their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in hebrew is abaddon, and in greek, apollyon–the destroyer. he first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!” revelation 9:1-12
take a deep breath. we can be honest, that was hard to read, hard to keep our eyes fixed on, very different than the first passage we read. my first thoughts when i read this are how thankful i am; thankful that the Lord called me and that i answered and that he has saved me from having to endure this. this is what we all deserve, but its what he took when he sacrificed himself, taking our place. but the next thing i feel is guilty; i feel guilty when i think of all of the people who will still have to endure this. those who have decided to not follow in the path of the Lord will have to endure this and much more, as we saw that was only the first of the terrors. it makes me feel guilty that i don’t tell people more.
matthew 28:19-20 says “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you. and behold, i am with you always, to the end of the age.”
this is our great mission in life, this is what he calls us too, and this is what hes been allowing me to understand more and more. the urgency of this command. the importance of it. i want the ones i love, and even the ones i don’t even know, to experience the God that we read about in the first passage. i want everyone on earth to be able to experience that wonder. and i want them to grasp his love and adoration for them and follow him with their lives so that they too will not have to endure these things that are promised to the earth. but if i want that to happen, i have to tell them about it. i have to show them how incredible of a God we serve, and how much that God loves them and sacrificed for them and wants them to live with him in eternity. another thing easier said than done. but this is bigger than our reputations, our fears of being laughed at or rejected, our fears of not knowing the perfect words to say, this is bigger than us.
think about how much our God has done for us, think about the fact that we no longer need to worry about condemnation or hell or suffering or all of those terrors this earth is going to have to endure. think of him hanging on that cross naked and ashamed and bruised and beaten and laughed at. he gave us one simple command that is supposed to be the mission of our lives, “go and make disciples”. think of how much he has done for us. how much are we willing to do for him?
Taylor Magnuson 