Rev. 1:4-8. The promised blessing in verse 3 involves us reading the words of Revelation out loud, truly hearing it, and taking it to heart. As noisy as our minds are, we may have to shout the words out just to get the Word in edgewise! The blessing is dependent on our grabbing hold of these truths, keeping them, and responding to them in action. It's His nature to bless and give. He designed our nature to receive with thanksgiving.
From the Father, to the Son, to the Angel, to John, "grace and peace to you". My heart needs to hear those words today. I think we as a whole are desperate for grace and peace to be real in our lives. I'm sure glad He's offering up grace and peace to us and not the opposite. I hope I will be the type of man that offers grace and peace to others.
I like how He listed "from Him who is" first in the list of "who was and who is to come". I'm glad for He who was and I'm definitely thankful for He who is to come, but I sure need to know that "He is" right now for me. I need Him right now. And I'm going to need Him in the "right now" of tomorrow too.
It's a simple truth, but my heart needs to be reassured that Jesus is the One on the throne as ruler of the kings of the earth, as mentioned in verse 6. All the kings. Every one of them. I hope to keep putting Jesus on the throne of my heart as well.
He loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood! This is cause for great celebration! Let your heart rejoice! There are days, somebody needs to grab me by the nape of my neck and shout out this truth into my soul to wake me from my doldrums. Oh, how I let this truth get clouded by concerns. This fact should stimulate me to praise and worship! Danny boy, where is your joy? He's making us into a kingdom of priests to serve Him! That's what we were created for and that's where we are headed. To Him be the glory! Why are we still resisting that calling and purpose? How can we expect to live out our lives for ourselves, only to die, and then begin serving and bringing Him glory in heaven? Let's be about serving Him now. Let's be about bringing Him glory today. Think about the miracle this describes. It makes sense that in heaven, God has spiritual beings worshipping, serving, and bringing Him glory. Consider being a part of a living miracle, where a fallen, but redeemed, sinful creature, such as ourselves, makes a willful decision to worship, serve, and bring Him glory even while still in the flesh. Now, that's awesome. Let's do this.
"He is coming with the clouds...every eye will see...all will mourn..." This isn't the rapture of His church, but a flash forward to a picture of His second coming to establish His kingdom on earth. It's public. Everyone will see. People will mourn when they see the Truth appear. Let's get this right while we still have time. Revelation was written to reveal the glory of Jesus that we might be ready for His coming. He's the Alpha and Omega: the beginning and ending of the Greek alphabet. That means He is the bookends to every conceivable word possibly created with all the letters in between to form His Word. We are about to get into it. Buckle up your seat belt. It's going to be quite a ride.
