Write the things which thou hast seen
and the things which are
and the things which shall be hereafter
The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand
and the seven golden candlesticks.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches
and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches
...
(((John is being requested to write the things he had just seen. The things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. Amazing isn't it? Asked to write the things which are- something we all could do. I could sit here and write about the things I'm seeing right now without a problem- what I can't do is write about how things will be in the future because I don't know the future. John is being asked to write about things which shall be hereafter - that's the future - prophecy.
John is told - the mystery of the seven stars which he saw in Jesus' right hand and the seven golden candlesticks.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. Seven stars- seven angels of the seven churches.
The seven candlesticks are the seven churches.
God's people make up God's church. The perfect church. The true church. God's people throughout all time. God's people from then and hereafter- future.
God's people will one day be before Him. There is no wonder that the seven candlesticks represent the perfectness of God's people before Him.
The mystery was revealed. John saw a vision and the vision was interpreted.))))
...
Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write;
These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand,
who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks
I know thy works,
and thy labour,
and thy patience,
and how thou canst not bear them which are evil
and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles,
and are not
and hast found them liars
And hast borne
and hast patience
and for my name’s sake hast laboured
and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee
because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen
and repent
and do the first works
or else I will come unto thee quickly
and will remove thy candlestick out of his place
except thou repent.
But this thou hast,
that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes,
which I also hate.
He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life
which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
(((Unto the angel write- the seven stars in Jesus' hand were the seven angels of the churches. John was to write to the first of those angels - the angel of the church of Ephesus.
Jesus who was and is, who died and lives, the alpha and omega; Jesus who holds the seven stars, the seven angels, who walks among the seven churches- Jesus who lives among His people. This message was being sent to them by Jesus' and the message was...))))
...
'I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not and hast found them liars and has borne and hast patience and for my name's sake hast laboured and hast not fainted.'
...
(((God's people working, their laboring, their patience, their abhorance of those who do evil and claim to follow God, their patience all for Jesus and without fainting- Jesus recognizes it all! The work does not go unnoticed and yet there is more He notices.))))
...
'Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent.'
(((Jesus has somewhat against the first church, against His people, those who lived when the apostles lived and this message is for all time because we learn from mistakes of the past don't we? Shouldn't we? If we don't learn from mistakes then we are guilty of being negligent aren't we? Of not learning when we had everything available to us to learn.
Jesus has somewhat against His people of Ephesus, He says- Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love.
Thy first love.
How easy it is to leave our first love in all things. Think about it. How many things have you once love and no longer love? How many things do you love but not in the same way? Most people who have experienced love understand how easy it is to lose that newness of first love. When we lose our first love with Jesus what are we losing? Our first love - losing it is losing what it's all truly about. If we lose Jesus as first and foremost in our lives then we've lost it all. Anything that comes before Jesus will only get in the way of Jesus. We can't lose our first love of Jesus. The love is everlasting and if we find ourselves putting anything before the love of Jesus we need to repent. We have to keep Jesus as our first love.))))
...
'Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent, and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent.'
(((Remember! Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent! Repent! Do the first works. Works brought on by having the first love Jesus. Jesus first! Or else Jesus will come quickly and take away the fact you are God's people. You will no longer be God's people, because the candlestick is the church, the church is God's people, and if the candlestick is taken away then the consequence is the people that were once making up the church are no longer the same people making up the church. Repent.
Repent- ask for forgiveness and return to the first love, to putting Jesus first above all else. Amazing advice, amazing encouragement, loving guidance from the source of Love. May we all heed the advice given to us by our Lord and Savior! By His mercy and grace may we repent and keep Him our first love, forever!
Amen.))))
8/24/10
Heb 2:5 For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
Salvation. We are saved for a purpose, for life eternal. We are saved from this world that isn't anything like the world we need and long to be from. We are saved from eternal death, from eternal nothingness, from eternal darkness and given life in Christ from whom all love flows. We only get glimpses, tiny glimpses into the world of unconditional love, unselfish love, teeny tiny insights in our lives that are all markers pointing us to the one unconditional, unselfish love that saves us. We can look on the outside of people and some appear to be very unselfish, and very Christ-like, but the fact remains we don't know their hearts. By their fruit we shall know them and some appear to have the best fruit in the world- so Christ-like it puts us to total shame. What it comes down to is our own lives- because they are the only thing we really know. I know my heart and wish it were more Christ-like. I know my failings, my sins, my inner evils just as you all know your own. We can ask for forgiveness, we can repent, and we can be saved! We can be given the world to come. We can hope for a place in that world ruled by love in its purest form without sin marring anything. We can pray and have faith that we will be in that world to come a world that angels will be in subjection to.
1. Being in a position or in circumstances that place one under the power or authority of another or others
Pasted from <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/subjection>
Angels will be under the power and authority of God. We will share in that world with God, with angels. God's power, God's authority will always and forever be supreme! God- from whom ALL blessings flow.
Angels- spiritual beings we imagine act of their own accord but God's angels are all in subjection to God and do the bidding of the Lord. Does this mean they are enslaved to God? Some would have you believe that's exactly what is means, that God wants to make us all slaves to Him. That's not true, not true at all whatsoever. When you serve the one you love, when you put yourself into subjection of the one you love to obey them you are NOT a slave to them. Freely the love is given, freely the serving is offered. The angels consider themselves blessed to serve God. While the devil would have us twist things and make subjection to God seem like a punishment, and evil all on its own, it's a lie from the father of lies.
*
Heb 2:6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Heb 2:7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands
Psa 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Psa 8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Psa 8:6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
Psa 8:7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
Psa 8:8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
Psa 8:9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
Man- made a little lower than the angels and yet crowned with glory and honor.
There have been movies about angels detesting humans because God made angels to be above them and yet has crowned them with glory and honor. Angels of God by their very nature minister unto man all through love, there is no animosity though Satan would have us believe there is. Satan would have us put our sinful nature onto the unfallen angels and give them traits that fallen humans have, or that evil fallen angels have. It's not like that at all.
What is man? We are God's creation. We are so important to Him that His Son took on our flesh and became human so He could save us through the sacrifice of Himself. We don't understand, we can't understand just how important we are to God, just how much He loves us. Our love towards God is unequaled to His love for us and our righteousness is filthy, unequal to Christ's pure righteousness that we so desperately need to claim while giving up our selfish need to believe we can be righteous on our own.
Praise God for His amazing LOVE! Praise God!
May we fully be immersed in the Love of God, may we live for the world to come where self is nothing compared to selflessness in Christ.
By His glory, by His grace!
Amen.
8/24/11
The
Beginning and the End
Rev 1:8 'I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and
which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. '
Rev 1:4 'John to the seven churches which are
in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and
which is to come…'
The
similarities right there within such a short bit of writing
between verse 4 and 8 means what?
Usually
we call such repetitiveness redundant and any writer worth their salt would
have deleted such reiteration as unnecessary use of words. Change things up we
say; learn how to say the same thing in a new way so it doesn't come off as
repetitive. But here in the Bible we know for a fact that the writers of this
holy book got it right the first time with no need for an editors sharp pen to
run through any lines and make little notations to change things up a bit.
These are God's words to man through the Holy Spirit inspiring them to write,
and if these are
holy words we are reading they are being written for a reason. If there is any
repetition it is there for a reason as well, there to show emphasis perhaps?
There to indicate important knowledge that we shouldn't overlook. The Bible
isn't a novel, the Bible is a unique book, and the message it holds for any who
reads it is also unique.
Read
the beginning of Revelation and these words- which
is, which
was, which
is to come, we can find again further along in another chapter of
Revelation--
Rev.
{4:8} '...saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and
is to come.'
There
is no mistaking the importance of this is there? The fullness glorified in
those words is amazing. The Alpha and the Omega - the beginning and the ending.
Through it ALL the Lord is present, in all stages- past, present, and future.
Never was there a time, and never will there be a time without the Lord living
in it, never.
People
tend to read the Bible as if it's OLD news, or confusing and complicated, and
for those interested in such things, but certainly not a book for
everybody. People look for the
spectacular all over the place. People thrive watching movies, reading books,
all about the supernatural and one of the supernatural beings that fascinates
them is the vampire who can supposedly live forever and ever. The idea of a
being living hundreds of centuries, thousands of years is just incredible and
secretly people wish they were able to live that long- that they could be one
of these beings with this power over death in life, not power over death and
living on another plane of existence after death or at some future time. The
wondrous idea of being able to live among finite creatures holds an allure that
has captured the imagination of many people and it's no wonder- Satan's lie way
back in the garden of Eden was what? Gen. {3:4} 'And the serpent said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die.'
Power
over death. Satan has His own brand of life and he offers the allure of living
forever in any way that pleases man so long as man doesn't believe in living
forever through Jesus' Christ. Did God lie when He told Adam and Eve they would
die? No. We are living proof of that fact and yet Satan will use all the tricks
He can to get us to believe that we can live forever without God.
Satan
was a created being. Satan can not lay hold of the claim that he is from the
beginning, yet he would have people think he is. He wants people to believe
that he is God. That they too can be God. It's no joke. There are a lot of
people searching for inner power and laying claim to their lives and finding
empowerment from themselves. In fact there are a whole slew of people who will
try and convince you that you are the captain of your own ship, the ruler of
your own destiny, the power over a good life is in your own hands. The stress
on self is the same lie satan used at the start. Gen. {3:5} 'For God doth know
that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be
as gods, knowing good and evil.' Do you hear the lies? Yet that same lie is
being spouted today and embraced as something wonderful. People want to be as
gods. People want to believe they have a godly power.
Truthfully,
while we get all caught up in the fantasy and lies of satan, while he projects
his evil into every facet of our lives. When we find a certain hope or wish
fulfillment from reading of beings that live forever we are showing that we
do have a
need for such hope in our lives- only Satan has twisted it and pulled it down to
the level of man as men exist full of sin-- the very opposite of the truth.
There
is a being who 'was, is, and is to come', God.
There
will never be a time without God. Never. He is all.
He
is the beginning and the end, there is nothing before and nothing after God.
We
can struggle to find understanding and bring God down to our level and we can
even pretend we are gods ourselves, but realizing that as creatures of the
Creator we will never be the Creator ourselves is paramount. There is no shame
in a son wanting to be like his father, but there is shame in the son wanting to
be the father as if the father never was, as if the father isn't, and as if the
father will no longer be. If you want to be like your father that's a good thing
if you are embracing the good qualities of your father. But if you want to push
your father aside and take his place, that's not so good. Usurping the life of
another is never right. Creatures trying to usurp the Creator is completely
wrong. If I'm told to be like someone, it's not the same as being told to take
over that person's life.
Satan
full of pride wanted to take over the Creator's position. He didn't want to be
like God, he wanted to be God, the same as God without any distinction. And
failing at that he wants us to believe we can obtain that position. He wants us
to desire to have control over ourselves in place of us allowing God to control
us. He's twisted things around perfectly and many have fallen for his
deception.
...
I
am Alpha and Omega,
the
beginning and the ending,
saith
the Lord,
which
is,
and
which was,
and
which is to come,
the
Almighty.
No
other can make this claim. We can know this wonderful, amazing, Alpha, Omega,
which was, which is, and is to come. We can cling to Him and the promises we
find in Him knowing there is no other like Him nor will there ever be. We will
always have had a beginning that includes many before ourselves, we will never
be the Was
at the beginning no matter what we believe. Some can embrace Satan's lies and
most will, but by the grace of God I pray I'm not among them; that my Creator,
my Redeemer, my God will always be first and foremost in all that I am and all
that I do, it's only by His great mercy and love that this can be and I cling
to Him through the Holy Spirit, hoping and praying in His everlasting,
ever-existing love!
Amen!
Heb 2:5 For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
Salvation. We are saved for a purpose, for life eternal. We are saved from this world that isn't anything like the world we need and long to be from. We are saved from eternal death, from eternal nothingness, from eternal darkness and given life in Christ from whom all love flows. We only get glimpses, tiny glimpses into the world of unconditional love, unselfish love, teeny tiny insights in our lives that are all markers pointing us to the one unconditional, unselfish love that saves us. We can look on the outside of people and some appear to be very unselfish, and very Christ-like, but the fact remains we don't know their hearts. By their fruit we shall know them and some appear to have the best fruit in the world- so Christ-like it puts us to total shame. What it comes down to is our own lives- because they are the only thing we really know. I know my heart and wish it were more Christ-like. I know my failings, my sins, my inner evils just as you all know your own. We can ask for forgiveness, we can repent, and we can be saved! We can be given the world to come. We can hope for a place in that world ruled by love in its purest form without sin marring anything. We can pray and have faith that we will be in that world to come a world that angels will be in subjection to.
1. Being in a position or in circumstances that place one under the power or authority of another or others
Pasted from <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/subjection>
Angels will be under the power and authority of God. We will share in that world with God, with angels. God's power, God's authority will always and forever be supreme! God- from whom ALL blessings flow.
Angels- spiritual beings we imagine act of their own accord but God's angels are all in subjection to God and do the bidding of the Lord. Does this mean they are enslaved to God? Some would have you believe that's exactly what is means, that God wants to make us all slaves to Him. That's not true, not true at all whatsoever. When you serve the one you love, when you put yourself into subjection of the one you love to obey them you are NOT a slave to them. Freely the love is given, freely the serving is offered. The angels consider themselves blessed to serve God. While the devil would have us twist things and make subjection to God seem like a punishment, and evil all on its own, it's a lie from the father of lies.
*
Heb 2:6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Heb 2:7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands
Psa 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Psa 8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Psa 8:6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
Psa 8:7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
Psa 8:8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
Psa 8:9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
Man- made a little lower than the angels and yet crowned with glory and honor.
There have been movies about angels detesting humans because God made angels to be above them and yet has crowned them with glory and honor. Angels of God by their very nature minister unto man all through love, there is no animosity though Satan would have us believe there is. Satan would have us put our sinful nature onto the unfallen angels and give them traits that fallen humans have, or that evil fallen angels have. It's not like that at all.
What is man? We are God's creation. We are so important to Him that His Son took on our flesh and became human so He could save us through the sacrifice of Himself. We don't understand, we can't understand just how important we are to God, just how much He loves us. Our love towards God is unequaled to His love for us and our righteousness is filthy, unequal to Christ's pure righteousness that we so desperately need to claim while giving up our selfish need to believe we can be righteous on our own.
Praise God for His amazing LOVE! Praise God!
May we fully be immersed in the Love of God, may we live for the world to come where self is nothing compared to selflessness in Christ.
By His glory, by His grace!
Amen.
8/24/11
The
Beginning and the End
Rev 1:8 'I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and
which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. '
Rev 1:4 'John to the seven churches which are
in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and
which is to come…'
The
similarities right there within such a short bit of writing
between verse 4 and 8 means what?
Usually
we call such repetitiveness redundant and any writer worth their salt would
have deleted such reiteration as unnecessary use of words. Change things up we
say; learn how to say the same thing in a new way so it doesn't come off as
repetitive. But here in the Bible we know for a fact that the writers of this
holy book got it right the first time with no need for an editors sharp pen to
run through any lines and make little notations to change things up a bit.
These are God's words to man through the Holy Spirit inspiring them to write,
and if these are
holy words we are reading they are being written for a reason. If there is any
repetition it is there for a reason as well, there to show emphasis perhaps?
There to indicate important knowledge that we shouldn't overlook. The Bible
isn't a novel, the Bible is a unique book, and the message it holds for any who
reads it is also unique.
Read
the beginning of Revelation and these words- which
is, which
was, which
is to come, we can find again further along in another chapter of
Revelation--
Rev.
{4:8} '...saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and
is to come.'
There
is no mistaking the importance of this is there? The fullness glorified in
those words is amazing. The Alpha and the Omega - the beginning and the ending.
Through it ALL the Lord is present, in all stages- past, present, and future.
Never was there a time, and never will there be a time without the Lord living
in it, never.
People
tend to read the Bible as if it's OLD news, or confusing and complicated, and
for those interested in such things, but certainly not a book for
everybody. People look for the
spectacular all over the place. People thrive watching movies, reading books,
all about the supernatural and one of the supernatural beings that fascinates
them is the vampire who can supposedly live forever and ever. The idea of a
being living hundreds of centuries, thousands of years is just incredible and
secretly people wish they were able to live that long- that they could be one
of these beings with this power over death in life, not power over death and
living on another plane of existence after death or at some future time. The
wondrous idea of being able to live among finite creatures holds an allure that
has captured the imagination of many people and it's no wonder- Satan's lie way
back in the garden of Eden was what? Gen. {3:4} 'And the serpent said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die.'
Power
over death. Satan has His own brand of life and he offers the allure of living
forever in any way that pleases man so long as man doesn't believe in living
forever through Jesus' Christ. Did God lie when He told Adam and Eve they would
die? No. We are living proof of that fact and yet Satan will use all the tricks
He can to get us to believe that we can live forever without God.
Satan
was a created being. Satan can not lay hold of the claim that he is from the
beginning, yet he would have people think he is. He wants people to believe
that he is God. That they too can be God. It's no joke. There are a lot of
people searching for inner power and laying claim to their lives and finding
empowerment from themselves. In fact there are a whole slew of people who will
try and convince you that you are the captain of your own ship, the ruler of
your own destiny, the power over a good life is in your own hands. The stress
on self is the same lie satan used at the start. Gen. {3:5} 'For God doth know
that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be
as gods, knowing good and evil.' Do you hear the lies? Yet that same lie is
being spouted today and embraced as something wonderful. People want to be as
gods. People want to believe they have a godly power.
Truthfully,
while we get all caught up in the fantasy and lies of satan, while he projects
his evil into every facet of our lives. When we find a certain hope or wish
fulfillment from reading of beings that live forever we are showing that we
do have a
need for such hope in our lives- only Satan has twisted it and pulled it down to
the level of man as men exist full of sin-- the very opposite of the truth.
There
is a being who 'was, is, and is to come', God.
There
will never be a time without God. Never. He is all.
He
is the beginning and the end, there is nothing before and nothing after God.
We
can struggle to find understanding and bring God down to our level and we can
even pretend we are gods ourselves, but realizing that as creatures of the
Creator we will never be the Creator ourselves is paramount. There is no shame
in a son wanting to be like his father, but there is shame in the son wanting to
be the father as if the father never was, as if the father isn't, and as if the
father will no longer be. If you want to be like your father that's a good thing
if you are embracing the good qualities of your father. But if you want to push
your father aside and take his place, that's not so good. Usurping the life of
another is never right. Creatures trying to usurp the Creator is completely
wrong. If I'm told to be like someone, it's not the same as being told to take
over that person's life.
Satan
full of pride wanted to take over the Creator's position. He didn't want to be
like God, he wanted to be God, the same as God without any distinction. And
failing at that he wants us to believe we can obtain that position. He wants us
to desire to have control over ourselves in place of us allowing God to control
us. He's twisted things around perfectly and many have fallen for his
deception.
...
I
am Alpha and Omega,
the
beginning and the ending,
saith
the Lord,
which
is,
and
which was,
and
which is to come,
the
Almighty.
No
other can make this claim. We can know this wonderful, amazing, Alpha, Omega,
which was, which is, and is to come. We can cling to Him and the promises we
find in Him knowing there is no other like Him nor will there ever be. We will
always have had a beginning that includes many before ourselves, we will never
be the Was
at the beginning no matter what we believe. Some can embrace Satan's lies and
most will, but by the grace of God I pray I'm not among them; that my Creator,
my Redeemer, my God will always be first and foremost in all that I am and all
that I do, it's only by His great mercy and love that this can be and I cling
to Him through the Holy Spirit, hoping and praying in His everlasting,
ever-existing love!
Amen!