Scripture: Revelation 1:1 (The Message)
"A revealing of Jesus, the Messiah."
Observation: The opening line of the book of Revelation, showing the purpose for the book. Whether you interpret it literally or don't, we can probably agree that it's purpose was to reveal Christ as the Messiah.
Application:
I don't like Revelation. (And it is the Book of Revelation, not the Book of Revelations. Two of my pet peeves are the "s" being added to the end of Revelation, and "selah" being read when someone reads the Psalms. Just saying.) I even mentioned yesterday morning that this book was not one of my favorites. Thanks to Hal Lindsey, John Hagee, and guys like that, Revelation no longer gets to speak as it did to the people of the first or second centuries who were trying to live as the church, and trying to do so under heavy persecution. Because of the work they have done folks immediately start looking for some timeline to some upcoming apocalypse.
Still, it has much to say.
As we sift through its pages, we can find out much about ourselves. Surely, there are aspects of at least one of the seven churches in most of our churches today. Are we neither hot nor cold? Have we forgotten our first love? These are questions the early Christians had to wrestle with, and still questions we must ask ourselves as well.
Since the Life Journal is evidently getting ready to lead us through this book, let's be lead with open eyes and hearts, so that it can speak to us about how Christ can be revealed as Messiah through who we are today. Let's not immediately jump to images of some future battle between the forces of good and evil because, folks, that battle rages every day. How we respond, how we treat each other, and how we live within the communites we are planted will reveal more about who our Lord is than anything written in this book.
Prayer:
God of our beginnings and our endings, reveal your word to us again this morning. Allow us to hear you whisper ways we can reveal Christ as our Messiah today, tomorrow, and for all of our days. We ask that you truly become our A, our Z, and our everything in between. Amen.
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