Tuesday, January 30, 2024

His-Story

“Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”   Revelation 1:3

Finally!  The book of Revelation!  The last book of the New Testament and the Bible.  I am so excited to go through this book with you all and I pray you will be blessed!  For years I avoided it for a few reasons.  1. I told myself “I won’t be here when it happens, so it doesn’t really apply to me”.   2. I felt like it was a mystery that I could never understand.  However, when I realized that the meaning of Revelation is revealing, I was pretty sure God was not trying to hide His revelation from me.   3. I was mostly afraid of what I vaguely knew about it and didn’t want to think about things to come.  I didn’t realize that right at the beginning of the book in verse three, there is a special promise of blessing for those who read it, heed it and keep what is written in the book of Revelation.  You are assured the special blessing of God on your life when you take the time to read this book, listen to what this book is revealing to your heart and then hold on to that revelation in your daily life.

I came to this realization many years ago when I was listening to the books of the Bible on my Bible app. When I got to Revelation, I was hesitant to listen, but then I thought maybe listening to it would make it easier to understand.  As I began to hear the words and continued through each chapter, I began to notice that it seemed to keep coming back to the recurring theme that the plans of the “Antichrist” (God’s enemy) were being continually prevented.  My perception up to that point had always been that Revelation was a book about Satan tormenting God’s people.  Finally, it dawned on me . . . Oh, the book of Revelation is still His story!  Revelation is not a shift in the Bible from being God’s love story to Satan’s hate story.  It is still God’s story and still His Book!  The entire book of Revelation is written from heaven in the presence of God and He continues to interfere with the enemy’s plan, who is trying once again to rule over God’s people and creation.  The book of Revelation is the climatic ending of epic proportion of God’s book where His enemy is finally put away forever, never to be heard of again.  It’s the ending of the best book ever written God’s Book!! (The final battle scene)

This realization stirred up such a hunger in me to listen to it over and over again.  Until the point that now it is my favorite book in the entire Bible.  Then, just over five years ago, I completed a verse-by-verse study of the book.  So much I have learned from it.  My perspective has totally changed, and I no longer have any fear of God’s coming events.  It truly is a book of Revelation and a book of God’s blessing!

So today I want to invite you to join me as we venture through the book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ. If you have previously been of the mindset that I was, thinking it’s not for you, today I challenge you to take a closer look and see what blessing He has for you in it.  For me, the blessing started when I realized it was not the Antichrist’s book, but the conclusion of God’s love letter where He will put away His enemy and mine for all eternity!!  I pray each day that you will be blessed as we walk through this prophecy of Revelation, section by section. Please take time to pray over it each day for the revelation that He has for you in it.  Read through it slowly, and I can promise you a special blessing will come out of it, but don’t take my word for it.  Take God’s!  He’s the one that promised you would be blessed for reading, hearing and keeping it until the end is here!

Today’s scripture reading:  Revelation 1:1-3

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, 

2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. 

3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.