Tag Archives: Slavery

Freedom From Cannibalism

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Biting One Another

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Church of Galatia, he wrote: “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another” (Gal. 5:15). In the context of this letter, Paul’s main theme is “freedom.” The genuine follower of Jesus Christ is set free from their previous bondage to the flesh! We are free from the slavery of capitulating to the demands of our broken and depraved natures. No longer does sin have power over us! Jesus, upon His ascension to the Father, sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us and empower us with the ability to say “no” to sin’s demands!

Called To Be Free

So Paul the Apostle tells this church: “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery… For you were called to be free, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal. 5:1, 13–14). The essence of Paul’s words is this—the Gospel of Jesus Christ sets us free from Christian cannibalism! It is only Jesus’ Gospel that empowers us to love others like this! When our love for others grows in this way, it’s a powerful endorsement of the validity of our words when we share our faith. Conversely, it is a blatant and ugly contradiction of Jesus’ Gospel when we “…bite and devour one another…” (v. 15).

Preying Like Cannibals

When we prey on one another like cannibals, we sabotage the glory of Jesus’ cross! We cover up the beauty of Christ, who gave Himself up in payment for our self-centeredness! I saw the ugliness of Christian cannibalism played out as a Bible college student, when half the church I was attending walked out on the other half over the color choice of the ladies’ restroom during a building program. Their testimony in that rural community was ruined! I saw it happen! Oh, how we need the Spirit’s help to learn how to deal with conflict in a way that’s redemptive rather than destructive! A church that does not serve one another in love like Jesus will cannibalize itself! We can only love like Jesus if we’ve been set free by the power of His Gospel! God can and does deliver churches from Christian cannibalism!

Overcoming The Past

Only the Gospel of Christ can deliver our churches from such ungodly behavior! Some of you have experienced a church that devoured itself. You still struggle with the pain. It’s still raw. And you are broken at the thought that some unbelievers will never come to faith in Jesus Christ because of the relational damage they’ve seen inflicted on others by so-called Christians. And don’t forget to praise God if you’re part of a community of faith that truly loves, honors, and respects one another! That is truly a work of God! Be encouraged and pray regularly for continued peace and harmony in your church. Pray daily for spiritual renewal and revival. And remember that it’s the Gospel of Christ that frees us to be Jesus to everyone we meet!
 

Free To Serve Others

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A Dog Eat Dog World

In the world, it’s “dog-eat-dog.” If you want to climb up the corporate ladder, you have to be a relational piranha—taking advantage of the brokenness and inconsistencies of your co-workers to gain a personal advantage! That’s not Jesus’ way! He was known as the “friend of sinners.” He healed the wounded! He forgave even those who nailed Him to the cross! The Gospel frees us to serve—even those with whom we may be in competition for that promotion! And it’s all because we can trust a sovereign God’s plan!

Our Freedom And Our Calling

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatian church, he says that our call to freedom and our call to serve are synonymous! In other words, we actually lose our freedom when we fail to serve! We were saved from slavery to sin and self; so when we fail to serve—and even expect to be served—we fall back into the old slavery to the flesh! He says we, “…submit again to a yoke of slavery…” (Galatians 5:1). Don’t surrender the freedom you have in Christ—who satisfies your every need—for the fleshly desires of the world: to be served or to be promoted! When we serve others instead of using them, we testify to the world that Jesus truly is enough! He is all we need!

Jesus Served Us

We don’t need to fill any emptiness inside us with the need to be served! Jesus served us, and that’s enough! It’s the Gospel of Christ that frees us to love others…even strangers! More than service, the Gospel actually gives us a heart of love for those we serve—“For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:14). Paul is quoting Jesus’ answer when He was asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” And Jesus said, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your might! And the second is like it (or second only in importance!): Love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself” (Matthew 22:34–40). Then Jesus illustrated that with His parable about the Good Samaritan, who acted as a neighbor to someone he didn’t even know! That’s why a “neighbor” can actually be anyone we have the opportunity to serve—even someone who’s a stranger! “And love them,” He said, “in the same way that you love yourself.”

Gospel Freedom

Only the Gospel sets me free to want to feed someone who’s hungry just as much as I want to feed myself when I get hungry! Only the Gospel sets me free to want to help my neighbor find a job just as much as I want to find a job—or to want a raise or a promotion for my co-worker just as much as I want that raise or promotion for myself! And to care about what happens to that guy down the street—that you don’t even know—just as much as you care about what happens to you! That’s powerful! And only Jesus’ Gospel empowers us to love that way! And when we grow in our love for others like that, it’s an incredible endorsement of the validity of the words we share with others about our faith! It makes us real! Genuine!

Don’t Eat Each Other

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Leaving For Vacation; Next Post February 4th

Not All Cannibals Are Alike

Did you know that not all cannibals are alike? An “exo-cannibal” eats only those outside his immediate social circle (i.e., his “enemies”), while an “endo-cannibal” eats those within his immediate social circle (i.e., his “friends”). But a “pan-cannibal” is indiscriminate and will eat anyone! Bet you didn’t know that! You probably thought that all cannibals were alike! Let me share a true story with you. The world’s most infamous cannibal was the legendary Fijian chieftain, Ratu Udre Udre.

A Guinness World Record

Listen to this—he actually holds the Guinness World Record for eating the most people! I was personally surprised to discover that Guinness actually kept such a record! Ratu Udre Udre ate between 872 and 999 people, according to his son—whom he did not eat! (Guess that made him a “good father.”) Ratu Udre Udre kept a stone for each body he ate. Now, unfortunately, many Christians have more in common with Udre Udre than you might think because many Christians “eat” their own. You might say they’re “church cannibals,” and Paul’s letter to the church of Galatia bears that out. His fifth chapter begins like this: “Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm, then, and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). That’s the “good news” of the Gospel! We’re born into this world with a yoke of slavery around our necks, and we can try with all our might to get out from under our sin; but we’re incapable. Jesus liberates us by His atonement for sin on the cross. He liberates us from the penalty and power of sin over our lives.

Don’t Devour One Another

So “stand firm,” Paul says, “don’t submit to that old yoke of slavery again!” Continuing in that context, he speaks to the Gospel’s power to affect our relationships with people. We’re no longer enslaved to the world’s way of “devouring” one another—or hating one another and holding grudges. That’s what Paul says a little later in the same chapter: “For you were called to be free, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another” (Gal. 5:13–15).

Are You Drinking Poison?

Someone has accurately stated that “unforgiveness is the poison you drink, hoping it will kill someone else!” In this Scripture, Paul is reminding this local church that the Gospel sets us free from those kinds of toxic relationships. The Gospel of Christ frees us to be Jesus to everyone we meet! When we truly humble ourselves before God and submit to Him, Jesus moves us—by the power of His Holy Spirit—and radically begins to transform us in every way, including our relationships. When humanity sinned in Adam, it resulted in a complete breakdown of our ability to “image” God, the Father and our Creator. We’re broken! We’re all born into this world with an inability to love like God loves because of our inherited fallen nature. Only a conversion to Christ can change us! We’ll pick it up there at our next post!
 

What Jesus Calls Great

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Wouldn’t You Like To Know?

Have you ever given thought to what it would have been like to be one of Jesus’ disciples and just walk through life with Him? To literally walk through life with Jesus—because that was the most common method of transportation in that day! And to hear Him speak God’s wisdom into every situation they encountered! Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark, tells us about a time when Jesus and His disciples were on the road, going up to Jerusalem. Jesus gets real serious with them and begins to tell them that the chief priests and the religious leaders would condemn Him to death—that He would be mocked, spit on, flogged, and killed! And it was weird—like they didn’t even hear what He was saying—but two of the disciples, James and John, who were brothers, approached Jesus immediately after He dropped that “bomb” on them and asked if they could sit on each side of His throne in glory!

Great, to Jesus, is Service

That really ticked off the other ten disciples! Mark records it like this: “Jesus called them over and said to them, ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and their men of high positions exercise power over them. But it must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many.’” Mark 10:42–45. In so many words, Jesus was teaching them that if you’re great in God’s Kingdom, this world probably won’t even notice you!

Jesus’ Leadership Model

What Jesus calls “great” and what the world says is “great” are generally two entirely different things. Jesus calls you great when you reject the world’s leadership style (v. 42). Those who lead in this world dominate or lord it over anyone in a “subordinate” role, Jesus says. Having a position of power is of great significance—but that’s not the case in Jesus’ Kingdom! If we follow Jesus’ leadership model, we have to reject the world’s style of leadership. Instead, Jesus calls you great when your ministry is measured by the people you serve (v. 43). “…it must not be like the world’s leadership style…” among believers, He says!

Do You Want A Title

In the ministry of the church, Jesus says it’s not about having a “title.” Do you want a title? If you’re an elder, you serve! If you’re a deacon, you serve! If you’re a Sunday School teacher, a small group leader, an AWANA or nursery worker, you serve! If you’re a worship team member—it’s not a show! Jesus doesn’t care about your title. He cares about your service! You want to be great? You want a title? Take the title of “servant,” Jesus says! And then Jesus calls you great when you humble yourself and become the world’s slave (v. 44). Some versions render the word “servant,” but that’s not right! The word is doulos in the original Greek language, and the only correct way to translate it is “slave.” Jesus meant for us to take on the humility of a slave when it comes to our ministry and service to others!
 

Give Up Your Life

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Great In God’s Kingdom

In my last post, we talked about the kind of life that Jesus called great! We picked up on His conversation with the disciples after two of them—James and John—asked if they could sit in seats of power next to Jesus in His kingdom. “Jesus called them over and said to them, ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and their men of high positions exercise power over them. But it must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many’” (Mark 10:42–45). In so many words, Jesus was teaching them that if you’re great in God’s kingdom, this world probably won’t even notice you!

Slave or Servant?

Jesus calls you great when you reject the world’s leadership style (v. 42). He also calls you great when your ministry is measured by the people you serve (v. 43). But there are two more points I’d like to draw out from this text related to what Jesus calls great. He also calls you great when you humble yourself and become the world’s slave (v. 44). We touched briefly on this point in our last post. The word is doulos in the original Greek language, and it can only be translated accurately as “slave” in English. So while the Holman version actually translates it “slave,” many translations choose to use the word “servant.” While they can be credited with sensitivity for choosing to translate the word as “servant” because the history of slavery in America is so repulsive and offensive, we probably ought not to change the word Jesus used.

The Humility of a Slave

He meant for us to take on the humility of a “slave” when it comes to our ministry and service. In this way, we actually serve like Jesus did: “Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,” the Apostle Paul wrote, “who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. Instead, He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave” (Philippians 2:5–11). In other words, Jesus didn’t use His title—God—as a big stick! In His incarnation, He took the form of a slave!

Suffering For Others

Finally, from Jesus’ words here, we discern that He calls you great when you give up your life to suffer for others (v. 45). Even Jesus suffered for others willingly, all the way to the cross! He served till it hurt—till it killed Him! And you image Jesus when you live your life similarly! That’s probably not going to get you a fancy title or the corner office in a big corporation, but it will get you a “Well done, good and faithful servant” from Jesus! You may have noticed that the focus in this post was not on spiritual gifts. The reason is that the greater emphasis in Scripture is on heart attitude toward ministry rather than giftedness or knowledge. Jesus emphasizes humility over giftedness, and power is never said to be in our gifts but in the Holy Spirit. So, how will you respond to the needs around you?

How God Wants Us To Pray

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He Wants Us To Repent

So, let me tell you what I believe God wants us to do if our prayer life looks like that of the typical Christian! I believe He wants us to repent of our prayerlessness! I believe He wants us to denounce all our human efforts and admit our total helplessness when it comes to getting God’s work done in our own strength! And I believe that, in order to accomplish that, He wants us to change some habits in our lives—He wants us to add time to pray into our schedules! That means we might need to actually move some other things out of our schedule! And then, He wants us to pray with absolute dependence on Him!

Pray Over A Crisis of Faith

I believe all these things about prayer are based on the many and various texts of Scripture on the subject! Take Acts chapter 12, the first five verses, for instance. It begins: “About that time King Herod cruelly attacked some who belonged to the church, and he killed James, John’s brother, with the sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too, during the days of Unleavened Bread. After the arrest, he put him in prison and assigned four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer was being made earnestly to God for him by the church.” We can draw a prayer principle from that reading. When trouble comes our way, God uses our crisis of faith, in His sovereignty, to get us engaged with Him in prayer!

The Human Way We Pray

There’s something dreadfully human about the way we pray when life is great! When the job is secure, when the marriage is healthy, when there’s plenty of money, when life’s great… we don’t pray! That says, “We’ve got this,” doesn’t it? We have the false sense that the job’s secure, the marriage is healthy, and there’s plenty of money because, “We’ve got this!” Because we’re so good at living life! We credit ourselves for the good life. But God knows how self-deluded we are!  When Israel entered the Promised Land—after God had miraculously delivered them from slavery to Egypt; after God had dried up the Red Sea so they could safely cross; after God had fed them with manna and quail in the desert; after God had preserved their clothing and sandals for 40 years in the wilderness—He knew they would be tempted to take credit for their good life. He warned them!

Be Careful Not To Forget The Lord

God knew how Israel would respond to His going before them, dispossessing the land from wicked nations, and handing over to them homes, cities, and land they hadn’t earned. He warned them:  “When the Lord your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers… a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build, houses full of every good thing that you did not fill, wells dug that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied, be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” — Deuteronomy 6:10-12. What do we have that God has not given us? But we get comfortable and forget, don’t we?

Why Is Their Evil & Suffering?

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-Difficult Questions

That is a hard question! Some of the most difficult questions I’ve ever had to answer begin with “why”— Why did my baby die? Why does a loving God allow suffering? Why is there hunger and starvation in the world? Why does God allow terrorist killers like ISIS to exist; and, why does He allow them to kill Christians? Why do sex trafficking, human trafficking & slavery exist if God is in control? Why earthquakes, tsunami’s, hurricanes & tornadoes if God is love? First, I’ll not try to pretend that there’s an easy answer to these questions! I’ll try not to offer the usual “pat answers” & smugly look the other way!

-God’s Judicial Act Against Sin

I would ask you to open your Bible to Romans 8 as I intend to reference it through this post. In v.20, the Apostle Paul makes a difficult observation: “For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it…” That seems like an obvious reference to Adam & Eve’s “Fall” in the garden! He’s saying that our present suffering, in part, is the result of God’s judicial act against Adam’s disobedience.  So it’s not wrong to wonder aloud about why all these bad things happen! What’s wrong is when God is the focus of our rage! What we need to do is look in the mirror! We’re the problem! We’re the reason for all the evil & suffering in the world! When Adam sinned, the curse God placed on sin was passed down to every succeeding generation! Humanity’s sin against God is the reason we’re faced with all the trouble in the world! 

-Our Teeth Still Ache

There’s an old Hungarian proverb that says:  “Adam ate the apple and our teeth still ache.” It means that because of Adam’s “headship” over the human race, his sinful deed was passed down through our human nature. His “headship” also carries the idea that we all sinned “in” Adam; or, if given the same opportunity, we all would have sinned just like he did. So, that’s where all the “futility”, the groaning; and, the corruption began. God followed through on His threat that, “…the soul that sins shall die.”  Though it sounds bleak, v.20 finishes out with these words, “…in the hope that the creation would be set free from the bondage of corruption.” In other words, pain and suffering will not continue forever! There’s a day coming when ALL of creation— including those who put their faith in Christ to save them— will be redeemed from this world’s “futility”! 

-The Justice Of God

God’s act was just and righteous; and, it carried with it a purpose. After their sin, God removed Adam & Eve from the Garden of Eden, Genesis says, so they would not eat of the “Tree of Life” and be eternally separated from Him. He, therefore, placed the curse on creation “…in the hope…” that it would reveal, to us, our brokenness & depravity; and, set us free from our bondage to sin. So, when our “why” questions are directed at God—almost like an accusation—they’re misplaced! We need to stand in front of a mirror, when we ask “why”; and, humbly admit: “All the pain & suffering in the world is because of my sin ‘in Adam.’ All the ‘suffering’, all the ‘natural disasters’, all the ‘futility’ is my fault!” Our “hope” is ultimately not in this world; but, in the Resurrected Christ who will one day resurrect our broken bodies in Glory! We don’t blame God for evil & suffering! We praise Him because He’s the One who delivers us from it! Hallelujah!

Our Respectable Sins

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-The One Who Humbles Himself

In Luke 18 Jesus told the story of two men who went to the temple to pray: one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. When the Pharisee prayed, he said, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people— and, here come the “Biggie Sins” —greedy, unrighteous, adulterers & even like this tax collector; I fast twice a week & I tithe when the offering plate is passed.” But, when the tax collector prayed he wouldn’t even raise his eyes to heaven. Instead, he kept beating his chest and saying, “God, turn your wrath from me…a SINNER!” No pointing fingers! No minimizing his sin! He owned it! And, Jesus concluded the story like this:  “I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” 

-Pride and Selfishness

When we act toward each other as this Pharisee did to the tax collector we poison those human relationships with the subtle, almost “respectable” sins of pride & selfishness!  We sabotage, even the ones we claim to love,  by our judgmentalism & our sins of the tongue.  We destroy our friendships by our lack of self-control, our envy & our jealousy! More families have been destroyed; more churches have turned inside out against itself; and, more countries have gone to war over the subtle so-called “respectable sins” of pride, jealousy & selfishness than all the gross, appalling sins combined! Never forget the bottom line— ALL SIN IS DEADLY! It wasn’t a “biggie sin” that resulted in the fall of mankind in the garden.  Adam & Eve just plucked a piece of fruit from a tree and ate it! No “biggie”? It was devastating!

-Small Sins Can Be Just As Deadly

The murder of every Jew by Hitler was “in” that piece of fruit! All the sex-slavery, human trafficking, robberies & marriage infidelity was “in” that forbidden fruit! Don’t ever minimize your sin! The small “respectable” sins can be just as deadly! Let us be relentless, with the Holy Spirit’s help, to be killing all sin in our life; or, it will be killing us! There’s an old English word that we rarely use in the church anymore. It’s the word ‘mortify’ and it means to ‘put to death.’ Colossians 3:5, for example, says, ‘Mortify—or, put to death—what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.’ Romans 8:13 says we accomplish that by the Spirit ONLY; not by the flesh:  “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But, if by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” To “put to death” is an update from the old KJV word “mortification.”

-Overcoming Sin & Temptation

Let me conclude this post by encouraging you to purchase a great book titled, Overcoming Sin & Temptation by John Owen. It’s a Crossway book that’s a compilation of 3 classic works by Owen, the 16th century Puritan minister.  Here’s what he says about “putting to death” or “mortifying” the deeds of the flesh: “Sin does not only still abide in us, but is still acting, still laboring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh. When sin lets us alone we may let sin alone; but as sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be most quiet, and its waters are for the most part deep when they are still, so ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times and in all conditions, even where there is least suspicion… be killing sin or it will be killing you…” The Apostle Paul challenged the Church of Colosse to “…put off the old man…” (Col. 3:9-10); and to be “…made alive…” by the Holy Spirit! This is the constant responsibility of every believer!

Divine Slavery

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-A Slave Of Christ Jesus

The Apostle Paul introduces himself, in his letter to the Church of Rome, with these words, “Paul, a SLAVE of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and singled out for God’s good news” (Romans 1:1) I respect the editors of the Holman translation of Scripture for their decision to use the word “SLAVE”. Many translations have chosen to use “servant” or “bondservant” instead of “slave” out of respect for our human brothers and sisters that have been, and continue to be, subjected to the inhumane cruelty and bondage of human slavery.  But, here’s the fact – that word in the original Greek language is “doulos” and it means “slave”! So, if we believe the Scriptures are the inerrant, inspired Word of God (and I do!) then we’re left with the cold, hard truth that the Holy Spirit of God inspired Paul to use the word “slave”.

-Moved By The Holy Spirit

It was NOT Paul’s choice! He was moved by the Spirit of God to use that exact word – for a purpose! A “slave” – in the Roman world – was “owned”! A slave was purchased, “bought with a price”! They received no wages for their efforts; and, didn’t have any rights of their own. They were the personal property of the slave owner.  A “servant”, on the other hand, had rights – they were free to quit; and, they were compensated for their work. They belonged to no one! So, I was meditating on Paul’s words to the Church of Corinth, “Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) While he doesn’t use the word “slave” (“doulos”) he does use descriptive phrases that define slavery – “you are not your own” “you were bought at a price.”

-I Am Not My Own

Now, it’s not like I’ve never thought about this before! It’s not like I haven’t preached this passage before – probably numerous times! But, I grasped its meaning in a whole new way – I had an “epiphany”! I am God’s “slave”! I was “purchased” by the blood of Jesus Christ – “bought at a price”! I am not my own! Everything that I tend to see as “mine” is not mine! It all belongs to Jesus – because He bought me! If I live my life as an “owner” of my life then I’m NOT HIS! I can’t have it both ways – I’m either “free” to live as “owner” of my life & with the consequences of that decision! (Not really! Sin is the ultimate cruel taskmaster!) Or, I’m a “slave” to God!

-Does God Approve Of Human Slavery?

Let’s be real! God opposes every kind of sin against humanity. “Kidnapping” and “slavery” are condemned – “He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 21:16) “If a man is caught kidnapping any of his countrymen of the sons of Israel, and he deals with him violently or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from among you.” (Deuteronomy 24:7) ‘Nough said? I thought so! So, why does God inspire Paul to use the word “slave” to describe our relationship with Him? I don’t pretend to know all the reasons! But, clearly, God sets Himself apart from mankind that would enslave other humans! He is love! He is benevolent & well-intended toward us! To be a “slave” to Him is to enjoy the BEST LIFE we could ever have – He is not a “killjoy” in the sky trying to spoil our fun! All His commandments are perfect & for our good!

We Will See His Face

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-There Will No Longer Be Any Curse

Some of the most exciting words in all of Scripture, for those who’ve accepted the Gospel & made Jesus their Savior, are found in the last book of the Bible, the Book of the Revelation:  “There will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His slaves will serve Him.  They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. Night will no longer exist, and people will not need lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 22:3-5).  We will be in the very presence of God! And, He’s the reason heaven will be an incredible paradise! We will see His face, and His Name will be on our foreheads! That speaks of possession! We will be His! No longer will Satan be around to try and usurp “ownership” away from God! Oh, to be God’s possession forever!

-Have You Prepared Yourself?

So, I ask you, have you prepared yourself for that? Are you prepared for Jesus’ return? When you are, there’ll be changes happening in your life right here and right now! Looking for Jesus is what the Book of Revelation is all about! Back in chapter 1, in John the Apostle’s introduction:  “The one who reads this is blessed, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it are blessed, because the time is near!” (1:3) That’s how John introduces this book; and Jesus repeats those words at the end of v.7, “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” That phrase, “…to keep the words…”, means to consider them & to ponder them! To make personal applications 24/7. To “live” by them! To let them change your life!

-Enslaved To Jesus

In verses 6, and 9, we’re said to be enslaved to Jesus! To be in that place is to be in the best place we could ever hope to be! He bought us! He owns us! And, He is the benevolent, loving, gracious, merciful Sovereign over us! We could never provide for ourselves better than God can provide for us. I love how John puts it in 1 John, “…this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden.” I long to be enslaved to His word because I know His commands are best for me! I obey Him imperfectly in this life because of my flesh. I want to obey Him totally, completely! I prepare my heart every day to do that, in part, because I long for His return & my life’s goal is to hear Him say to me, “Well done! Good and faithful slave.”

-Preparing For Jesus’ Return

When you prepare yourself for Jesus’ return, there is no more logical decision that you can make.  John says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes…” in the blood of the lamb (22:14). That’s clearly what’s meant in the context of this book. And, that word “blessed” literally means to be “satisfied” or “happy.” Who doesn’t want a blessed, satisfied, happy life? That life belongs only to those who are obedient to His commands; to those who repent over their sin; who come to Him in “brokenness” asking Him to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Now, you’re no longer ignorant! You’ve been exposed to the truth of God’s word! You have a responsibility to respond to His Gospel message that Jesus saves! That’s the only life that is blessed & the only life that satisfies & makes you happy! When you disobey His word it will always leave you further broken in a greater sense of despair. It’s only logical that you would come to Jesus!