Before we continue into Chapter 10 of Revelations and then thru it, there are some important things that I need to say that are on my heart. It is good to know what will occur in the end times. We saw in the 1st Chapter of Revelations that there is a blessing for those who read and hear, and heed the things that are written in Revelations, but there are some things that are much more important.
Obviously it means nothing but dread, if you do not recieve the truth of the Gospel , to be born of above and become a New Creation. Most people have heard the word, saved. Saved can mean a couple of things. Jesus is referred to as, Savior.
1st) Jesus saves us from our sins and our sin nature, by His own shed blood.
2nd) Because our sins are forgiven, we are saved from mortality and become immortal.
3rd) We are saved from death and recieve eternal life
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4th) We are saved from the wrath to come.
Like Noah built the ark as God instucted, so that anyone who believed that the flood was coming and wanted to get on board to be saved could, so it is today. Jesus is the Ark of the covenant, that God has made with man, that whoever would recieve Jesus' sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins, could enter this Ark, Jesus. Unfortunetly, just as in the days of Noah and the flood, so it will be in the end times in the days of Jesus and the fire. The only people who were rescued from the flood were Noah and his family, everyone else on earth, scoffed and mocked and were destroyed by the flood. Likewise, unfortunetly, Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 7, verse 13 and 14,
"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wind, and the way is broad that leads to
destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small and the way
is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it."
We know from John Chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus said,
"I Am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me."
Right after that in verse 9,
"He who has seen me has seen the Father."
Most people believe that there are many ways to God, and they will scoff and mock the truth that Jesus is the only way. Jesus is the only way, because in the person Jesus , it was God's way and plan to allow man to come into His presence by making them a new Creation through His own sacifice.
5th) Saved also means that something is kept because it has value and worth.
In Jesus, every believer has value and has worth only because Jesus is worthy, and everyone in Jesus, the Ark, is kept(saved) as precious in the eyes of God. Believers are now God's children.
As God's children, there are certain characteristics of God that are important for the New Creations to emulate. Not with forced effort, but with a new natural genuineness. All believers are born again of the Spirit of God. Since God is Love, then the Spirit that we have now been born with, is the Spirit of Love. Each believer has that Love inside them. The only thing that prevents that Love from shinning through, is the old attitude of the earthly nature and the perspective on how we view the things that affect our lives. Let us first look at a passage of scripture written by Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians Chapter 13. This a very popular passage that in used in many marirage cerimonies. This is nice for the cerimonies, but speaks to way more than just a relationship between a man and a woman. This speaks to the New Creations and their attitude between themselves and those in the world. I wanted to touch on this because we are going through the book of Revelation, and it is good to know what is going to take place, but more importantly, what do we do with what we know. Paul starts the chapter with this;
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become
a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all
mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do
not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I
deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing."
Paul continues by describing love this way;
1)" Love is patient,
Everyone has heard someone say that they are loosing their patience, if their patients was something they can loose, then it was never real patience to begin with.
2) love is kind,
This does not mean that we are kind just to people we like, that is easy. Paul wrote this in his letter to Titus, Chapter 3, verses 3 - 7;
" For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, decieved, enslaved to various
lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hatful, hating one another.
But when the KINDNESS of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,
He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, But
according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified
by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
So you can see by this passage that even though there was nothing about us that God should be kind to us, He still poured out His Kindness on us, by giving Himself to make us heirs of eternal life. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans in the 2nd Chapter, verse 4,
"Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience,
not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?"
Therefore it is important for a New Creation to show love by being kind to all people, because we are an extention of Jesus' kindness that will help lead people to repentance.
3) and is not jealous,
4) love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5) does not act unbecomingly,
6) it does not seek its own,
In other words, simply put, we should not be selfish, thinking of ourselves only, but we should be selfless, thinking of others and what their needs may be.
7) *is not provoked,
*One way to look at this, is to ask yourself, "How is the New Creation within me, that is the real me, affected by what someone is saying or doing to me?" There is not much that anyone can do to you that will affect any part of this New Creation. The only way that we can be provoked, is if this fallen man, which is our outer shell, is upset at what is happening to it. So this is how we know if we are walking according to the spirit or of the flesh. Our spirit is not affected. This blog on "From the Heart" will be in two parts. Part two will give more meaning to this and the scipture I will use has been the most comforting scripture for me, as to this subject.
8) *does not keep account of a wrong suffered,
9) does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth,
10) *bears all things,
11) believes all things,
12) hopes all things
13) *endures all things,
Love never fails; but if there is a gift of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For now we know in part and prophecy in part; but when the perfect comes (Jesus second coming), the partial will be done away..............But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
For all believers, allowing the love, that fills our souls, to flow out to this world, is the reason why we are here. Every believer is in a special place on this earth to touch, when they can, all those in their special realm of influence with the love of God. For each of us, it should be our main prayer, that Jesus would use us to pour out His love everywhere according to His will. Our New Creation in us is more ready to do this than our old outer man is. In our minds is where we make that decission to yeild to the flesh or to the spirit.
To complete this first part of "From the Heart", Paul writes in the beginning of Chapter 14, verse 1,
"Persue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy."
The scriptures are full of prophecies of the end times from the prophets, Jesus, and Jesus Revelation to John. The more we know the more we can point out to people, with kindness, which is love, so they can see and hopefully might make the descission to get on the Ark(Jesus), and gain eternal Life, and be spared from the wrath to come. All believers must realize that we are the earthly representation of the love of God and that showing that love might bring them to Jesus. For God is love, and if we allow Jesus to live through us, His love will achieve great things.
In Part One here, we touched a little on the earthly nature. In Part Two, we will discuss what our attitude should be in relations to our old earthly nature vs. our new heavenly nature. Gaining a proper perspective as to each of them will help us to always know which one is in control.
Jesus' peace to all of you.
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