bereanesque

John, to the seven churches which are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

I always approach the book of Revelation with a curious melange of eagerness and trepidation. I know that by this point in the word of God, every seed that was planted in earlier books is now blossoming to full fruition, so the degree of vision found here is quite lofty. I'm eager to have my heart unveiled to fully view such a "Revelation of Jesus Christ", as verse 1:1 says, but I'm also in fear and trembling, knowing that the truths revealed in this book are of the utmost sobriety for a believer in Christ. In short, Revelation is solid food, not milk.

The first key to interpreting anything here is this: the first verse of the entire book says that Jesus Christ "signified" this revelation to John. This is a book of signs. I believe some things in this book are meant to be taken literally. However, many matters require discernment in order to uncover the profound, divine, spiritual truths that are signified by seemingly literal objects or persons.
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Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory in exceeding joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen.

Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.

I find it amazing that Jude now says "to Him who is able to keep you" when three verses earlier he told us to "keep ourselves in the love of God". We have a responsibility to build upon our most holy faith and to pray in the Holy Spirit, thus keeping ourselves in God's love, but ultimately it is The Lord Jesus who is able to keep us. It seems Jude is saying that we are not able to keep ourselves from stumbling in any absolute sense. I want to throw myself fully upon Him and His keeping power.

When Jude says that He is able to "present us faultless before the presence of His glory in exceeding joy," it recalls Paul's word in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 (v. 18): "But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of The Lord, are being transformed into the same image . . ." I had the realization that if I am not beholding and reflecting The Lord's glory today, then how shall He be able to present me faultless before the presence of His glory in the day of His coming? On the one hand, He alone is able to do this. "[His] right hand upholds me." On the other hand, I have a responsibility to let Him. It's a curious, wonderful balance that will probably take my whole life to search out.

. . .to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore.: He is glorified throughtout all of time and in all eternity. Past, present, and future, all glory, majesty, dominion, and power belong to Him. I should stand amazed.

Amen.: Amen!

These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, having no spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

I love the phrase "but you" in these verses. Jude has spent almost his entire letter describing the nature and behavior of false, hypocritical Christians and the judgment that is to come upon them. Then, he presents the remedy and the safeguard in the form of a "but you". In other words, forget about them. Be aware of their true nature, but have nothing to do with them. Jude described their inward disposition and their outward conduct, but our focus should not be on the false teachers and false professors, the mockers who walk "according to their own ungodly lusts". Instead, our focus should be on building up our own faith in the triune God - prayer in the Holy Spirit, keeping ourselves in the love of God the Father, awaiting the return of Jesus Christ the Son.

I am again reminded by The Lord of how profoundly simple a life in Christ truly is.

Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

I confess that I'm fairly unfamiliar with this short little book, the letter of Jude. I've read through it a few times before, but it's always seemed to be a bit like a tiny, one-light town that you cruise through late at night as you hurry onward to your destination, which, in this case, would be the book of Revelation. It is my intention to let the Lord slow me down, that I may tarry a bit and mine His riches that He has for me here in Jude.

As I read through these opening verses, there seemed to be a couple of parallels in Jude's greeting to parts of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. Jude calls himself a bondslave of Jesus Christ, which recalls Paul's word in 1 Corinthians 6 (v. 19): "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price . . ." To be a bondslave is to belong to your master. It's quite easy to say to the Lord Jesus, "Ok, I'm not my own, I belong to You; You bought me with a price," but it's quite another thing to truly surrender your claims to self-ownership. However, it does seem to be the safest thing, to realize that I don't belong to myself, that my Lord who loves me, bought me, gave His life as a ransom for me, so that I can be His and His alone. His to guard, His to preserve, His to love. I want to see that only by surrendering all to Christ my Master am I truly set free. I want such a vision to govern my living.
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I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.

When I read these words this morning, The Lord shined a light upon these verses in relation to two other portions of His word. One is Mark 10:42-45:

But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of 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."

What Jesus describes here is the exact opposite of the attitude that Diotrophes displayed toward John and his fellow workers. I had the thought that there is in me, lurking somewhere, a Diotrophes. This must be the case, since The Lord states that the manner in which this whole world treats authority is entirely self-serving and improper.

Yet it shall not be so among you: Yes, because we are those who have been sanctified by The Lord, those whom He has separated from that which is common, from the world's typical way of doing things. Our Head is Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, who came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. This is such a quietly astounding fact. Jesus Christ, who is the Almighty Creator and Sovereign Ruler of the universe, became a little man of flesh and blood, a man despised by many in His day. This God-man humbled Himself to the point that He became a slave to a wretched sinner like me and gave His life as a ransom for me. The God of the universe became my servant and served me by giving His life for my redemption. Everytime I truly open to this fact, it floors me. Because this Person now lives in me, I can be free from the domineering way of the world. How different are The Lord's ways from our ways.

The second verse that went off like a light in my memory is this one from Colossians (ch. 1, vv. 17-18), which I will simply let speak for itself:

And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that He may have the first place in all things .

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

With these two verses, I have at last reached the end of the Apostle John's first letter. I have been reminded of how simple and yet how ultimately profound a Christian's life and living truly are.

I love John's enigmatic statements concerning the Triune God. Yahshua ha Meshiach*, the Son of God has given us an understanding that we may know Him who is true. According to this verse, who is this One who is true? Is it the Father? Certainly. Is it the Son? The phrase "in His Son Jesus Christ" following the phrase "in Him who is true" and its comma seems to indicate that the Son is also Him who is true. Who is the true God and eternal life? The Father? Yes, for Yahshua Himself called the Father "the only true God" (John 17:3). The Son? I am led to believe so, because the name immediately preceding the deixis "this" is "His Son Jesus Christ". Who is the eternal life? Undoubtedly, the Son is, since "He who has the Son has the life" (1 John 5:12). But it is only logical to think that if the Son is the eternal life, then the Father, the begetting source, must also be the same eternal life. He is too wonderful.

I want to let The Lord draw more of my mind, more of my emotions, more of my will, more of my heart into Him who is true. I know that I have only just scratched the surface of the depths of the longing that Paul refered to in Romans 8.

*Lately I have been apt to refer to Jesus by His Hebrew name, Yahshua, and to call His full title, Jesus Christ, by the Hebrew equivalent, Yahshua ha Meshiach. The name Yahshua means "Yahweh our Savior" or "the salvation of Yahweh". The name Yahweh itself is such a beautiful mystery (I am who I am, the breathing One). Hebrew is a remarkable language. I wish that I actually knew it instead of just picking up words, names, and phrases here and there.

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

Short entry. By Friday I should be finished with 1st John. I hope to be, as I'm reading too slowly these days, only devoting enough time to make my way through a verse or two a day.

Two things struck me:

1) To have the Son is to have the life. Jesus Christ, the Son, is the life. The more of Him I have, the more life I have. Simple, yet the implications are profound in experience, which seems to be a hallmark of John's writings.

2) The Father desires that I have know with complete assurance that I have eternal life. He doesn't want me to doubt my possession of His eternal life. There are to be no "maybe's". I like that John said have, present tense, not "will have someday once you die and go to your heavenly mansion" (since the heavenly mansions aren't actually a biblical truth, such a thing is quite impossible, but that's another story). I have eternal life now. The life of God is now! It is an eternal present, alive as only God is truly alive, that I may partake of and participate in right now. I should say He is an eternally alive present . . .

This is He who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.

This passage is one of the more mysterious ones to me due to the fact that I'm not quite sure how to interpret the water and the blood in these verses. That He came by water could mean the water of the womb, or it could mean the water of His baptism when the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove and a voice came from the Father saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," when He rose up out of the water. I tend to think it is probably the latter. The blood, to me, means that He truly became flesh and blood. I am reminded of the verse in Hebrews 2 that speaks of Him partaking of flesh and blood: "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same . . ." (Hebrews 2:14). The eternal Word of God, Jesus Christ, became what I am: a man of flesh and blood, able to suffer pain, bleed, and die. He came by blood.

". . . these three are one.": The Father, The Word (Christ, the Son), and the Holy Spirit are one. The essential heavenly oneness of the three-in-one God.

". . . these three agree as one.": the operational oneness of the earthly work of God to testify on earth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, come in the flesh.

Interesting note: I learned from looking in my handy Greek lexicon that the original Greek word translated here as "bear witness" is martureo, meaning to bear record, report, testify, give testimony, witness. This is from the same root word from which we derive the English word "martyr".

In any case, I want to be more open to His Spirit. The Spirit is truth. I have been sort of stuck on that phrase all day. His Spirit will, if I open myself and let Him, testify to me and in me that Jesus Christ is indeed He who came by water and by blood, the Son of God who partook of flesh and blood.

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

I am reading through the New Testament currently, a little bit each day, and the above verses are the ones that I read this morning while getting ready for work. Some mornings it is easier to touch The Lord through His word than it is others. This morning I found it easy. Other mornings I seem to have to fight through my tiredness, others I simply feel like I have very little heart to say anything to The Lord or receive anything from Him. "Deflated" and "stale" are words I would use.

In any case, The Lord has been directing me to focus on the truth that His commandments do not have to be burdens, that if taken as a source of His life by faith, they are actually blessings and not burdens. The above verses, with their emphasis on loving both God and man, remind me of the answer that Jesus gave when asked what the greatest commandment is: "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31)
I need to see that to love The Lord my God is not a burdensome thing, but rather a blessing. He who is perfect love wants me to love Him. This is a tremendous blessing, and though I've heard it countless times before, I want to see, to truly know that the fact that I love Him means that He loves me, for He Himself is love. Love is a Person. We love Him because He first loved us. The interweaving, the traffic, the fellowship of love that flows back and forth between God and man, and then man and man (neighbor to neighbor), this is the reality in which I want to live my life.

This is my first entry in this, my journal of my (hopefully) daily meditations on the word of God. I'm not sure why I feel led to undertake this endeavor. I do know that I have been undergoing some quietly powerful changes during the past six months. My relationship with Jesus has deepened and blossomed anew, in large measure because of my dearest Lindsey and all of the profound experiences that accompany meeting the person whom you realize is your lifelong counterpart and better half.

However, I should confess that it is my honest fear that I may be keeping this journal out of some selfish, vainglorious desire that is hidden deep in my heart, concealed from my own realization. I also fear that in recording my present day experiences with the word of God, my future experiences with it may somehow stagnate as I look back over my past revelations. Dependence upon past revelation is always a major frustration for present spiritual growth. It is my earnest prayer that the Lord Jesus deliver me from both situations, if either are to be found in me.

As for format, I will simply offer the verses that I have been reading and attempt to write down my thoughts, meditations, enjoyments, enlightenment, etc. for that day.