Hope amidst trials

Chapter 25

Good Monday Morning to this week 24 of 2020

Revelation 1:7 “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”

Revelation announces that God is still in control and that he will conclude this stage of history the way he has promised. Craig S. Keener

“If we must “feel” God’s presence before we believe he is with us, we again reduce God to our ability to grasp him, making him an idol instead of acknowledging him as God.”
Craig S. Keener

There can be no true peace, where there is not true grace; and where grace goeth before, peace will follow. Matthew Henry

“God alone is God, and he alone merits first place—beyond every other love, every other anxiety, every other fear that consumes us.”

The Book of Revelation speaks to many things – it enriches our understanding of the God as the beginning and end who reveals the meaning of human history, it provides a vision of heaven as a great wedding, it ensures us that our prayers rise to God, and it also depicts the heavenly liturgy as the climax of history.

The overarching message of John’s visions, however, is one of hope amidst tribulation. This is a message we need to hear today.

After the trials, plagues and ruin of human history have run their appointed course, after the beasts and kings who fight against the King of Kings are defeated, comes the judgment of each person according to his conduct. John then saw a new holy city where there is no more pain or death and he heard God say, “Behold, I make all things new To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water. The victor will inherit these gifts, and I shall be his God, and he will be my son.

Throughout the suffering of the human condition, we rejoice in this hope, this promise of God. The definitive coming of the Lord is invoked with the prayer: ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’

This is our prayer too. We live with an expectation, confidence and joy, active and vigilant in anticipation, “Come, Lord Jesus, come,” as we continue to build up His Kingdom coming to be among us.

Wishing you a blessed week.

Philemon