The Journey Continues...and is almost Complete!

In more ways than one, the Journey is almost complete. This year, if you are a 'reader of this blog' this is NOT news, our church has taken the Journey through the New Testament as a congregation!

And, so, our 'reading together' time is almost finished. We are a little over 1/2 way finished with Revelation (the last book in the New Testament) and the year ends in roughly 11 days. And, so those are the 'more than one way' that the Journey is almost complete.

Of course, life's journey isn't over, and even when we pass to eternity, it's only begun! The journey through God's Word is a never-ending journey, as well. I firmly believe that it is impossible to 'love God with all your heart mind soul & strength' and ignore His word to us...it must be as life-blood to us, as believers!

As we've drawn closer to the end of the book this December, I've had a lot of questions. Mostly about my own ability to understand and apply what I'm reading in the book of Revelation. I would have to admit that I've often thought of that portion of scripture with an anxiousness....too complicated, too shrouded in imagery and numbers and signs, too lofty, too many details and too hard to understand are among the reasons I've quietly side-stepped the 'book' before now.

Along with choosing to take the Journey this year, I also have been teaching in our Sunday school class from the portion of scripture reading we do each week. To find myself approaching the Book of Revelation was no small matter for me. Only a LOT intimidating. I'm not going to offer some long theological explanation for what I've found there. However, I will share with you what I've discovered, and this with the help of a Faithful, Loving Heavenly Father!

The book of Revelation is a book about how to worship an eternal, Holy God! It is a glimpse of what the actual end will look like. It gives us not only hope, because we belong to God, but it also gives us the very reason that people shy away from it. (too hard to understand, too complicated, too many images, etc., etc., etc.) I honestly believe that Satan uses those excuses to keep us from reading it--to keep us from attaining the blessing that is promised to those who read the words contained there. He also knows that he will be defeated, and that truth is explicitly depicted there...we, who belong to Jesus, have absolutely nothing to fear. Fear, however, is one of Satan's greatest tools for tripping up those who proclaim Christ. If he can keep us from opening up God's Word, and in particular, the book of Revelation, that helps him succeed in seperating us from truth.

The book talks about 'those that overcome'...to be an 'overcomer' we must:
Accept the gift of salvation from the sacrifice that Christ made by dying on the cross
Live out the truth of God's Word (that means reading it and applying it to our lives!)
Daily sacrifice our own will for the Will of Christ...

Let's be found faithful! Faithful to God's word, all of it!