A letter to the local Church

Revelation 1: 4-8

I grew up in a church that did not speak very often of the third person of the Trinity; the Holy Spirit of God, and it also seemed to shy away from the book of Revelation.  Revelation seems to be a series of visions, some of them in part or in whole are veiled, at best we can only guess, and I am very poor at guessing; other parts are very clear in there teachings.  I say this only to remind the reader that these are just my thoughts but are based on what I believe the Spirit of God has shown to me.

The apostle John is sending a greeting to the seven churches in Asia, and the greeting is “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 of the dead, and the rulers of kings on earth.”  If you are one of those seven churches and you know the apostle John, you know he is a man who walks and talks with God, this letter is John passing on a Hi, or in Texas we would say a Howdy from the triune God.  If you are a member of one of those churches I bet your ears or open, waiting and wondering what else did God say to us, and then the elder of the church would read aloud the words of the letter and those who listen would be blessed, blessed that God, the one who is and who was and who is to come had spoken to them.

The letter reminds them and us, of who they/we were before Christ came into their/our life; “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”  In these first eight verses it also tells us that the Jesus who disappeared into the clouds while many were watching is coming back in like manner, but it is so important not to miss these important words in verse seven; “and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.”   Who will see Him when He comes, the ones who pierced him, that would be people who are long dead, and every tribe on the earth, and every one? 

The eighth verse states; I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”  I’m not sure why we did not talk about the Holy Spirit of God or study the Revelation, when I was a young boy, but this I am sure of; the “I Am the Alpha and the Omega” the one “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” the Christ is coming back in the same manner that He left this earth, and it’s closer than it was at the writing of this book.

From The Back Porch,

Bob Rice