The One Who is Coming Soon

 

Friday, May 27, 2022

Then the angel said to me, “Everything you have heard and seen is trustworthy and true.  The Lord God, who inspires his prophets, has sent his angel to tell his servants what will happen soon.”  “Look, I am coming soon!  Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book.”  I, John, am the one who heard and saw all these things.  And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.  But he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this book.   Worship only God!”  Revelation 22:6-9

Last words in an important story are often the point of the whole story.  The Bible is (if you count sales as any kind of indicator) the most important story told…ever.  While being fantastic in its claims, it is not fantasy.  While it has poetry, history, and prophecy, it is not a textbook, nor is it a wishbook of sectarian doctrinal dreamers.  Rather, the Bible is God’s book; it is His story, His divine character and plan revealed to humans.  It is God’s warning and promise of what He has done in the past, and what humans and the entire universe will experience in the future, for all eternity.  And every bit of it centers on John’s last statement in this last chapter of God’s book:  Worship only God!

So what does it truly mean, to worship?  In the most basic sense, worship has nothing to do with sitting in church on a Sunday morning, unless the sitter is doing so to flesh-out his or her inner conviction that God is truly worthy, and to do less than openly-declare that worthiness would be like ceasing to breathe.  To worship is to breathe-in the life-altering conviction of the one, true, living God, the One who so-loved every part of His creation, he died a sinner’s death on a cross, that we might receive and live-in His presence, uncondemned and eternally significant.[1]  To worship is to exhale that breath with our vow of allegiance to the One who loves us so perfectly and completely.  To worship sincerely is to faithfully breathe in-and-out that way with every moment of your life, in every movement and purpose your being possesses, with integrity and unselfishness.  It means you live with nothing else occupying first priority in your mind and desire.  This is the essence of what John recorded in the final three sentences of this holy book:

He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!”  Amen!  Come, Lord Jesus!  May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s holy people.  Revelation 22:20-21

For You Today

Revelation’s final word:  The One who is to be worshipped is coming to impose His will and way upon His creation…and the best word for those who would receive Him when He gets here is grace.  Standing in His grace means accepting His will for your life, and worshipping Him, breathing-in-and-out every moment as a testament to His love.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Note John 3:16:  “For this is how God loved the world:  He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.