To the End

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

TO THE END

Rev 2:18-29

18 "To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

20 Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21 I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22 So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23 I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. 24 Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): 25 Only hold on to what you have until I come.

26 To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 27'He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery'-just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

NIV

There is a lot going on here, and again we have to know that perhaps there was a church like this, but we also have to know there are churches like this throughout the ages, even in our age. It is surely something special for us to do more than when we first accepted Jesus. Somehow it seems that at that moment of our conversion we were filled with such gratitude that it seemed we could not do enough for Jesus. We got so involved in anything we could be involved in. Our lives had changed and we were so excited about it. What happens over the years? Do we get more involved? Do we do more than we did before or do we simply fall into a pattern of worship and simply do the maintenance things of Christianity. We read our bible, we attend a church, we give an offering, we sing a few songs, and maybe we even raise a hand from time to time. But do we really do more than when we first were saved? This is a good question that requires some pondering. Maybe this is about the amount of faith and trust we first had when we came to Christ. The fact we were so filled with faith and trust and God was doing so much in our lives, miracle after miracle. Have we fallen from that faith and trust or have we built upon it and our faith and trust is even stronger than at first? Over the years have we been deceived by Jezebel? She is the church itself, Christianity per say. Has the church, all the church, every denomination fallen into the trap of Satan? Has the church in general lost its first love and adopted the ways of the world? Does it truly stand for righteousness or has it deferred to its needs to exist and thus offer such that people will come and bring their money to its ever growing coffer? It seems many churches are adopting the new wave of worship, staging so as not to appear too more like a church, music that sounds more like secular rock stars than worship songs to God. Their acceptance of those leading the crowd appearing more like the world than like followers of Christ. It seems we are being lead so far astray from the truth of God in so many ways, in so many churches, that how could God not kill them all someday? This  type of church, this type of believer will find suffering someday. This of course is not a judgment on all churches. There surely are many who have stayed the course and remain faithful to the Word of God. This is merely an observation of what we know to be happening in many of the churches of our age. We have to hold onto what is true. God is true. We cannot allow ourselves deceived by any false teachers, whether they be the pastors of churches or the many authors with books galore on how to live the good life in Christ, or the hoard of tele-evangelists all screaming for our attention and our money. Perhaps not all of them are false, but there are false ones and we have to make sure we are not among the deceived. We have the Spirit who adorns us with his gift of discernment to know the truth when we hear it, and to know the lies as well. We need to be holding onto the truth until Jesus comes for us. If we do we have another great reward awaiting us. After the great moment that Jesus comes for us, at some time we will return with him and rule the nations for a thousand years while Satan is in chains. With all the authority the Father has given Jesus, he will give us that same authority. Sometimes that is difficult to grasp, but it too is the truth and we need to hold fast to that truth. There will always be lies, always be deception within the church because of human frailties. We are all subject to them, but we must be aware of them, and be on guard that we do not fall prey to their ways. Our strength is not in our selves but in Christ. This is how we overcome, remain in Christ, and remain true to him, to the living word of God. Because we remain in Christ, not deceived by those false teachings, we can do the will of God to the end.