Light

John 1:4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

There is something called life which was only present inside Jesus Christ. This life is very different from what the world defines life is. The bible says in Psalm 16:11 that this life has God’s presence and is full of Joy. This life was something that was prepared by God Himself to us and wants us to enjoy. But, this life needs us to forsake our own knowledge of determining what is good and evil and we depend on Jesus as a good shepherd as per John 10:10 and he will ensure that we will not lost our lives.

Today’s meditation is about this life that Jesus had in Himself was not something that he enjoyed within Himself. This life was the light of men. Men without Jesus have nothing but utter darkness to walk. The bible says that His word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths (Ps 119:105). In the Old Testament, the Bible gave light to men on how they should walk. Remember that these men knew good and evil but this brought them into darkness only. That’s the power of knowledge, it can keep us in our same position without making us improve even a little bit. We all have knowledge that some stuff are evil but this knowledge cannot help us anywhere. This knowledge comes in various forms like technical, moral and even theological. But unless we take Jesus as our shepherd and obey Him, there is no way, truth or the life.

John 11:9 explains how we should see this light Jesus. As a directing light that can help us progress in life. If this light is not used, we may seem like we are progressing well, but we are actually would be wandering. Proverbs 4:18 explains how the path of light shines brighter and brighter. As we start walking in this light, our paths become more and more clear and visible so that we know what we are doing is absolutely right.

In Luke 15:11-32, we read the parable of the prodigal son which is a great example for a person who walks in light. This son never realized the position he had in his father’s place. The security from God has no value in our lives unless we live in an insecure place. The son proceeded to go a live recklessly spending everything. This mistake happens when we do not have a father. We will think we are living freely without boundaries, but friends, prostitutes and the world will consume everything we have while we do not realize what is happening.

Just at that time, famines come and explain our actual situation in the world without the father. When we had our father’s inheritance with us, we would have stayed in grand hotels and in luxury. But once we lose everything, that’s where the world shows what we are good at. We can see such lives with drunkards and people who have married a wrong person. The verse says that he longed to eat of the pods of the pigs but no one gave him anything to eat. The world after you are worn out will see that you are not even worthy to eat a pig’s food.

But there is one place in the whole world where you are accepted at any stage you are. This is not because you are talented or great, but because you are your father’s son. There is not just happiness but celebration. We also can see that all we will need eventually is to be servants there, but God’s love towards us is so overflowing that He gives our power and authority back to us. This is life with light. We get to be managers and owners with a wise father with us. Nothing is hidden and so, nothing is lost.

As per Isaiah 60:1, all we have to do is rise up and shine for as the light has come.

Amen.

The Seven Churches - Ephesus

Revelation 2:1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands“

Ephesus was a very strong and prominent city in Asia Minor. It was more like a roman business capital in this region. The temple of Artemis was a very strong structure being one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was located here. It had 127 pillars each of size around 40 feet. We read that in Acts 19:27. There was also a market name Agora in the city where everything was traded. However, to enter this place people had to take incense and drop into a bowl or something which indicated that they worshipped Caesar. This was very hard for the Church to thrive. Some historians believe that the apostle John live here for some time and wrote the gospel of John from here. It is also believed that Mary spent her last days here as John was taking care of her. These show the importance of the Church and its troubles. This church did not fail completely as we read in a letter two decades later by Ignatius of Antioch who commends the church. So, the church was obedient to John’s letter to them and so, survived well.

When Jesus introduces Himself, He is the one who holds responsible for all the messengers of the churches and monitors all the churches’ progress and activities. It means that the Churches are not completely independent from the Lord’s monitoring. Since the church will be reading the whole book, they should be able to see that this church is not exclusive to the Lord and so, learn to respect others. We also should understand that Jesus is comfortable and walking only here because this is his responsibility and earning.

The first message to the Church is that “I know”. This is not a word of authority but rather like a responsible leader who knows what its internal matters are. This confidence should always be to a church. We should not be worried that we are not recognized. The fact that God knows the church better than the stars. The stars have different tasks to look at the Lord for instructions and perform them. We also should note that the stars are not nearby and accessible but the Lord is to the believers. The listener or comforter in the Church should be the Lord Himself.

The Lord commends the church’s attitude towards works, enemies and suffering in the following verses. For works, the church worked well, toiled hard when needed and also was patiently waiting for results when they were delayed. If the church was intolerant when answers were delayed, it would have been otherwise. When enemies were present, the church could not bear their presence. Patience towards the Lord is appreciated but when evil comes, the church should not wait taking things easily. They could have waited saying “the battle belongs to the Lord”. This is the Lord’s place and even though He is nearby, He loves when its own members drive them away. When it comes to suffering, the church was persecuted severely with lack of resources and punishments, but John says that you have not gone weary or you still are willing to suffer more.

The problem with this church is that it had abandoned its first love. This is at most times mistranslated as the church’s love has decreased when years passed by, but the verse says that the love was completely abandoned. The Greek original uses the word Agape which is the love towards God. The church had a very good perseverance with God but the love was totally abandoned when the book was written. Jesus says that this problem is not tolerable and it works against the church. Also, the Lord mentions that the church has already fallen even though it had all the good qualities.

Repent that you have forsaken your love for God and do the works you did at first means that you should be looking at the scripture and the previous foundations which were laid and do them properly. This also means that the Church should work as it worked when it was beginning. New churches have great ambitions and glorious plans, but when time goes by the love becomes a tradition and so, it is lost completely. If it does all the works of its early days, there is redemption.

The punishment to Ephesus is the worst among the other churches as the Lord says that its status of being a church will be lost. The city and the congregation will be there, but the lampstand will be lost which will hold the Holy Spirit high. The good quality about its hatred about Nicolatians (Can be adulterous, and eat things sacrificed to Idols) is a great sign that helps fight this problem. The other good qualities do not.

The final victory if the church could conquer this problem is that it will eat from the tree of life and live forever with the Lord.

Amen.

The Seven Churches - Introduction

Revelation 1:10,11 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

The above book explains that the book of revelation is directed only to the seven churches and not the general audience. There were many prominent churches in this time but Jesus had a great plan in writing the letter to these churches. From Patmos where John was writing this letter, the seven cities were nearby and followed a specific trade route or road from Ephesus to Laodicea. Because we read that Jesus had only seven stars in his hands and was walking among the seven lampstands, we should see that these churches do not just represent themselves but every other church in every period from the day of Pentecost till today. Also these instructions were not individual instructions but these are contained in a single book which should not have any correction whatsoever and sent to all the seven churches. This means that some of these are direct instructions to us and there are many warnings of problems which may arise. We may to be able to completely categorize us a single of this type but may have one or more individual qualities mentioned to one or more churches in here.

The book starts with the words “The revelation of Jesus Christ” which was given by God the Father to show to His servants. This book is intended only to churches and not the general audience and so, we should take this not as the gospel but a fundamental understanding of Jesus Christ the church should have. The book should be read seeking a revelation of Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Lamb which was slain. The first quality about Jesus is mentioned as a faithful witness. We should not see Jesus as a witness to God about us as he is an advocate there (1 John 2:1). He is a faithful witness to us about God the Father. This explains why we have to look at Jesus so closely to see God (John 12:25).

Revelation 5 explains to the church how honorable Jesus is in heaven. There is a scroll which should be opened by a worthy person who have ransomed people for God. In the following chapters, there are seven seals, seven trumpets and at last seven bowls of wrath poured out, then there is judgment and at last we see the new heaven and new earth is prepared with a New Jerusalem. With this we should understand that this scroll as a deed of the new kingdom where Satan has no authority or presence. For this, the Lord has to complete his ransom of people worthy to be a kingdom and priests. This should happen and only then Jesus would be worthy to open the scroll. The churches should together become that kingdom as in Rev 5:9-10.

We also should note that these seals must opened (Rev 1:1) soon. But, the speed the church is progressing towards becoming a kingdom and priests is so pathetic that it still has not happened after 2000 years. But we are very close now as doctrines are more clean and closer to the will of God. If we strive hard with strong faith, we will be able to fulfill God’s eternal plan in this.

We also read that John was turning away from our Lord when the Spirit left him and he had to turn around to look at the seven churches. This explains how the word has to come first before any visions explaining the purpose of the vision. The word has preference than vision. Vision without words do not serve its purpose. If John could not hear the word, it is not possible to interpret its meanings. When reading the book it is important that we hear the Lord before we conclude at anything.

We should also see that there were seven lampstands and not lamps. These do not produce or own any light of their own but carry the light from the seven spirits / torches as in Revelation 4:5. If we do not hold this understanding, our interpretation of the word will fail. A church should not produce any light of its own and that’s why a church and a community gathering are very different. The church should ensure that its primary responsibility is to hold the light stronger as in Mathew 5:15. If the church cannot lift the Holy Spirit high and display His greatness to the world, the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit cannot work efficiently.

And, we should not fear because He is the first and the last, the alpha and the omega. This means that throughout all these events, as in Joshua 1:9, God is in control and He is in the receiving end.

Amen.