Revelation? Who, Me?

This Sunday I was told to read Revelation. So the first thing I did was to consult with my friend Webster and he gave me several definitions:

1a: an act of revealing or communicating divine truth b: something that is revealed by God to humans

2a: an act of revealing to view or making known b: something that is revealed; especially: an enlightening or astonishing disclosure <shocking revelations> c: a pleasant often enlightening surprise <her talent was a revelation>

An interesting range from “revealing divine truth” to “an enlightening surprise”. For our purposes lets us use 1a and b; fair enough?

The Revelation to John, as the book is formally titled in my copy of the New Revised Standard Version Bible, is a letter written to the seven churches that are in Asia (Rev 1.4). This is serious business for a layman like me to consider and I will seek out a proper reference guide. During times like this, and there has always been times like these, it seems important to me to really understand the revelation, what it is and what I am to do with it. As an American believer in Christ it has been easy for me to become complacent in my faith and it seems that it will somehow be stirred during this reading and study. It is easy to achieve complacency in this country where the persecution of our faith is on a psychic (read psychological) and emotional plane while our brothers and sisters in other countries face death and torture for their beliefs. The opening explanations in this little NRSV study bible tell us that this book was written to encourage the faithful “to resist staunchly the demands that they worship the emperor” and in the face of growing persecutions.

I think that I will choose times to read sections aloud as encouraged in Rev 1.3: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.” I can use the blessing, who couldn’t? Especially with the time being near.

I’m a little nervous about this directive as I have a lot of reading and writing on my desk at the moment, stuff that I feel the Lord wants me to be doing, and to have a fresh review of Revelation could change the way I view these things and go about them. Maybe?

My prayer is this: May God grant me the grace and covering to accept a deeper revelation of Jesus Christ and the strength to act upon it and respond as Isaiah did with a resounding “Here am I, send me”. May God grant you the same grace and covering in leading you to a fresh discovery.

In His grip, jerry