Your First Work Rewarded

The Sovereignty of God
The Alpha and Omega

Alpha and Omega

Revelation 2:1-7  The Message

To Ephesus

2 Write this to Ephesus, to the Angel of the church. The One with Seven Stars in his right-fist grip, striding through the golden seven-lights’ circle, speaks:

^2-3 “I see what you’ve done, your hard, hard work, your refusal to quit. I know you can’t stomach evil, that you weed out apostolic pretenders. I know your persistence, your courage in my cause, that you never wear out.
^4-5 “But you walked away from your first love—why? What’s going on with you, anyway? Do you have any idea how far you’ve fallen? A Lucifer fall!
“Turn back! Recover your dear early love. No time to waste, for I’m well on my way to removing your light from the golden circle.
⁶ “You do have this to your credit: You hate the Nicolaitan business. I hate it, too.
⁷ “Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’m about to call each conqueror to dinner. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.”

For Reflection

Once in a while, everyone needs a pep talk.  John begins with a compliment about  hard work and perseverance.   However, John was concerned about the direction their ministry was heading.  They seemed to lose sight of  humility and the desire for spreading the gospel of love, compassion, forgiveness and justice.  Perhaps, they, as many of us do, claimed the passion for love as their own rather than assigning that passion to the Spirit of God.

We tend to respect the capacity to distinguish the phony and the real thing.  Yet, when it comes to the practice of our faith, many are reluctant to recognize the harm of those who pretend to teach the gospel but, in fact, infuse Christian practices with fear driven motives and messages of hate in the guise of love.

Perhaps at this juncture of civil affairs the divisiveness of our rhetoric has clarified the difference.  It is now the time for peace-making and reliance on  love and "Wind Words" of forgiveness, compassion and justice.

Shalom


Pray

Pray for the wisdom to see the need to separate civil affairs from spiritual affairs.  Pray for the wisdom to let  the Spirit guide us into acts of peace-making.  Pray for the triumph of love over hate and courage over fear.