A Revelation Blessing

Rev 1:3 "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near."

Kind of weird what I read yesterday and then what I was lead to start reading today. Yesterday was centered on "looking forward". Focusing on the future future. Living my life in the light of eternity. Well, the book of 2 Peter was done. I needed to move on to another book. What was I going to study? I went through my NT to see what books I had read and marked up and journaled on and I discovered that I have done them all...except Revelation. Then it hit me: "Looking forward". How perfect. So here I go, digging deeper into Revelation...with much trepidation.

I love this first verse that hit me...a great verse...a verse of blessing. Most of the time when we read Revelation we think about the end times and how it is all going to go down. 2 Peter described the intense heat, the fire, the burning, the destruction of the earth and heavens. Revelation just expands upon that. Is that all there is? Is that all God gave to John to warn us about? Or is there more? Is there something that we need to grab for now and for later? Here it is: "Blessed is he...". The word "blessed" is exactly the same word that Jesus used in Matt 5 in the Sermon on the Mount. It means happy. Most of the time we do not associate happy with the book of Revelation, but this is where John starts with this book. We will be happy if we read, hear and keep the words that are prophesied in this book.

Well, I usually read so I've got the first one going. I am embarking on reading and studying the book of Revelation. God through John has promised blessing...happiness if I read it.

It doesn't stop there, however, it also says hear. I can do this two ways. I can either read it out loud and hear myself read it, or I can listen to someone else read it. Fortunately, I go to www.blueletterbible.com and there is a part where any portion of scripture can be read to me. So this is what I am going to do. I am going to read it. Then I am going to hear it.

Keep. This word actually means: observe, attend to carefully, take care of, guard. It is a word of obedience, yes, but I think it is more than that. It is a word that almost is like cherish and protect. Interesting, we in the "modern" church almost shy away from Revelation because we are afraid of the different interpretations. We aren't really sure where it is taking us so we don't even preach it, or talk about it, or spend time with it. We don't cherish, protect, guard and attend to it carefully. Instead we ignore it and by doing so, we miss out on blessing. We miss out on "looking forward". The result is a church that is a thousand miles wide and one inch deep. We are all embracing and loving and shallow.

Well, here it goes...an adventure in blessing and digging deeper and looking forward