Seven Churches

I'm getting ready to do something that I always tried to do on my other blog (which has now been folded into this one), but was never very successful at accomplishing. However, I approached the project a little differently this time, and perhaps I'll actually complete it.

I tried more than once to do a series of blogs on a topic. I tried digging into the importance of theology; I tried working my way through Isaiah 40; and I'm sure there have been a couple of other things that I've tried, but ended up not completing. So, once again, I'm going to try to work on a series of blog posts (which will most likely be interrupted by other things along the way).

For some reason, I want to work through the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. Like most Christians, I don't really read Revelation all that much. There is a youth at my church that really wants to do a Bible study on Revelation, which, perhaps, has sparked a bit of my interest to this point. Whether or not this actually gets done is another story for another time - I think he is fascinated by some of the imagery of the apocalyptic because it captures his imagination, but I digress...

My approach this time is a little different. I'm not writing a commentary. I haven't translated the passages from the Greek (though, even as I write that, a small part of me wants to translate the Greek text...). I'm not trying to do some grand project that will make me feel better about my powers of observation. I'm doing this because I think there is something worth learning here.

These are letters written to churches that are thriving, struggling, being persecuted, remaining faithful, falling away - they're all across the board. In a sense, these churches represent each one of us at some point in our faith. I've read all of the letters and have taken notes on them, written myself a few questions to think about, and have even noted a few of the things that I need to research more in-depth before going into too much detail on the letter.

God has been doing a lot of stuff in my life lately. Things are spinning around at a crazy speed right now, and I've realized that if I don't take the time to listen, I won't hear. And, right now, I need to listen and hear more than anything else.

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 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." - Revelation 1:9-11