Today's TRC DB Revelation 2 w/ Lena's Journalin'

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

Revelation 2:1-29 -
To Ephesus
1Write 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"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. 3I know your persistence, your courage in my cause, that you never wear out.
4"But you walked away from your first love--why? What's going on with you, anyway? 5Do 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."
To Smyrna
8Write this to Smyrna, to the Angel of the church. The Beginning and Ending, the First and Final One, the Once Dead and Then Come Alive, speaks:
9"I can see your pain and poverty--constant pain, dire poverty--but I also see your wealth. And I hear the lie in the claims of those who pretend to be good Jews, who in fact belong to Satan's crowd.
10"Fear nothing in the things you're about to suffer--but stay on guard! Fear nothing! The Devil is about to throw you in jail for a time of testing--ten days. It won't last forever."Don't quit, even if it costs you your life. Stay there believing. I have a Life-Crown sized and ready for you.
11"Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. Christ-conquerors are safe from Devil-death."
To Pergamum
12Write this to Pergamum, to the Angel of the church. The One with the sharp-biting sword draws from the sheath of his mouth--out come the sword words:
13"I see where you live, right under the shadow of Satan's throne. But you continue boldly in my Name; you never once denied my Name, even when the pressure was worst, when they martyred Antipas, my witness who stayed faithful to me on Satan's turf.
14"But why do you indulge that Balaam crowd? Don't you remember that Balaam was an enemy agent, seducing Balak and sabotaging Israel's holy pilgrimage by throwing unholy parties? 15And why do you put up with the Nicolaitans, who do the same thing?
16"Enough! Don't give in to them; I'll be with you soon. I'm fed up and about to cut them to pieces with my sword-sharp words.
17"Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I'll give the sacred manna to every conqueror; I'll also give a clear, smooth stone inscribed with your new name, your secret new name."
To Thyatira
18Write this to Thyatira, to the Angel of the church. God's Son, eyes pouring fire-blaze, standing on feet of furnace-fired bronze, says this:
19"I see everything you're doing for me. Impressive! The love and the faith, the service and persistence. Yes, very impressive! You get better at it every day.
20"But why do you let that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet mislead my dear servants into Cross-denying, self-indulging religion? 21I gave her a chance to change her ways, but she has no intention of giving up a career in the god-business. 22I'm about to lay her low, along with her partners, as they play their sex-and-religion games. 23The bastard offspring of their idol-whoring I'll kill. Then every church will know that appearances don't impress me. I x-ray every motive and make sure you get what's coming to you.
24"The rest of you Thyatirans, who have nothing to do with this outrage, who scorn this playing around with the Devil that gets paraded as profundity, be assured I'll not make life any harder for you than it already is. 25Hold on to the truth you have until I get there.
26"Here's the reward I have for every conqueror, everyone who keeps at it, refusing to give up: You'll rule the nations, 27your Shepherd-King rule as firm as an iron staff, their resistance fragile as clay pots. This was the gift my Father gave me; I pass it along to you--28and with it, the Morning Star!
29"Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches."

Copyright Statement: THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary LanguageThis edition issued by contractual arrangement with NavPress, a division of The Navigators, U.S.A.Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language Copyright © 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
The Lord knows all we do and have grown up to become a part of in the service of the kingdom of God, all of our newly adopted justified thoughts of right living and how we pursue holiness etc. In the momentum and magnitude of that growth of Godly knowledge, He is saying, “Wait just a minute, stop and remember where you came from. You were once a participator of evil works yourself, you were once in an unredeemed state of sinful behavior and were sin’s slave to unrighteousness. Do you remember when you first realized this and saw that I sent my Son, Jesus, to save you out of the miry clay pit? Remember how you felt about Me then? Oh so grateful, oh so overwhelmed by My extended unconditional love for you personally? Now that you’ve grown up in a few areas and know so much, try to remember this first love we started this journey of faith and holiness on, why you are even on the pathway. It is and was because of My great love for you and for the world, and this is why you responded to that Divinly inspiried love. I breathed into you new life. I breathed into you new when all there was hope of was the old life’s reward, which was death. One who has been rescued by the life of My spirit is forever grateful, not caught up in so much busyness, the realization of the life given takes precedence.”
“Do I still take precedence in the midst of all you now know about Me? Do you still love Me as the greatest thing that has ever happened to you? Now that you know so much, do you seek Me as much? What about the times we get to have together, are we growing apart while you are busy with My stuff, or do we get away alone at all?”
“I still love you, I love you as much as I did love you, that’s one thing you can count on, the same love I had for you when I rescued you is the same love I have for you now.”
“What about you, is it the same for you, or has it maybe grown and been enhanced by matured relationship? Conquerors go home with the prize, I am the prize. Please, in the end go home with Me! The only way that will happen for you as humans who have a certain lifespan and live effected by your outward world, is to strengthen your love, your deep relational mature love for Me, spending time with Me, you’ll be able to really get to know who I am. The world has tried to taint our deep relationship from growing up to where you can see Me as I truly am. Unless you come closer, become more intimate, you’ll not ever see that. You won’t get more than a glimpse of My heart. If you can’t see the inside of My heart, you’ll not be able to overcome in this world, you just won’t. The enemy even knows that and so he plots to busy, busy you further and further away from the revealing of my heart for you and for the ones who are all round you and who I want to rescue.”
The words to the Smyrna church are very real to us in our very near future now. If one is listening they cannot and will not ignore the warnings put out by a very loving God. When the Lord asks us to pray more, read our Bibles more or go to church to learn more, He is not trying to control us as we’ve known men to control people, though we’d be quite wise if we’d allow Him to control us in anyway he’d like.
One thing I’ve learned about rebellion, is it is not in any way shape or form an attribute of the godly. If I see rebellion rise in me, it is a flashing red light that there is something at work in me that is against God. It may be at work on the inside, an intruder. If you knew an intruder was in your house ready to steal and take away what was dear to you, would you nor intervene? Intervening against rebellion is imperative to kingdom living. A way I “rebel” against rebellion, is I recognize it as so. Like if someone tries to tell me what to do and I don’t like it. I get away from the person at some point and go before God. Now I see what’s up, rebellion is rising in me, that must mean it is trying to work in me. So in spiritual combat armor I arise, I allow God to arise and cause the enemy of rebellion to flee, by purposely doing what I was asked to do that I “felt” was controlling me beyond my comfort zone.
The enemy does not know what to do with that one, he’s astounded, because I’ve not acted that way before, I’ve given in, served rebellion as my god and went with it’s flow rather than the flow of the spirit. He becomes confused by me that I did not rise up with a flesh and blood argument to tell the controlling “persons” they can take their rules and ……he’s amazed that I don’t argue and stand up for my God-given rights. He can’t understand how I finally got saved!
Our Father God is building us up for our future, without learning to truly hear His voice we’ll not be able to do anything with or for Him in the near future. If we don’t have His words in us, we may not be able to get them and read them on paper and so we’ll have missed out.
If we do not realize how much He truly loves us, if we don’t deal with the rebellious seeds within, allowing God’s spirit to search into our deepest parts we may blame Him for the evil that will come to test our faith, but we’ll be all wrong! It will be our bad. He who is listening, please rise up and make your mind your servant, your body your slave and do what God has been so graciously warning us to do. Don’t wait another minute, please, I beg you.
“Come away with Me My love, come away”, says the Lord.
“Rid your lives of idols that stand in-between you and I getting to know one another deeply.”
“Study My word as one who knows a test is coming.”
“Lay down worldly entanglements, things that call for your time, My time with you. Things that call for your affection to be turned elsewhere. Crucify your flesh’s cry for more stuff, more clout, more prestige. It will not get you anywhere with Me, only further and further away. A place I cannot bear for you to be in.”
“Even the things you do for Me that you thought were “good things”, but are just fillers-in to keep you busy and distracted from My throne call, lay them down Martha and become Mary. It is past time.”
Recognize, take Responsibility, Repent, Remove, Resist/ Renounce, Replace/Restore your fellowship and love with God.
Notice the Lord gives the conquerors more of Himself, more of His word, as manna from heaven. Heavenly words on earth. We cannot find and keep our faith in God outside of His words. He is found inside of His words.
The biggest warning is about His word
Amos 8:11"The time is surely coming," says the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the LORD. 12People will stagger everywhere from sea to sea, searching for the word of the LORD, running here and going there, but they will not find it. 13Beautiful girls and fine young men will grow faint and weary, thirsting for the LORD's word. 14And those who worship and swear by the idols of Samaria, Dan, and Beersheba will fall down, never to rise again."

Daily Repetitive Verses:

John 3:17
You know these things – now do them! That is the path of blessing.