{"id":606,"date":"2017-10-06T06:48:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T14:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=606"},"modified":"2017-10-06T06:49:51","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T14:49:51","slug":"devotion-revelation-21-7-letters-to-seven-churches-letters-to-us-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=606","title":{"rendered":"Devotion\u00a0 Revelation 2:1-7\u00a0 Letters To Seven Churches, Letters To Us\u00a0 Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Revelation 2:1-7 <\/strong>–\u00a0\u201cTo the angel\u00a0of the church in Ephesus\u00a0write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand\u00a0and walks among the seven golden lampstands.\u00a02\u00a0I know your deeds,\u00a0your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested\u00a0those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.\u00a03\u00a0You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name,\u00a0and have not grown weary.\u00a0 4\u00a0Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.\u00a05\u00a0Consider how far you have fallen! Repent\u00a0and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand\u00a0from its place.\u00a06\u00a0But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans,\u00a0which I also hate. 7\u00a0Whoever has ears, let them hear\u00a0what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious,\u00a0I will give the right to eat from the tree of life,\u00a0which is in the paradise\u00a0of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand\u00a0and walks among the seven golden lampstands<\/span>.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus describes Himself as the one who hold the seven stars (angels of the seven churches) in his right hand.\u00a0 Jesus is in control.\u00a0 The seven stars do the will of God.\u00a0 The right hand of God of God signifies a special place.\u00a0 In these biblical times if a person of high rank put someone at their right hand it was a place of special honor.\u00a0 The person, wherever he went, would carry the authority of the supreme.\u00a0 What the honored declared was as the same as if the ruler had declared.\u00a0 If he passed a judgement, it was if the king passed the judgement.\u00a0 The right hand signified power and authority.\u00a0 These seven stars are held, and kept, by the power and authority of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n

Jesus also describes Himself as the one who walks among the seven lampstands.\u00a0 We know that the lampstands represent the church.\u00a0 So, Jesus is saying that wherever His church is, He is with them.\u00a0 We remember that He promised \u201cAnd surely I am with you\u00a0always, to the very end of the age.\u201d (Matthew 28:20<\/strong>). God has promised to never leave or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5, 1 Chronicles 28:20<\/strong>).\u00a0 Here Jesus states that He is walking among us as is stated in Leviticus 26:12<\/strong>.\u00a0 Just as when He walked with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they were put into the fiery flames (Daniel 3:25<\/strong>), the Lord is ever with His beloved children.\u00a0 Someone who is always with you and never, no not ever, leaves you, is someone who knows you better than anyone else.\u00a0 He knows all the wonderful things that you do.\u00a0 He also knows all the sins that are in your heart and come out in word and deed.\u00a0 He is with us because He loves us and has promised to be always with us. So He knows us.\u00a0 Yes He knows us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know your deeds,\u00a0your hard work and your perseverance.<\/span>\u201d\u00a0 Knowing that He is always with us He sees all the good things that we do. He first uses a word to express a general idea of things that we do.\u00a0 Not breaking them down, just saying to us that He knows everything that we do.\u00a0 Also of course, He knows us because He is omniscient.\u00a0 He knows us because He is always with us and because He knows all things.\u00a0 So all those good deeds that no-one knew about, He does.\u00a0 He sees and is pleased.<\/p>\n

He says that He knows the hard word that they, and we do.\u00a0 This is not going out to dig a ditch.\u00a0 He is talking about us doing the works of God, being the hand of God, though we may suffer for it.\u00a0 It is standing up for God when ridicule will come.\u00a0 It is continuing the work of God when it is not convenient, or when we\u2019re tired, or when our health, our safety, even our lives are at risk.\u00a0 It is refusing to yield to an Antichrist government when they threaten our lives and the lives of our families.\u00a0 And Family, please be convinced, that we must be so convinced.\u00a0 We must be so that we will not lose our lives by trying to save it (Matthew 16:25<\/strong>). We must not think that we can deny Him and it is okay because He will forgive us (2 Timothy 2:12<\/strong>). Are not those who make the choice to be take the mark of the beast forever dammed (Revelation 14:11<\/strong>)? We must not convince ourselves that would be okay.\u00a0 Peter believed that He would never deny Jesus (Matthew 26:35<\/strong>).\u00a0 His denial was not pre-planned.\u00a0 It was not in his heart.\u00a0 It was fear and confusion that arose (John 18:15-18, 25-27<\/strong>).\u00a0 And then He wept bitterly in His shame (Luke 22:62<\/strong>).\u00a0 Yes, Jesus forgave him, but Peter did not plan to sin, but rather succumbed to it.\u00a0 Let us not be so deceived as to think that we say in our hearts that I will renounce God to evil men because He will forgive me (1 John 3:9<\/strong>).\u00a0 Thinking that puts one in great peril indeed.\u00a0 He has called us to stand strong for Him.\u00a0 Those who truly love Him will not deny Him.\u00a0 Those who do not truly love Him, are not His.<\/p>\n

The hard work He sees the Ephesians doing is hard work that comes at a cost, perhaps being beaten or causing suffering.\u00a0 Yet they are continuing to hold up the name of Jesus, and to serve Him, whatever the cost may be.\u00a0 The Ephesians continued on in their obedience to God.\u00a0 They continued in their works. Whatever may come, they persevered doing the works of God.\u00a0 They did their devotions.\u00a0 They read the scriptures and they prayed.\u00a0 They went to church and they sang worship songs and listened to sermons.\u00a0 They ministered to each other.\u00a0 They gave and tended to the poor.\u00a0 They did those things that they were taught to do. They persevered.<\/p>\n

Jesus also praised the Ephesians for not tolerating \u201cwicked\u201d people.\u00a0 Their wicked deeds were put to the test, and when found false, were not tolerated.\u00a0 Yes, people we are fruit of men inspectors (Matthew 7:15-20<\/strong>).\u00a0 We are called by God to be so.\u00a0 Here Jesus confirms it and states that it is a good thing to not tolerate the wickedness of wicked people.\u00a0 It is a good thing not to allow wickedness to have a place in our family, lest our family become infected (1 Corinthians 15:33<\/strong>).\u00a0 Jesus makes that clear.\u00a0 Let us rise up at false doctrine when attempted to be spread.\u00a0 What is a lie has no alignment to what is true.\u00a0 Let us stand strong for the Truth, expose the lies, and purge the lies from us.\u00a0 Now if someone repents, then that is good.\u00a0 It is the wickedness that we don\u2019t around, not the person.\u00a0 If the person repents, then we rejoice.<\/p>\n

Jesus praised them for fighting the good fight and not giving up.\u00a0 Family, may we all continue to have as our highest priority the loving and glorifying of Jesus our Savior and Lord.\u00a0 It is as the Father would have it.\u00a0 May we please God with bended knee, humbled hearts, but heads lifted up to keep our eyes firmly focused on Jesus.\u00a0 He will put His hand beneath our arms and lift us up to walk with Him.\u00a0 May we ever and always walk with Him who ever and always walks with us.\u00a0 May we walk with Him who first loved us (1 John 4:19<\/strong>).\u00a0 Family, we have a wonderful forever in front of us.\u00a0 Let us walk with God.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/strong>\u00a0– But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revelation 2:1-7 –\u00a0\u201cTo the angel\u00a0of the church in Ephesus\u00a0write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand\u00a0and walks among the seven golden lampstands.\u00a02\u00a0I know your deeds,\u00a0your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested\u00a0those who claim to be apostles…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[657,2453,2406,129,1477,1872,7,104,8,100,2456,2454,106,101,94,17,711,2455,2036,2457,712],"class_list":["post-606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-angels","tag-chronicles","tag-churches","tag-corinthians","tag-daniel","tag-deuteronomy","tag-god","tag-hebrews","tag-jesus","tag-john","tag-lampstands","tag-leviticus","tag-luke","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-revelation","tag-stars","tag-timothy","tag-tree-of-life","tag-victorious"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":609,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions\/609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}