Behold

Rev. {1:18} I [am] he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.


*Christ has the keys of hell and of death, Christ was dead and is alive for evermore. Christ lives! No other went through what He went through. Christ, our Savior. No other has the power over death, not one, no other has the power over the grave. Truly Christ died for us and lives for us, loving us more than we can ever imagine.


{3:8} I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast
kept my word, and hast not denied my name.


*Christ knows our works. Christ has set before us an open door, a door no one can shut the door that Christ has opened for those who have kept His word and not denied His name. All glory to God! There is a door no man can shut for those who love Jesus, because those who love Him keep His words and would not deny Him.


{3:11} Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown


*Hold fast to what we have in Christ, hold fast so that NO one takes our reward of a crown. Hold fast! If we tell someone to hold on we are telling them to hope. If I tell someone to hold on I'll be there in a bit they have that hope that I'm there in a bit. If that someone thinks I'm taking to long they might just leave and not wait for me. If we don't hold fast to the hope we have in Christ's return then we give up that hope of eternal life. We don't know how long it will be. Many have held fast their entire lives some living right close to a hundred years or more and while we term that a long, long, long time to wait, in the scheme of eternity 100 years is nothing. We have to hold fast to what we have, and what we have is hope in Christ, faith in Christ. We don't want anyone stealing our crown, our place in eternal life because we give up hoping. Hold fast!


{3:20}
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.


*Christ is right there wanting us with Him. If we hear His voice and we open our hearts to Him, He will come in and sup with us, and us with Him. It's a beautiful thing to think on, Christ knocking on our door, a door only we can open. That's our place in the scheme of things- opening the door to let Christ in. The door is open by faith. We let Christ in our hearts through faith, through the hope, through the belief we have in Him. Once we believe we will reap the rewards of that belief and we will be partakers of all Christ has to offer us. Such amazing love.


{16:15}
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed [is] he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.


*If we watch, no thief can steal from us. If we don't watch anything can be stolen. We know that Christ is coming at a time that we don't expect Him, that there is no date we can mark on any calendar in existence that we can look at and know that is the day Christ is returning. Christ's return will be like a thief's in unexpectedness and yet we are told to watch for His return. People set up alarms, they buy guard dogs, they even hire security people to watch their belongings so no thief steals from them. We can't hire anyone to watch for Christ for us. We have to watch for ourselves. We have to be ready. We have to watch the signs of the times, watch our own lives, watch and keep our garments, keep Christ's righteousness about us. We can't turn our backs and leave off watching or we will lose all we have- we will lose our chance at eternal life.


{21:5} And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and
faithful.


*All things made new, how marvelous does that sound? We look at our world, our lives and we see the decay, we see the constant efforts to keep things from deterioration. We know first hand what it is to watch things go from being new to being old and to know that Christ will make all things new is just amazing. It's a wonderful hope, a wonderful promise that is true and faithful, something we can believe in with all our heart.


{22:7} Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.


*Christ will return. We are bless when we take to heart the things He has told us in His word. If we keep our hope in His word to us we are blessed. To keep the sayings of His words, to keep His sayings of the prophecy in His word means we believe what is told to us, we have faith in what we've read, of what we've been told will come to pass.


{22:12} And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.


*Our reward will be according to our work. Our work is our hope in Christ. If we place our hope anywhere else, in anything else we might think we're able to do then our reward will not be very good. What reward do we have to give ourselves? None. We have no reward to give to ourselves so we can't place our hope in ourselves. Our hope has to be in Christ and Christ alone and our reward will come from Christ.


May God bless and keep us as we hope in Him, as we invite Christ into our hearts to live forever. By the mercy and grace of Christ we live, He is our hope, our rewarder, our love for eternity.


Amen.