Rev 3:2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
Rev 3:3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
Rev 3:4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Rev 3:6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
There are various beliefs on when the historic time period of the church takes place. I've been doing more studying and in truth the various beliefs all have merits of their own. Because this IS prophetic, a book of prophecy we are reading we know that there are prophetic meanings throughout this entire book.
This is Jesus' prophecy to His people.
Jesus wants people to understand throughout time until He returns that they will face many things. He didn't give the prophecy to a single church, a single people that are His, but rather to His people in various places, and prophetically in various times, and uniquely to all. Those who read this prophecy a thousand years ago could find meaning throughout all the messages to the seven churches, just as we a thousand years after them could find meaning. So pinpointing the historic time periods can be useful to a certain extent here, but it's not something I particularly am going to concentrate on right now. I read some that stated this period of time starts after 1798 (something I related in a previous study a few days ago) and I read something else that stated it is during the 1500's. I see validity in both views but there's where prophecy can be very confusing. At this point I'm going to concentrate LESS on the historic time periods and pray that God opens my heart to the truth He would have me comprehend. I do NOT want to get caught up in any lies, in any deceptions that Satan is trying to bring my way. May GOD lead me in this study and may the Holy Spirit give me all understanding that I'm to have in the eternal way of things.
We studied this yesterday but I feel the need for more-
Rev 3:1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
Rev 3:2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
Rev 3:3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
Rev 3:4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Rev 3:6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Remembering how we received.
Remember how we heard.
We are told to remember. How important is it to remember some things in life? Critically important, yes? Life or death important, yes? Seriously. If you take a little bit of time and think about it there are things in life that need to be remembered or it can cause our own death, or death of others. A surgeon in the middle of surgery needs to remember the proper way to operate. A person driving a car needs to remember how to drive. A person dependent upon medicine needs to remember to take that medicine or they die. Why is it so strange to us who believe in God to understand that we need to remember God's ways? How do we dare to believe that we can do anything that we want to no matter what it is and forget that God gave us moral laws. How can we trample those laws as if the end effect is as simple as forgetting to take out the garbage, no harm- no foul, a minor forgetfulness without any critical results. Why do we treat choosing not to remember God's laws as if it's really no big deal at all whatsoever, that our very LIVES do not depend upon remember the things our GOD has told us to remember.
Right in the moral laws of God we are told to Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Here in the prophecy of Jesus we are told to Remember how we receive, to Remember how we heard.
I'm not sure people actually understand the importance of this remembering. Clearly the majority of people have no problem whatsoever with forgetting because so few choose to remember and to live their lives in that remembrance.
In remembering we need to HOLD FAST.
In remembering we need to REPENT.
We can't afford to hold loosely, we can't afford to no hold on tightly to what we remember. We most assuredly cannot afford to simply not repent as we recognize the sin in our lives- daily, minutely, hourly, whenever it is in our hearts convicting us we cannot ignore the need to repent and seek forgiveness in our Savior.
IF we choose to forget the love of our Savior, if we choose to forget the message our Savior took on flesh to bring to us and allowed Himself to suffer the cruelest of deaths, then just like a thief robbing us blind- we will be caught unaware and robbed of eternal life.
Have you EVER been robbed? Some of you will be able to answer- yes, others will answer - no. Think about it- have you ever been unjustly, unexpectedly defrauded in any way at all? Try to remember some form of completely unexpected offense against you. Surely most all of us have had some form of UNEXPECTED betrayal in our lives, perhaps in a tiny way, from family, from friends, or strangers. Because not all have experienced having their house robbed we need to think on a different level so we can try to fully comprehend the idea behind a thief taking us unaware and then we HAVE to understand that if we do not hold fast to the admonitions and the teachings of our Savior, and our Savior alone- and we do not repent we will be caught totally off guard and we will lose the most precious gift of all- a life of eternity in the presence of our Lord and King, our God, our Savior, the Father, the Son!
May the Holy Spirit keep us in love, in the purest love with our Savior. May the Holy Comforter sent by God to us keep us in remembrance of ALL that we are told to remember and help us to follow the laws of our God as He would have us follow them. May the Holy Spirit keep us in the RIGHTEOUSNESS of our Savior, in HIS love always!
We MUST remember.
Here are the lyrics to a song I truly like--
"We Remember"
How could we forget
When You touched the earth on that starry night
Angels sang glory to God on high
We remember
How could we forget
The moment the water became wine
Stories of men leaving all behind
We remember
The story burns upon our hearts
A beautiful and binding scar
Forever we will
Forever we will think of You
We remember
We remember You, Oh Lord
We remember
We remember You, Oh Lord
How could we forget
There in the garden You cried for it
The city that cursed You and turned You in
We remember
How could we forget
Death has no power and we are free
The good thought of us there on calvary
We remember
The story burns upon our hearts
A beautiful and binding scar
Forever we will, forever we will think of You
Oh think of You
We remember
We remember You, Oh Lord
We remember
We remember You, Oh Lord
Oh, the the things that You have done
And great things You've yet to do
Oh, Jesus, we remember You
How could we forget
The moment Your love rolled the stone away
Our hearts were opened our lives were changed
We remember
How we could forget
The promise of hope and that trumpet sound
We'll see Your glory roll back the clouds
We remember
We remember You, O Lord
We remember You our King
We remember You the son of God
Who came to set us free
How could we forget
When You touched the earth on that starry night
Angels sang glory to God on high?
Pasted from
By the LOVE of God now and forever and always in all things!
Amen!
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