Do you want to be
blessed? Seriously? Do you want to be blessed?
We are blessed if we read and keep the things in this very special book
of prophecy. We are blessed if we do our God's commandments. Do we? Are we reading
and keeping? Are we doing the commandments?
We know, over and over we've discussed it and it bears going over again
and again, that the commandments are the MORAL LAW we have in our lives. This
moral law defining our place in mankind, as creatures obeying their
Creator. Yes, many choose to rebel
rather than obey and that is their choice, but how glorious it is to obey! To
obey is to comprehend that eventually we will be fully and wholly at one with
our Creator in a world without sin. To obey is to cling through faith to our
Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. To obey is to finally live in the city whose
maker is God! The horrors of this life do not disappear in our faith, if anything
they are often magnified. The evil we are allowed to see, to bear witness to is
all the more evil in the light of God's love. We cry out- "Come, Lord
Jesus, come! We can scarcely bear beholding the evil surrounding us! Evil
strikes out at the core of Your love! Evil so cruel our hearts are torn by its
unfathomable depths! Please, Lord Jesus, please… we cry out for You! Have mercy
upon us! Please, have mercy!"
We would be Yours,
wholly, wholly Yours now and forever!
In the name of our
Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, the Beginning and the End. Amen!
Revelation 22 VERSE
13. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
14. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may
have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
(Excerpt taken from
Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith 1897-1911 Editions)
Christ here applies
to himself the appellation of Alpha and Omega. As applied to him, the
expression must be taken in a more limited sense than when applied to the
Father, as in chapter 1:8. Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end, of the great plan of salvation.
Verse 14, as before
noticed, is the language of Christ. The commandments of which he speaks are his
Father's. Reference can be had only to the ten commandments as delivered on
Mount Sinai, He pronounces a blessing upon those who keep them. Thus in the closing
chapter of the word of God, and near the very close of the last testimony which
the faithful and true Witness there left for his people, he solemnly pronounces
a blessing upon those who keep the commandments of God. Let those who believe
in the abolition of the law, candidly consider the decisive bearing of this
important fact.
Instead of the
reading, "Blessed are they that do his commandments," some
translations, including the Revised Version, have, "Blessed are they that
wash their robes." On this point Alford's Testament for English Readers
has this note: "The difference in the readings is
curious, being in the original that between poiountes tas entolas autou, and
plunontes tas stolas auton, either of which might easily be mistaken for the
other." In view of this statement, it is not
surprising, perhaps, that this difference of reading is found. But there seems
to be good evidence that the first is the original, from which the latter is a
variation by the error of transcribers. Thus the Syriac New Testament, one of
the very earliest translations from the original Greek, reads according to the
common English version. And Cyprian, whose writings antedate any extant Greek
manuscript (Ante-Nicene Library, Vol. XIII, p. 122), quotes the text as
reading, "Blessed are they that do his
commandments." We may therefore safely consider this
as the genuine reading.
*******
Jesus said these
words-
Rev 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is
with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
Rev 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end, the first and the last.
And then we read…
Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments,
that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the
gates into the city.
Our Savior's reward
is with Him.
Every man will
receive according to work.
If our work is to
worship, then we obey the commandments through our worship, through Christ!
If we do not
worship, our work will reflect that, and our Savior cannot know us if we do not
know Him through our worship.
Keeping the
commandments are important and our God did NOT leave us without the ability to
discern them through His word. Our
heavenly Father went to great lengths to give us the knowledge of His
commandments. And yes, we should study them once more, by the grace and will of
God!
If we are blessed if
we read the prophecies of the book of Revelation, and keep the sayings there
in, we are doubly blessed if we are told we are bless if we DO His
commandments.
Please Father,
please open our hearts, our minds, our spirit to Your truths, the truth in Your
commandments!
In the name of our
Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, help us, enlighten us!
Amen!
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