339 Saturday, December 5, 2009

339 1 Chronicles 1 – 5; Revelation 2.1 – 2.17

It is in these chapters we find the prayer that was published and became a national best seller. It was astounding that the prayer of Jabez would cause such a stir. Here is the prayer that is recorded in I Chronicles, "Jabez prayed to the God of Israel: ' " Bless me, O bless me! Give me land, large tracts of land. And provide your personal protection---don't let evil hurt me."’ What is the next sentence after that prayer? It may surprise you that it says, "God gave him what he asked." Perhaps today you could pray that the Lord bless you. The Lord in Christ has already blessed you in so many ways. Yet, have you prayed that the Lord would bless you? Wouldn't you want your Father in heaven to pray a blessing over you? Go ahead--Jabez did.

The Lord's first order of business is to speak to the churches in Asia minor. The first church Christ addresses is that of Ephesus. This is a local church located in Ephesus. First, it is praise for all their hard work and their stand against false teachings. Then Jesus rebukes them for losing their first love. It is easy to do the work and even protect the church from false teachings and lose the love for Christ in the middle of that good stuff. The church is to turn back and recover their early love. Where are you? Are you working hard for the Lord, while losing sight of Christ? It is easy to do.

The next church is in Smyrna and the Lord knows their poverty and pain. Jesus also knows the pretenders and lets the church know that he knows. He tells them to tough it out even when they are thrown in jail. He addresses the issue of dying by reminding them he has a crown of Life for them. It is the tangible verses the intangible. Don't give up even if it costs you your life--why? I have a crown of Life for you.

The last church for today is that of Pergamum. Already Antipas has lost his life for staying true to Christ. This church is in a tough location with Jesus talking about being on Satan's turf. But, Christ is fed up with them (Satan's crowd) and is promising to come to even the odds or tip the odds. The last promise for staying true is that each one will get a smooth stone with their new secret name inscribed on it. Jesus not only knows your name He knows your secret name.