Take it To Heart

Tuesday, November 13, 2012, 8:00 a.m. – the Lord woke me with the song “Jesus Paid it All” playing through my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Revelation 1:1-8 (NIV 1984):

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

Look, he is coming with the clouds,

    and every eye will see him,

even those who pierced him;

    and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.

So shall it be! Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

The Purpose

God the Father gave his Son, Jesus Christ, God the Son, this revelation, which God/Jesus then made known to John via an angel. The purpose of the revelation was for Jesus Christ to show his servants (his followers) what must soon take place. The word “soon” (or “near”) was used here and often in the New Testament in relation to the final days on the earth. Since this was written nearly 2000 years ago, we can assume that “soon” and “near” were more in the context of being “imminent,” i.e. approaching, upcoming, or in the future, though certainly certain elements of this revelation have taken place throughout history since Jesus died, rose from the grave and ascended back to heaven from which he came.

So, why was it important for Jesus to give us this revelation in order to show us what must soon take place? I believe it is a matter of perspective. In other words, when we view our lives in the perspective of eternity and our future, and we do take it to heart, then it should change how we view God, eternity, our time on this earth, and our purpose in being here, and ultimately it should change how we choose to live our lives. If we have the perspective that all these things are near, and we take to heart what is written here, not just about future events, but about the need for the church to wake up and to repent of her adulteries and to return to her first love, then we should begin to see revival break out and people coming to true faith in Jesus Christ by the masses. So, do we really take this to heart?

I believe it is also important that we have this revelation to lead us to holy living and to prepare our hearts for judgments of God and for persecution to come to the saints of God. Although I don’t know when Jesus Christ is going to return, I believe it is a dangerous philosophy (teaching) in America which teaches that the church will be raptured before any of this takes place. We have so soft-pedaled the gospel of Jesus Christ, from beginning to end, here in America that what is written here in Revelation does not seriously or radically impact many of our lives and how we live them, because we don’t believe we will be here when any of this takes place. It makes for nice reading in the “Left Behind” fictional series of books based off Revelation, as well as many people like to debate and argue over the various interpretations of what all this means, but if it is not impacting how we live our lives, then we have truly missed the point of it all. Again, “Do we really take this to heart?”

To Heart

So, what does John mean when he said “Blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it”? It means to take what is said here seriously and to apply it to our lives personally, believing that it has significant value to how we live out our lives on a daily basis. It means for our lives to be much affected by what we read, and to live accordingly as though we believe that what is written here is true, is for us, and that it could directly impact our lives on a major scale. It also means to take God seriously and to understand that what he wrote to those seven churches still applies to the church today, where it fits.

For instance, let’s begin where John proclaimed that Jesus Christ is the one who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. What does that mean to you? Does it mean that positionally you are in Christ Jesus through faith and that one day you will get to be with your Lord for eternity in glory? Yes, but that is only part of the picture. If we truly take this to heart, we realize that Jesus Christ, God the Son, left his home in heaven to take on human flesh and to suffer as we suffer, to be tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin, and that he suffered persecution, abandonment, misunderstanding, false accusations, rejection, denial and betrayal at the hands of his closest companions, mockery, abuse, beatings and a cruel death on a cross, as well as when he died, he took upon himself the sins of the entire world. And, he did this for you and for me.

So, why do you think he went through all that pain and agony? He did this because he loves us, and so we would be truly free from our sins, not just free positionally so that we can go to heaven one day, but so we would be free of slavery to sin while we still live on the face of this earth, and so we would be free to love, honor and obey him the rest of our lives, and to walk with him in perfect fellowship. When he died, our sins died with him, so that when we come to him in faith we could die to our old way of living in sin and to please ourselves, and so we would live new lives in Christ Jesus, our Lord, “created to be like Christ in true righteousness and holiness” (see Eph. 4:17-24; John 9:23-24).

So, if we take this to heart, it means we will die to our old lives of sin and we will choose to live new lives in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit of God within us. We will put to death the misdeeds of the flesh, and we will walk in the Spirit of God in true holiness and righteousness. Our lives will no longer be our own to do with what we desire, but our lives will be committed to obedience to Jesus Christ. So, knowing all this, are we taking this to heart in our lives?

As well, Jesus Christ made us to be a kingdom and priests of serve his God and Father forever and ever – to him be all the glory! So, are we taking this to heart? Are we serving our Lord God with all our hearts, minds and strength? I am not talking here about serving in the institutional church in some type of church ministry, though that could very well be where God is having you serve him. Service for God has to be viewed as that of a slave with his master. We don’t choose the service. God does! And, it is our job (responsibility) to obey whatever he says, and to do whatever he has called us to do. Our reasonable service of worship, according to Romans 12:1-2, is to lay our lives down on God’s altar as living sacrifices to God, holy and pleasing to him, no longer conformed to the ways of this world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds via the Holy Spirit of God. Our lives are no longer our own, for we were bought with a price, therefore we should honor God with our lives. So, daily we say, “Lord, what do you have for me today?” And, then we obey.

One Day

One day Jesus is going to return to earth to receive his bride (his true servants) to himself, to judge the earth and its inhabitants, and to set up his earthly reign as King of kings and as Lord of lords, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Make sure today that you are taking to heart the things written in the New Testament with regard to our relationship with Jesus Christ and his purpose for our lives while we still live on the face of this earth. Make sure you are following Jesus Christ in obedience and surrender of your will to his will for your life. And, make sure you are telling others about Jesus Christ, because one day all these things will take place, and many will die without ever having come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives.

Jesus paid it all for us. All to him we owe!

Jesus Paid It All / Elvina M. Hall / John T. Grape

… your sins… they shall be as white as snow… Isaiah 1:18

I hear the Savior say, “Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me thine all in all.”

For nothing good have I whereby Thy grace to claim,
I’ll wash my garments white in the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

And now complete in Him my robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side, I am divinely blest.

Lord, now indeed I find Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots and melt the heart of stone.

When from my dying bed my ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,” shall rend the vaulted skies.

And when before the throne I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down all down at Jesus’ feet.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.