Pastor Marshall Ochs | August 7, 2022
In this message, Pastor Marshall teaches from Revelation 1. In the late first century, the Apostle John was exiled to Patmos. Rome was persecuting Christians and the church was experiencing massive tribulation. An angel visited John and gave him a revelation of Jesus Christ, and instructed John to share the revelation with the church. Chapter one covers a robust theology of God from the Old Testament and a picture of Jesus as divine warrior. This image of Jesus is meant to comfort and convict the church. We serve a victorious God who instructs us to fear not.
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In your quiet time this week, will you sit quietly in God's presence, letting the imagery of Jesus, as described by John in Revelation, fill your mind? Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart, eyes, and mind to Jesus. Not the Jesus the world describes, but Jesus Christ, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of kings on earth, with hair like white wool, eyes like a flame of fire, feet like burnished bronze.
Will you surrender the thrones you have created and allow Jesus Christ to live and rule in your heart and life? Will you spend time asking the Holy Spirit to reveal what those "thrones" are that need to be torn down?
Revelation 1:3 says, "Blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written..." Are you reading the Word of God and keeping what is written?
If Jesus returned today, would He find you awake or asleep? Awake to His work, His Kingdom, or asleep, hiding in fear, looking for the comforts of life?
We conclude this week's devotion where we started, will you stare into the fiery eyes of Jesus and be undone? Meditate fully on the authority of Jesus and let that rule your mind.