Revelation 1:5b-6
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen
Simply stated this verse is amazing. I get hung up on the first few words: “to him that loves us.” How often do we really think about the love of God? This love that is so pure, that it isn’t shallow and doesn’t have any fault in it, a love that is undeserved, that after WE rebelled and left Him He still loves us and demonstrated that love by humbling Himself and dying on the cross so that we could be redeemed and spend eternity with Him, a love that never stops, no matter what we have done or will do He still loves us, and a love that is perfect, never ending, never failing, never stopping, never bears a grudge, never turns its back, never leaves. We have all faced disappointment in life, many of us have received much disappointment from the people that we have loved and do love, family, may we remember that God’s love never, NEVER, leaves any disappointment when it is truly experienced. He will never let you down if you keep in respect to your end goal, to finish the race on earth well to hear Him say “well done my good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:21)” and to know God more than you know anything else. Family, may we long to better know this love.
The next few words are some of the most amazing words I know in scripture, “and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” We chose bondage to sin, bondage to death over life ruling with the King. Needless to say, we chose the wrong side! However, though that could have and should have been the end of the story and we should receive justice for the actions we have committed and the thoughts that have gone through our mind, we have been given an offer to accept or refuse. We have been offered to start over and our mistakes will be erased from past, present and future, or we can choose to refuse this offer and take our punishment of eternity in hell, separated from God. May we all choose forgiveness! For those of us who have chosen forgiveness, may I ask, how differently do we live from people that choose to cary on in their ways? So often, there is very little difference from modern “Christians” to the people of this world, aside from saying a prayer to give one’s heart to the Lord, HOWEVER, salvation does not come from a prayer! Salvation comes from believing in God with all of one’s heart and loving Him and living life with Him and confessing Him (Romans 10:9). That is how one is saved. By grace through faith have we been saved (Ephesians 2:8). Faith is the total casting upon of all of the trust that you have, it revolutionizes your life because you are throwing everything that you are onto that choice. Has our faith in God completely changed our life? If not, how much faith do we have? We are told that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains (a mustard seed is extremely small, about equivalent to a fine point marker dot on paper), family, why is that all the faith that we have? Imagine if we each had faith larger than a mustard seed, imagine how this world would be changed for our King.
This verse ends by telling us that we are part of God’s kingdom. Family, we matter to God and as His children, as part of His kingdom, may we live to please Him, may we live to know Him and to bring Him glory.
May God’s love abound more and more in us and as we abandon our chains to sin that broke with Christ’s sacrifice for us, may we love more and more.
-Ryan
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