#revelation #endtimes
I was away last weekend and when I came home I asked my wife what the message was about in Sunday mornng. Our pastors are going through Revelation. She said, "it was about good deeds". Now, I am sure it was about much more than that, but this was her synopsis. This sounds like every person who doesn't have faith in God when they say; "I am a pretty good person, I am definitely not the worst person in the world, I do a lot of good things."
The people of faith at Ephesus had certainly not stopped doing good deeds.
Rev 2:2-3 "'I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary."
Doing good deeds was not the problem, Jesus commended them for "not growing weary"! Somehow their deed doing had become a danger to them.
Rev 2:4 "But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first."
When the love of our deeds comes from a sense of pride or guilt,rather than from faith we are in danger. If we have not made our whole sense of happiness in a relationship with Absolute Love and through the "strength that He supplies" then go on to loving others the removal of the light of Absolute love is imminent. When we forget the foremost commandment of loving God with all heart, soul and mind and then try to love our neighbor as ourselves; warning! warning! warning!.
We become like those have no idea of Absolute Love, we become like the world, we lose focus on Absolute Love, we lose the source of our faith. I have heard it said of the Nicolaitans that they were focused on pride and personal power. It is their deeds that Jesus (and the believers in Ephesus) hated. Were they becoming worldly in focusing deeds on how their deeds look to others, not doing it in love that works through faith? Was it becoming a platform for personal pride and merit? Had they lost the humble reliance on God and lost their enthusiasm for hearing and knowing the Word of God?
Where does the faith that causes us to love others come from. "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. In the early 1980's I grasped on to something I heard John Piper say, I am sure he gleaned this from Jonathan Edwards.
"I make it my first duty every morning to become happy in the delight of God, through the Word of God."
It is truism we only do things that we ultimately believe will make us happy. People who live for fame and people who live for the fame of God's glory both can appear to do good deeds, the difference is where their sense fulfillment is focused and where do they get their drive and happiness. Where is their love at in the doing or in Absolute Love? Where is it that they are looking for ultimate happiness.
Are you focused on the Absolute Love, are you seeking your happiness in Him?
I was away last weekend and when I came home I asked my wife what the message was about in Sunday mornng. Our pastors are going through Revelation. She said, "it was about good deeds". Now, I am sure it was about much more than that, but this was her synopsis. This sounds like every person who doesn't have faith in God when they say; "I am a pretty good person, I am definitely not the worst person in the world, I do a lot of good things."
The people of faith at Ephesus had certainly not stopped doing good deeds.
Rev 2:2-3 "'I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary."
Doing good deeds was not the problem, Jesus commended them for "not growing weary"! Somehow their deed doing had become a danger to them.
Rev 2:4 "But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first."
When the love of our deeds comes from a sense of pride or guilt,rather than from faith we are in danger. If we have not made our whole sense of happiness in a relationship with Absolute Love and through the "strength that He supplies" then go on to loving others the removal of the light of Absolute love is imminent. When we forget the foremost commandment of loving God with all heart, soul and mind and then try to love our neighbor as ourselves; warning! warning! warning!.
We become like those have no idea of Absolute Love, we become like the world, we lose focus on Absolute Love, we lose the source of our faith. I have heard it said of the Nicolaitans that they were focused on pride and personal power. It is their deeds that Jesus (and the believers in Ephesus) hated. Were they becoming worldly in focusing deeds on how their deeds look to others, not doing it in love that works through faith? Was it becoming a platform for personal pride and merit? Had they lost the humble reliance on God and lost their enthusiasm for hearing and knowing the Word of God?
Where does the faith that causes us to love others come from. "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. In the early 1980's I grasped on to something I heard John Piper say, I am sure he gleaned this from Jonathan Edwards.
"I make it my first duty every morning to become happy in the delight of God, through the Word of God."
It is truism we only do things that we ultimately believe will make us happy. People who live for fame and people who live for the fame of God's glory both can appear to do good deeds, the difference is where their sense fulfillment is focused and where do they get their drive and happiness. Where is their love at in the doing or in Absolute Love? Where is it that they are looking for ultimate happiness.
Are you focused on the Absolute Love, are you seeking your happiness in Him?
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