Daily Readings and Thought for June 21st. “TO THE ONE WHO CONQUERS I WILL GRANT …”
Daily Readings: Ruth 3,4 Isaiah 45, Revelation 1,2
What a remarkable set of thought challenging chapters we have today. First we read the 3rd and 4th chapters of Ruth which climax by telling us how she became the great grandmother of David.
Then we read the inspiring 45th chapter of Isaiah. Verse 11 jumped out at us! “Thus says the LORD … “Ask me of things to come” [v.11] But we then noticed the declaration in the next verse, God’s declaration which nearly all deny today! ” I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens…”
Then in the book of Revelation the heart challenging personal appeal of “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him …” [1 v.1] We are invited, indeed – challenged(!) to “read(s) aloud the words of this prophecy” [v.3]. And they would have done this in the 1st Century – not realizing, as we do now, that it described events then, and soon to happen, but then stretched forward to the climax when Jesus returned and reigned!
Chapter 2 begins a series of 7 messages to the ecclesias that then existed and they are all types that exist today – good and promising – poor and in trouble. The first message is to the believers at Ephesus. We note its conclusion! “To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
That message is for us too! Are we making good progress in doing this? At the very beginning Adam and Eve were denied access to “the tree of life”. It was so tragic; they failed to believe God meant what he said! Let us each make sure we are among those “who conquer” and so gain access to the “tree of life” and live forever and experience the wonders of God’s coming kingdom – and how soon now!?
