“Come,” my heart says, “seek His face!” Your face, Lord, do I seek. Psalm 27:8 NRSV.

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:10.

When I look at the night sky and see the work of Your fingers – the moon and the stars You have set in place – what are mere mortals that You should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Psalm 8:3-4.

When I decided to start sharing Scripture one chapter at a time, I knew I would come to this our chapter, Revelation 1. In the notes it said it was written by the Apostle John around AD 96 while he was banished on the Island of Patmos. As I thought about what it must have been like for John to have received this vision, I couldn’t help but think about all of the understanding John experienced as a disciple of Jesus, The Son of Man, Creator God; as the one Jesus entrusted the care of His mother and of the conversations and love they shared over the years before her own death, that enabled John to write as he did. And in Revelation John is revealing Jesus Christ as it was revealed to him by Creator God. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood – and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father – to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to 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.” I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

In reading today from the devotional, The One Year Devotions for Women by Ann Spangler, she wrote what is good to remember as we read this book: “I like what Chuck DeGroat, a pastor at City Church in San Francisco, has to say about the bigness of God: “Let’s face it: if you have a big God, you have to deal with big Mystery.” Perhaps that’s key when it comes to experiencing more of God. We have to deal with “big Mystery,” forgoing the temptation to shrink God. There is too much we do not understand. Too much we cannot comprehend. Faith is an adventure, a hard but joyful journey toward the God who is more powerful and loving than we have any right to expect.” Her prayer at the end? “Father, who am I that You should think of me? Yet You have called me by name and invited me to know You. May I know You in the deepest ways possible.” In the notes to Revelation it said that the number seven is important and repeated throughout. I am not a numbers person but I do see it is important to take note whenever the number seven is introduced. God is not random. All of Scripture has meaning and all of it points to Jesus the Son and His love for the Father and for us and the work of the Holy Spirit to bring understanding He delights to bring. God is so much more than anything we can imagine and it is our delight to walk with Him as He teaches and guides us into the deepest love we will ever know. A note from the notes said as a suggested theme – “the moral and spiritual conflict of the ages.” All of Scripture shows us the moral and spiritual conflict of the ages which is the whole history of mankind. Genesis shows us the beginning. Revelation reveals the end which leads to the kingdom of God and the new heavens and the new earth.