If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Consider carefully what you hear…With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Mark 4:23-24.

If you had known…in this your day…the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Luke 19:42.

Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me. There is more than enough room in My Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with Me where I am. John 14:1-3.

In small groups Wednesday and then this morning in our Friday Zoom Retreat, we considered this week for us personally as it relates to that week so long ago when Jesus was celebrated as He entered Jerusalem, to the events culminating in what happened this day and will happen yet tomorrow and Sunday. 7 days and yet so much. In drawing near to Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, we are there with Him then, and we are here with Him now seeing only in hindsight the path we are on that has a working for good we could never have engineered. In being with Him today, I realize He is enough. His enough is everything. And our chapter, Revelation 17: Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, and I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, and having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly. And the angel said to me, “Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come. Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” And he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are people and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

We may think we are removed from the images and symbols revealed in Revelation, but they describe this our fallen world of people and multitudes and nations and tongues and authority and kings, and powers drunk on the blood of abominations. And this week so long ago reminds us of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He alone was faithful to the Father and in seeing Jesus the Son, we see the love of the Father. Greater love has no one than this, that One lay down His life for His friends. John 15:13. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16. We call this “Good Friday”…not because of the flogging, the beating, the brutal crucifixion of God Himself, but because everything that Creator God does is Good. He redeems -ALL – things in His Love. We can know in our day…the things that make for our peace…and it is the one thing – Creator God and His Love shed for us to give life eternal with Him. We all of us stand with humanity, Jew and Gentile, in finding it hard to comprehend so great a love, but listen to Paul…For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified – to Jews a stumbling block – and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God – because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 1:21-25. Let God be enough for the celebrations, the confusions, the horrifying disbeliefs, the longing to understand, the weighted silence tomorrow then brought, to the revelation Sunday brings. He is EVERYTHING!