Read the Bible in 2011 ◊ Week 49: Friday

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to 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.”
Revelation 1:1–3

Friday’s Bible reading is Revelation 1–6. Friday’s readings have been in books of prophecy from the Old Testament. Having finished the last of these, Malachi, the rest of the year Fridays will be in New Testament prophetic book of Revelation.

As I wrote in my first post on Isaiah back in January, when you read through the prophets, look for what you can learn from the text itself, and don’t be overwhelmed by what you don’t understand. This is true for any book of the Bible, but we need the reminder about the prophets because in reading narrative history and the letters, there is much we can readily understand, and we feel our gaps in knowledge more keenly when we turn to the prophets. Even when you do not understand all of the circumstances or events, your understanding of who God is can grow as you read what God revealed to His prophets regarding His actions and His thoughts.

Look at the messages to the seven churches in Revelation. What can you learn about the circumstances, character, conduct and consequences in them? You can read some of my thoughts about Ephesus in Luke 7–8: Forgiveness & First Love.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Revelation 2:29

As the year comes to a close, take time to reflect over it as you think about these messages. What can you learn from them about how can you pray for your church and for yourself for the coming year?

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Isaiah 42 Photograph: ChristianPhotos.net – Free High Resolution Photos for Christian Publication

Original content: Copyright ©2011 Iwana Carpenter