2 for 1

The past two weeks I have been reading the letters to the Church in Smyrna and Pergamum.  Interestingly, these two churches are similar.  The Lord wants to encourage them for there perseverance through persecution and trials.  There are some statements that stick out to me in both of these accounts:  “I know your afflictions and your poverty…” (Rev. 2:9); “I know where you live…” (Rev. 2:13).  Take a minute and think about that.  There are too many times, when reading God’s Word, we just read a statement like these and just pass by them.  The Lord of the universe, the Lord that is described in Isaiah 40, the Lord that is holy and all powerful knows the details of my life.  Think of all the churches and all of the people in those churches and the Lord knows the detail of each and every situation.  In the Church of Smyrna He is in tune with their poverty and persecution.  He then encourages them to stay the course and keep the faith because more is coming. How great is it to know we have a sovereign God in control of all situations.  No matter how big or small life’s event are the Lord is control of all of them. This is where we find true rest in the difficult time of life. He then leaves them with this reminder, “you are rich”.  What a great thought!!   We are not tied to the circumstances of this world, our values rest in Jesus Christ.  We are not dependent of how easy life is or how much we are able to get to find our worth, we are loved and saved children of God!  That is enough isn’t it?  For the Church in Pergamum, he knew where they lived.  Why is that a big deal?  Where this church was located is described as “where Satan has his throne”.  At the time this letter was written this was the headquarters for all of the pagan religions.  This church was right there at ground zero, on the front line, and the Lord wanted them to know he had seen their faithfulness. 
There is one rebuke that he had for the church in Pergamum.  In the course of living in the midst of the pagan religions, they had adopted some of their teachings into the church. They followed the false teachings of Balaam and Nicolaitians.  If you remember for the last post these are the same teachings that the church in Ephesus had rejected.  What a reminder how much our culture can influence our theology.  In our church we host a class every year called Counseling and Discipleship Training.  The whole basis for this class is to gain Bible knowledge on the issues of life, so that we can think Biblically on all areas of life.  When going through this course it was surprising how much worldly, human thinking had scoped my thought process on several different areas of life.  In actuality the Bible should shape our view on life, not life shaping our view of the Bible and ultimately God.   This church was guilty of not knowing there Bibles well enough and then allowing the culture to influence there theology.  Remember, though processes and ministries my change with culture, we must stand firm on the foundation of who the Lord is and what His Word says.  Do you know the foundation on which you are standing? 
 
Times may get tough…Run the Race; Fight the Fight; Keep the Faith…Trust me it is worth it!
 
Pastor Matt

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