I'm likely going to be made fun of for this, but this morning I had the passage read to me, so that I could hear it. And it changed my response to Yeshua's words in a couple interesting ways.
First, I had a powerful response when I heard "I know your deeds". For some reason the idea of hearing God say that is far more convicting but also far more exciting than reading it. I find myself hearing a voice over and over again saying "I know your deeds"
The other thing that stuck out more prominently as the passage was read was the structure. Jesus starts by saying that they are writing to the angel of the church, giving his credentials, a celebration of positive traits, a concise rebuke of things that are not of himself, followed by the phrase "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Who is "he who has an ear"? ... Oh shoot, I've got two, I'd better listen up!
Eric, that's really cool. That really caught me when Darrell (I think) was saying that this letter was meant to be heard. There is a lot of power to that - and I wonder what kind of differences there are in attention to detail/structure if you read it aloud to yourself or if someone else reads it to you.
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