Speechless

As I have been sitting and meditating on Revelation 1, I cannot help but just be speechless about the man that I love. Just thinking about what revelation means, why this book was even written makes me excited for the now and not yet seen idea. This chapter makes me eager for Christ to return, I mean, can you imagine seeing Christ in all His glory, to a degree I cannot even fathom, it astounds me, it takes my breath away. When I think about revelation, I think of an unveiling, a pulling back of a curtain to see who God really is. (Bear with this image that was on my heart...who knows if it will make sense to you:)

From the moment Christ was born, he was unique, he was sought after as the Son of God, yet human. As a child, he was more hidden, historically because he was wanted dead by Herod so Mary and Joseph protected him...but His identity was visible yet invisible to those who would not open their hearts to see. And then came Jesus, kind of revealing and opening up the curtain when he was living here on this Earth, doing miracles and speaking truth in the name of the Father to glorify God to further the kingdom. Jesus pulled open the curtain and offered himself for all to see and to receive. He was humbly the man behind the curtain seeking to honor His father. Jesus then goes and dies on the cross...and I just can't help but remember one of my favorite parts of the resurrection when Jesus died on the cross and the curtain was torn into two (Luke 23:44-49) symbolizing the removal of the barrier between God an myself (and you) so that I could have a personal relationship with God through Christ! The curtain, the unveiling, the revelation was that I could approach God now directly! And then I read Revelation 1, I see John reporting as a messenger to tear down the final curtain in a sense, the invisible one, the spiritual one, the curtain that will allow for all suffering and pain to stop occurring, the curtain that will allow Satan to be defeated once and for all (despite the fact that we already know that he has lost!) It is the revelation of seeing who God really is! It is breathtaking getting a glimpse of Him, knowing that he has conquered sin, Satan, death, and hell because he reigns triumphantly and victoriously over all!

"Grace and peace to you from WHO IS, and WHO WAS, and WHO IS TO COME..." (vs 4).

"Do not be afraid, I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold, I am alive for ever and ever And I hold the keys of death and Hades" (vs 18)

"I am the Alpha and the Omega...who is and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty" (vs 8)

"[I am] the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kinds of the earth." (vs 5)

I love seeing who Christ is, who he was. From the beginning he spoke "I am, that I am" (Exodus 3:14) and then I quickly flipped to Colossians 1:15-18 to soak in even more the supremacy of Christ and then to 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 where I just began praying for a spirit of revelation, so that I may know Christ better (Ephesians 1:17).

I just run out of words and can only smile as I read this chapter over and over. Man how He he loves us, I love verse 17 where it says that when John saw him, he fell at his feet as though dead...that is my only response sometimes to Christ and I cannot wait till I meet him face to face with all His brilliance.

I liked Pearl's realization, that this is real life...this world is real and it is full of Jesus, we are already reigning victorious through Christ...but I cannot wait for the "new world" if you may...I am and have been re-reading Chronicles of Narnia and went back to the Last Battle to kinda wrap up a little of my child like excitement and yet the depth and complexity behind these quotes by C.S. Lewis (brilliant man that he is) :)

It is as hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that country taste. Perhaps you will get some idea of it if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away among mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a looking-glass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all over again, in the looking glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time there were somehow different -- deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know.
The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can't describe it any better than that: if ever you get there you will know what I mean."And yet they're not like," said Lucy. "They're different. They have more colours on them and they look further away than I remembered and they're more... more... oh, I don't know..."
"More like the real thing," said the Lord Digory softly.
It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then he cried:

"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that is sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!"

So my prayer is that I go farther up and farther in, that I can sit and learn in my mind and my heart more about the glory of God. That I can see the Glorious One, that I can desire and seek after Him and see myself as "beloved"...For all find what they truly seek.'" The depth of Christ love, the jealously for my heart continues to amaze me, and Christ's character is incredible!

Man, Christ is good! AMEN.

~Cass