Photo Credit: Alive in the Word blog
The past few days, I’ve been reading through the book of Revelation.
It’s not in my top favorite books of the Bible.
I don’t turn to Revelation when I am having a bad day. I don’t study the book when I’m trying to get something from God. My first instinct isn’t to read about the world falling apart and the tribulation believers will face and all the doom and gloom and crazy metaphoric images that are found in the book of Revelation.
Maybe I’m just weird that way.
So when I finished reading Jude and turned the page to start reading Revelation, I wasn’t looking forward it.
I even thought about just skipping this book and starting back in Genesis.
But as I pushed past my initial hesitation, I’ve begun to see God in a whole new light.
Revelation isn’t just a book about the world ending, Christ returning and God restoring all things to His intended design. It isn’t just about doom and gloom and tribulations and hardship. It’s so much more than allegory and metaphor and crazy descriptions of what could possibly be airplanes or meteors or man-made objects yet to be created.
Revelation is a book describing just how powerful our God really is.
He has the power to give and take peace.
He has the power to wipe out the earth with just a spoken word.
He can cause kings to shake, presidents to tremble and all of mankind to run and hide.
He can unleash hail and fire that burns up half the planet.
He can cause meteors to crash into the oceans, turning them to blood.
He can turn the water on the planet bitter.
He can destroy a third of the sun, moon and stars.
He can cause locusts to overtake the earth.
He can send plagues of fire and smoke and sulfur.
He can stop the winds, the rain and the clouds.
This God we serve is powerful enough to create everything we see, and destroy it in an instant.
In our efforts to see people come to Christ, we’ve focused on His love at the cost of His power.
God loves you and wants to be with you. But He detests sin so much it would kill you to come to Him.
Nothing you could ever do could keep God from loving you. But if you don’t accept Him, you will suffer.
God forgives you, washes you clean and renews you. But it comes at the cost of bloodshed, torture and death of Christ.
God does love you. He does want you. He is jealous for you. BUT, He won’t let a sinful life go unpunished. He won’t let things continue this way forever.
He will show up, He will show off, and He will show us just how powerful He really is.
I’ve gained a new sense of awe and wonder and fear reading Revelation this time.
What have you read lately that has given you a new sense of awe and wonder at God?
