Meditations from a Recent Sermon:

A few weeks ago our pastor preached on Chapters 4 and 5 from Revelation. It was a fantastic message. I am sure that there is so much more to be gleaned from his sermon and from those particular scriptures but here are some things that came to my mind.

God has sovereignly planned out all of history both in the broad sense and in a very personal sense for all people and all of creation. The ultimate goal of His plan is that He will show forth His radiant beauty (His glory) for all of creation to wonder at and respond to in worship. God planned from before the creation of the world to draw people to Himself through Christ and to bless them to enjoy His presence forever that we may worship Him in joy. And Jesus is the only One who is worthy to accomplish Gods plans: He is the One who was worthy to open the scroll because He was slain. So now my thoughts went to how these truths should affect my life…

Well, lately my plans haven’t been coming to fruition according to my timing. And my response to this isn’t usually a mindset which glories in my God’s perfect timing and His wonderful (though unseen) plans, but rather usually my response shows a heart of pride and self-focus. My response shows that I have my eyes focused on me rather than God’s glory - my desire to be king (or queen) over “my own life” rather than eyes focused on God in Heaven where Christ is my King. In my pride, I am saying that I am worthy to plan my own life and direct it how I like, but as I listened to the sermon I was reminded that Christ is the One who is worthy to open the scroll, to accomplish God’s plans and that God’s plans are good and supreme. How convenient that I desire God’s plans for my life when they include Jesus dying on the cross for my sins, but I desire my own plans when God’s plans don’t match my desires.

Ultimately, the thing that Revelation reminded me of is that God is amazingly wondrous and in complete control… if I see Him as He is, then I will be filled with joy; I will trust Him; and it will show to those around me. If my view of Him is obscured (usually by me) then I will fall into sin and I will hide the radiant beauty of Jesus within me so that those around me cannot see Jesus through me.