I am starting this blog and hope to be faithful to update it. Only time will tell. I truly desire to see the ladies at Afton become better Christians through our class. I want to use this forum to give more information about our studies than I could possibly cover in the one hour provided on Sundays.
We have recently just completed a study on the seven churches that John writes about in the first couple of chapters of Revelation. Our purpose at the beginning of this study was to compare the churches in Revelation to Afton Wesleyan Church. So here is a quick review:
1. Church of Ephesus--Jesus talks about all the great things the church had done, preservance, Patience's, labored for the sake of Jesus, and that they had not become weary. However; he warns them because they left their first love. He encourages them to REPENT and do the first works. (Yes I know I put REPENT in all CAPS, there is a reason for this since this this theme is repeated several times in this study.)
2. Church in Smyrna--Jesus only has encouraging words to say to this church. He does however warn them of the tribulations that they are about to endure. He tells them that some of them will be placed in prison. He tells them that it will only last ten days and that if they will be faithful unto death, he will give them the crown of life. I wonder here if the prison term only lasted ten days because then they were executed. The Bible does not say, it just tells them how long it will be and then tells them what their reward will be if they are faithful unto death. Could we at Afton be faithful unto death if the devil threw us into prison? I hope we never have to find out, but what if.......
3. Church in Pergamos--We start to see a pattern here....Jesus starts out with what is good about the church: He knows their works, how they held fast to His name even when one of their members was murdered for His sake. But unfortunately, the negative follows...there were those in the church that still held to the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of Nicolaitans. Jesus said, "REPENT, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth." As we compare this church to Afton, the thought comes to mind of how many different religious backgrounds are represented at Afton and even in our Sunday School class. The doctrine of Balaam caused Balak problems and the people of Israel. We studied this story in depth in class so I will not repeat it in detail, but Israel committed sexual sin that caused all the people affected to be put to death. Do we "hold" to past doctrines that allow for sin that will cause the people of Afton to be put to death? I am not referring to physical death but to spiritual death. Let us be diligent at Afton to walk in the light as He is in the light (I John 1:7).
4. Church in Thyatira--Jesus starts out by saying that He knows their works, love, service, faith, and their patience. He warns them of one person in the church who calls herself a prophetess who causes some of the members to commit sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols. When we began this study, I had a hard time comparing this church to Afton. Surely we would never put someone in a place of authority in the church who would seduce the parishioners to commit fornication. However; this verse should be a warning for us. As we watch the news, we often see how some priest or church leader used their position to hide sexual sin. Let us always be mindful to never make excuse for sin in our own lives to always pray for the leadership of our church. Jesus finishes with an encouraging word for the church who do not participate in the doctrine of this prophetess but who held true to Him. He will not allow any other burden placed upon them and encouraged them to hold fast until that time that He returns.
5. Church in Sardis--"Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works to be perfect before God." Wow... a lot said in just a few words. Would Jesus write this if He were writing a letter to Afton? I really don't think so but once again, what a great thing to keep in mind. It is truly my desire to go to a church that is alive and healthy. The church in Sardis was not healthy. God told them to "strengthen the things which remain". When we are sick we lose strength. Looking at Afton, if we stop praying, stop being obedient to the light that Jesus is asking us to walk in, if we stop feeding ourselves spiritually, (attending church and reading our Bible) and if we stop working for Jesus (trying to reach the lost) we at Afton will become weak. When I think of an epidemic, it starts with a couple of people getting sick and then spreads to several people, then to the whole community. If there are any at Afton who need strengthened, let us be faithful to pray for them. But let us not catch their sickness. How many times do we look at other people in the church and say this person can do that or this person doesn't do that.... Let us look to God for strength to prevent an illness. I take my children to the doctor on a regular basis to receive immunizations from several epidemics. I do this to prevent them from getting sick. In the same way, the Bible gives us several things that if we do, we will not become "sin sick". What if you are reading this and you know you are weak...what if Jesus was just writing to you? Praise the Lord he gives us a remedy...the same remedy that we see repeated to so many of the churches....you guessed it...REPENT. For those of you who are not sick or dead, he says that you shall walk with Him in white because you are worthy. I want to be found worthy to walk with the Lord in white when He calls my name.
6. Church in Philadelphia--If you need some encouragement, then I suggest you read about this church in more detail. The reference is Revelation 3:7-13. Jesus only has positive things to say. He encourages them to continue and to hold fast until He comes. He tells them that because they have kept His commandment to persevere, that He will keep them from the "hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world". What an encouragement. The Lord is able to protect us from an "hour of trial" if we will keep His commandments. If you are like me, sometimes it seems difficult to live the Christian life. But oh how I want to be kept from an hour of trial. I want the Lord to be pleased with my life. I want the Lord to be pleased with my church. I want my children to see holiness lived everyday. I want them to look to people in the church as an example of how they should live. I want our church to persevere. Let us model Afton after the church in Philadelphia so Jesus will be pleased.
7. Church of the Laodiceans--I could probably write on this church for a long time and might more in the future, but to tell you the truth, I am running out of steam. I am still new to this whole blog thing and trying to recap what took me 8 weeks to study and teach all in one afternoon is proving challeging. So lets get right to the point....this is the church that Jesus says "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." However; Jesus reminds us that those He loves, He chastens. He gives us the remedy to get hot...REPENT.
I would really like to spend more time here, but I will have to at another time. If you get nothing else out of this blog about the churches, I hope you realize that it does matter how we live. If we want to reach Heaven, it will cost us. The gift of salvation is free. This is a crazy analogy, but lets say your youngster gets a gold fish as a prize at the local fair. The fish was free, but if you want it to stay alive, you are going to have to give it a place to live, food to eat, a warm place to stay. It requires a lot of work to keep the free goldfish alive. It is not free. Just as salvation is free, it is a relationship with Christ. It requires work to keep the relationship alive.
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