May 11, 2019
Focus Passage: Revelation 7:9-17
It is tempting on when we remember the suffering of the world to go one of two ways with our faith. One way is to believe that God has abandoned us, or even that God does not exist. The other temptation is to say that this life is simply a veil of tears and there is a greater, better life to come. For now we just get on and grit our teeth. It is tempting on when we remember the suffering of the world to go one of two ways with our faith. One way is to believe that God has abandoned us, or even that God does not exist. The other temptation is to say that this life is simply a veil of tears and there is a greater, better life to come. For now we just get on and grit our teeth. The vision of today’s Revelation reading, is a time and place where “every tear will be wiped away.” That new Heaven and earth is to come but, it is already beginning to happen now. Jesus is raised from the dead. The Spirit has been poured out. Lives are renewed and transformed, and hope is reborn. The vision of the great crowd gathered to worship from every tribe and every nation seems impossible, until you remember that today across our globe in in thousands of languages, hundreds of millions of people are worshipping in the name of Jesus. Human worship, witness, and service, is never in vain, for it is part of this New Creation which will one day be complete.
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