Day 345
Amos 4:1-6:14; Revelation 2:18-3:6; Psalm 130:1-8; Proverbs 29:21-22
His Coming… Right Now!
“Hold on to what you have until I come.” – Revelation 2:25
In the season of Advent, the anticipation of the coming of our Savior into the world, we prepare. In our homes, we clean, cook, shop, and decorate to create a fresh and festive place of honor for our Lord. In our workplaces and communities, we share gifts with others in need. In our families, we read devotions and practice seasonal traditions. In our churches, we create worshipful attitudes and environments filled with music, events, and beautiful symbolic adornments. Yet in our daily lives, do we prepare as the Lord desires?
From the beginning pages of the Gospels, we see that the arrival of Jesus into humanity was God’s covenant with His beloved people. More tangible than Noah’s rainbow, the Baby Christ was a promise with which He intended we could truly identify. But the Lord God had even greater plans!
The Book of Revelation also reveals for us, in its startling, fascinating, cryptic style, another coming, another covenant. Author Scott Hahn states, “…the book of Revelation captures that powerful sense of Jesus’ imminent Parousia—His coming that takes place right now. The Apocalypse shows us that He is here in fullness—in kingship, in judgment, in warfare, in priestly sacrifice, in Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity—whenever Christians celebrate the Eucharist.” I love this image of the Table as Heaven!
Do we enter Advent with adequate preparation of our own hearts, minds, and spirits? More immediately, do we approach the Communion Table each week with fitting preparation of the same? The first 3 chapters of Revelation describe the need for repentance on the part of the seven churches of Asia for allowing their hearts, minds, and spirits to be overtaken by the influence and worship of ungodly forces.
In the words of Jesus Himself, “Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent” (Revelation 3:4). He directs us to repent of our following after worldly ways in preparation to receive this covenant: His promise. “To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations” (Rev. 2:26). Are we keeping our part in honoring our Lord by accepting this promise as His worthy people?
Revelation shows us the Way to the Lord’s Table as the celebration of Heaven on earth where we come face to face with our Lord until that time when we are with Him forever. Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
Laurie Mealor
St. Peter’s Church
Lake Mary, FL