The Well: Recent Episodes
Henry Wade
There will be times when your star leads you to a shack. When life shatters your dreams, the first order of business should be finding the Lord. If you are His, then nothing happens in your life that He has not allowed.
Burnout is a state of mental, physical, and spiritual exhaustion resulting from too much stress for too long a time.
We are all tempted every day to think wrong thoughts, say wrong words, and do wrong things. Temptation started with Adam and Eve in the perfect Garden of Eden, and the Tempter is still trying to wreck our lives with the same tactics he used in the beginning.
To forgive, you must release the person from the prison of your heart, and then find the purpose for the pain.
When we get satisfied, we get complacent, and when we get complacent, we stop growing as a believer. While this is true for the individual, it is equally true for the church as a whole.
The millennium is that 1,000-year period of time when the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will rule upon this earth. He will usher in a time of peace, prosperity and righteousness such as the world has not witnessed since before man sinned in the Garden of Eden.
We are still in the midst of a parenthetical passage that began in chapter 10. We are in the midst of a pause in the actions and activities of the Tribulation Period judgments
You might think that the Tribulation Period will be a time period devoid of prayer and religious activity. We are about to see that just the opposite is true. There will be prayer in Heaven and there will be prayer upon the earth. History’s greatest prayer meeting will take place during the latter portion of the Great Tribulation, as saint and sinner alike lift their voices in prayer.
We are about to witness a time of destruction, devastation and death that can hardly be comprehended by our mortal minds. These verses describe events that will take place on the earth after the church has been removed in the Rapture. The world we are about to see is a world that has no Gospel witness. There are no Christians, no Gospel singing or preaching, and no peace. This is a world that is in rebellion against its Maker; and it is a world that stands on the brink of terrifying judgments.
This seven-sealed scroll contains the unfolding of the end of the age. Since God is holding the scroll, He is in complete control, even when there is chaos on earth. Therefore, those who know God through Jesus Christ have nothing to fear.
Above all else, chapter four is a vision of the throne room of God. Thus, the key word in this chapter is throne. As a matter of fact, the entire book of Revelation is a "throne book" because the word throne appears 45 times in the book, compared to only 15 times in the rest of the NT.
There are churches today that have left their first love, like the church at Ephesus; there are churches that seem to be alive but are dead, like the church at Sardis; and other churches are very evangelistic, like the church at Philadelphia. These seven churches were chosen by our Lord, because in them were characteristics that would be prevalent in churches throughout history, and therefore, the letters would be applicable to all churches of all time. Of the seven churches, it seems Laodicea was the worst, for the Lord has not one good word to say about it.
The church at Philadelphia was an actual local church at the time John wrote. It was chosen by our Lord, because it had characteristics of certain churches of every generation, as well as being typical of a certain type of Christian in every generation. Therefore, it had a very special message not only to its original readers, but also to churches and believers of all time. It represents the faithful, evangelistic church, or believer, who endeavors to win people to Christ.
As we continue to study the seven churches, remember they represent the various spiritual conditions of churches until Jesus returns. They also represent seven kinds of Christians—one of which is much like you. Therefore, you need to find yourself in the seven churches so you can see what Jesus says to that particular church. Then, you can know the changes you need to make to continue growing as a Christian. In its glory days, the church at Sardis had the reputation of being a vibrant, spiritual church. However, when Christ sends this letter, He pronounces them spiritually dead. Christ always knows the difference between our spiritual reputation and its reality.
The book of Revelation is an amazing and complex book, with twists and turns. It contains all the elements of a great thriller. Join us on the adventure.
The beginning message of the Revelation. Chapter 1, verses 1-3. This book is a book of prophecy. This is a book closely tied to the Old Testament. Of the 404 verses in Revelation, 278 refer to the Old Testament in some way.