Revelation (a)

I will be writing this blog series intermittently along with my regular blog, but this will be as a series on the book of 'Revelation'.  I hope you enjoy this series of writings and that they help you to begin your life as a 'watchman'. Yes, a watchman. He is the one assigned the task of looking, searching and penetrating the nothingness in order to observe the predator who has moved within it.
 A watchman's job is to watch and warn so that appropriate measures can be taken with reasonable speed and preparation.  Without an observant watchman, the enemy can come down quickly and we would find ourselves unprepared to take the proper measures, whatever those measures would be.
   So the word for you today, dear reader, is to be a 'watchman'! You are to have your saved and sanctified eyes on Jesus. Everything you do in life is to make sure that if Jesus comes, your reservoir of oil is with you and your lamps are filled to the brim. 
?What are you watching for you may ask? It might be better to note some of the things you are not watching for......you are not watching the nations. The news will never hurt you so long as you're not in it. The Jews in Jerusalem, or your personal friends are also not suspects. You are watching for the most dangerous enemy you will ever encounter other than the devil's minions themselves.
The enemy you are looking for is the one who will fail you in trials, will abandon you when he has sworn to stay beside you, or has gone to sleep when he has promised you he would stand guard faithfully for you...that enemy is as dangerous and unscrupulous as Judas, as deceitful as Tamar, as controlling as Jezebel and as unpredictable as the Pharisees and Sadducee's. The enemy you have to watch is, 'you'.....
There are seven churches in Revelation 2-3, each one receiving various warnings, but common to each one of them is this fact: they are all filled with 'you's.'  Yes 'you'...the born again and many times Pentecost-filled believers. And to each church there is a warning of a blight with those dear ones in those churches. God has something He needs to straighten out within those houses of worship. The 'you's' have stopped watching, lost focus, something has captured them other then Jesus Christ.
In this present "Church age" (which I believe is drawing to a close), you are responsible to guard your heart; to endure to the end, to hold fast, run the race, gain the prize. The Bible is filled with phrases teaching us that we are to be responsible 'watchman' to 'watch' our personal faith so that it stays strong against predators. 
So, before we begin Revelation, the warning must be to you, that little in Revelation and the study of it matters if you are not transformationally sound. If you are not right with Jesus and have less than an intimate, personally close, deep and warm relationship with your God, your Savior, then it would be wise for you to sit down and forget Revelation and get right first with the God who wrote it.

(Next article is "About the Name".)