Over my head & Into my heart

     Jim teaches our Sunday School Class at our church. At the present, and last, um, forever months we have been going through the book of Revelation. It's one of Jim's favorite books of the Bible and you can tell it by the depth of his lessons. But it's waaayyyy over my head. I nag and complain to move on---what's the point. What's it matter, I know my revelation! And I know the ultimate Revelation-GOD RULES! I'm lazy and all the imagery and references that send you to a different Scripture every other verse is really tedious and can be boring. And just to make it worse- Jim's repetitive! :) BUT- there's a method to his madness I tell ya! I might shake my foot, roll my eyes and even sigh out loud in class sometimes to get him to move on (I know- I'm awful- if it makes you feel any better or bad for him- I don't think he notices OR he's gotten really good at ignoring me because it doesn't work!). I mean really, what's it matter what I believe about the Rapture and the Second Coming- I know where I'm going no matter which one comes first.
     Maybe it seems repetitive to me because we've discussed the lesson at home or he's really trying to drive home a point. Last night I was asking him about certain books as we were skimming through the Bible in search of memory verses. It was so neat to see him stop at books, and watch him get intrigued by what he was reading. I had no idea that certain books were the names of prophets. {I knew a lot of them were, but there were certain ones that I was unaware was a prophet} He started telling me how important it is to read these books because they are full of prophecies and promises about Israel from God.
     So tonight I settled on Micah. In all honesty, I can't recall having ever read much from it. I've always thought these prophetic books were boring, full of stuff that I knew nothing about. A lot of begets and thous and shalls. {As Jim is proofing this for me, he informs me that there are no "begets" in the prophetic books! Who knew! Good to know hun!} I have no clue as to what stuff means and mostly, what I am supposed to learn from it. But as I began reading the first chapter of Micah, I couldn't stop, then I realized something---I completely get this!!! I know what it's talking about-- I caught myself thinking "oh yah! Jim talked about that in Sunday school!!!". I could read it and completely understand it's context! I wanted to wake Jim up at the time to tell him but I don't think he would've been as excited about Micah as I was at that late hour!
     The further I read, the more I understood and I began to see the importance of studying Revelation. The importance of reading and studying the full counsel of His Word, not just the good, interesting stuff.  I was able to connect the events that Micah wrote about with events that will happen during the end times. It all made sense now!!!
     Once you get the background and the scene is set, you are finally able to put it all together and actually see what God intended for you to see! (Hallelujah! A very bright light bulb went off in my head!). If you know what a certain verse is referencing to, for instance, in Micah 1:2 it's talking about when Jesus appears in the Second Coming. We know from Revelation He is coming to-one fulfill prophecy, but also-to bring justice, among other things.
     Then you can take the Word literally and that's where it gets deep. It gets scary. It gets real. It's not a fairytale or just imagery anymore. It brings you to your knees. We know this because John was revealed this in Revelation. Jesus is there, tromping through those valleys, He's there to do business .... And souls are at stake. Well, it's too late by then, the Son of God has come, but what it means for us here and now is that judgment will be had on the entire earth. People we know and love will be washed away with those mountains. Maybe even you yourself too if you have never made Jesus the ruler of your heart and repented. It's a good reminder to be fulfilling the command God gave us in Matthew 28, to go and be telling others about God's love and saving grace. Or...maybe we've stopped praying for someone we know who doesn't know God's love yet. Quite personally it made me think of my children. Jim and I pray for each of their little hearts everyday. Once again tonight I prayed for each one of them specifically that they'd have no other gods before God. And that they would one day fall completely head over heels in love with their Savior. I couldn't imagine eternity without them.
     So next time you are in deep in Numbers (Cris-that's for you!) or lost in the sermon or lesson because the context is way over your head or irrelevant, remember, listen to it anyway, if God put it in His Holy Word, then He thinks it's important.