Reading the Lines of Revelation (Lent 1, 2022)

Scripture says, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near” (Revelation 1:3).

God says the time is near. He doesn’t say to decipher everything or look for secrets to impress your friends. God simply wants you to read and hear the words. It’s a matter of paramount priority. He doesn’t say when it’s all going to happen or give us a complicated timeline with an interpretive rubric to check boxes and predict when Jesus is coming back.

Consider this vignette
as the Apostle John giving us an instruction manual
about how to read this book.
Read the lines with urgency.

Questions for today:

Revelation is either people’s most interesting book, they dismiss it as untrue because it’s too weird, or it frightens them because it’s hard to read. Why do you think people find it interesting? What do you think intimidates them? What do you think when reading Revelation?

Read Revelation 1 aloud. It only takes around 3 minutes to read it aloud. If we read the lines can the Holy Spirit be trusted to guide necessary understanding?

How does examining for impossible level of hidden details provide a self-fulfilling prophecy about its being too hard to read? How does a pixelated view and ignoring symbolic language lead to logical rejection of Revelation?

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” What part of “all” doesn’t include Revelation?

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If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2022 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.