You Do Know What Happy Means, Don't You?

There's a song out right now that gets in your head and won't get out. It's called, simply enough, "Happy," by Pharrell Williams. It's pretty catchy, upbeat, simple, and even a bit refreshing. I love the lines in there, "Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof... Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth!" My kids love that song.

Having been a musician most of my life, I can also see why it would be easy enough to be critical of it. It is pretty simple, musically speaking. Duple meter. F, B-flat, C, B-flat, and back to F. C sharp, C minor, D sharp, then F on the chorus. There's a bridge in there too, but I'm getting bored explaining this. And most anyone reading this have now completely lost interest in my explanation of the song and are thinking, "Just enjoy the song!" Or, if you're a musician yourself, you are checking out the song to see if I'm right. You're no longer happy listening to Happy.

Which leads me to Revelation (huh?)... especially 1:1-3 again. Three days now, three verses. Might set a land speed record here soon!

At times, I've been tempted to boycott most of the presentations on this book for a couple of reasons. First, it seems like a lot of people seem to forget the very first part of the book, that it's supposed to be a "Revelation of Jesus Christ." It's about His victory, accomplished, experienced, and already real. It's not about figuring out dates and numbers. That plays into understanding the revelation, but it's not the ultimate purpose of the book.

Second, it's supposed to make you happy. I bet many have never thought of it this way, but it says it right there in verse 3. "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near." The word there for happy is "makarios" in Greek, which is what John wrote this in. We like to say "blessed" in church world. Blessed usually conjures up images of success in our minds, or we get a blessing at church. We may even say people can be blessed but not happy. Wrong. That's not what the word means. It means "blessed, happy."


Now, happiness isn't biblically something that just makes you giddy and smiley. It's deeper than that. It's purpose and direction and peace. It's intimacy with God. It's not just a feeling of euphoria. It's a state of being. But happy is still happy!

Too often I feel like the conversations in the church, or among church members, turn into diatribes about the woes of the world, and how we can tell we're near the end because of how awful things are. People speak about it and bemoan it and talk about how we're being persecuted all over the world (and we haven't seen anything yet!).

Can this possibly be right? Are we supposed to have a sense of impending doom or impending victory?
Happy. If you look closely at the language of verse 3, it's telling. You're happy if you intimately know, understand, and proclaim this prophecy. You're happy if you hear and understand this prophecy. Why? Because, Jesus' final victory is imminent.

It's imminent to us. It was imminent from John's too. What's the deal with that anyway? He wrote this stuff down nearly 2,000 years ago!

Maybe we can't see it clearly, but we have to remember it's reality to Jesus, and it's His revelation. Why can we be happy? Because Jesus' final victory is reality. It has been since it was written down. It was before then. To a Kingdom where time does not exist (as we understand time to exist at least), victory is now! It is achieved!

So, do I read and speak of Revelation as though I'm happy about it? Or scared?

Am I worried about a future with scary beasts and plagues and abuse, as one without hope might be? Or am I excited about the victory?

Do I get worked up over identifying the beast and his mark, knowing who the image and the dragon and all those crazy things are? Understand I don't dismiss this as unimportant, but what about this perspective: Do I see these things and know who the vanquished foe is and cling with eagerness to the anticipation of Jesus' victory?

Do I see impending pain as a follower of Jesus, or am I more like the church John wrote to (who was experiencing abuse even as they heard of this Revelation)... do I see imminent victory?

Do I live my life fretting over behaviors, deeds and misdeeds, and whose mark I'll receive? Or do I live my life happy in Jesus?

Lord Jesus... I want to be so happy in You that even this atmosphere and earth I inhabit cannot contain it! Show me and lead me to celebrate Your victory: the cross, the empty tomb, the ascended Christ, the poured out Holy Spirit, and Your return. It is reality! May I live as though it is true!

Present (Not Past or Future)

OK, so Revelation is going to take me awhile if I keep getting sucked into it the way it's currently going... 2 verses in 2 days!

Revelation 2:1-3 I'll quote (for context)... especially looking at verse 2 today:

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near." (NASB)

I started by identifying the "who" in this verse. It's John. He's the one the angel of Jesus is giving this message to. There's a striking thing to this if you read it in context of verse 1. That word bond-servant comes back to mind, the one who has given up his or her own interests for the interests of Jesus Christ. Really, even the angel in verse one is a bond-servant of Jesus, right? So are many others (the church), and especially in this case, John.

Does it occur to us very often how dignifying that is? To be co-servants of the Creator and Ruler of the Universe with angels? Do we even believe this is possible (or even act like it)? I wonder... if I truly believed this to be true, would the Bible actually make more sense? If my place as a human is just a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:5), yet at the same time above them in terms of how I was supposed to be created (think Eden there and being made in God's image), would reading the Scriptures seem different if I kept that in mind? That God is communicating something to me as I am supposed to be?

Then there's this. John testified. He bore witness to something he saw and experienced. That's pretty mind-blowing when you realize what he's about to write out for the church. I'm not really sure how you sleep after that, but I digress. The real point I'm getting to is that Jesus did this in the same verse. The word "testimony" from "the testimony of Jesus Christ..." is the same word used for John.

I know I'm not supposed to get ahead of myself when I'm studying the Bible, but I cannot help it right now, because the ultimate thing about the Revelation of Jesus Christ is the revelation of His final and glorious victory. The whole book builds up to it... it's the process of the victory of the Lamb and the re-uniting of God with humanity. God Himself will dwell with people again.

This is the testimony of Jesus Christ. You cannot testify to something that has not happened. If you haven't experienced it, you cannot testify to it. If you testify in court to something you did not actually see, you know what they call that? Perjury. Or, in the Bible, "bearing false witness." Lying.

We see in a mirror dimly. We are limited by time and space. Jesus Christ is not so limited. From His perspective, everything is in the present. It's not about Jesus' victory in the past (even if it is so from where we stand). It's not about Jesus' victory in the future (even if that's all we can grasp). It's all about the victory that He has seen, accomplished, and experienced, or that is seen, accomplished, and experienced.

How would you live differently today if you believed this?

If God gives me something big to do, would it change my outlook on doing that something if I knew victory in that something is already accomplished?

• Save my marriage...
• Disciple my kids...
• Get out of debt...
• Improve my health...
• Be generous with my time and resources...

In the church, I am given the task of leadership in two places of worship right now. Both places have been through struggle and triumph. When struggle seems evident, and God gives us a vision and purpose and direction, would it not actually be distrustful of Him to think, "We're not up to it..." or "I'm not up to it..."? Do we believe that He is victorious or don't we?

Is Jesus a testifier of truth, or is He a liar? Which do I treat Him more like in my own life?

Lord Jesus, rearrange me! Transform me so that I see my task on earth through the lens of the dignity You have given me as Your child, and through the lens of Your accomplished victory!

Full Disclosure to Sell-outs

So, this morning, I started re-studying Revelation. That's right... just starting over, trying to get it even after I've been through Revelation seminars, read the thing over and over again, even taken a whole Seminary class on it. It seems like I always manage to miss or forget stuff that I feel like I should know.

Right off the bat, something got to me... I mean like verse 1.

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John..."

I started breaking this down. First, that big word at the beginning, which titles the whole book. "Revelation." It's a pretty deep word, from a Greek word: "apocalypses." In English world, we get this totally wrong. Sports Illustrated used to do a little blurb each week about weird stuff athletes were doing. They called it "This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse." We see that word and think about the end being near. Well, if Revelation is the association we make with this word, I can see why. But ultimately, it doesn't just mean this. By definition, it means "laying bare, naked; disclosing of truth or instruction." It's full disclosure, and in this case it's full disclosure of things that haven't happened yet. Most importantly, it's full disclosure of Jesus Christ. There were things His servants didn't know about Him yet.

That wasn't bad stuff to see. Here was a small group of churches throughout Asia Minor, many of whom were being intensely persecuted, even killed. John himself was exiled because of his testimony of Jesus Christ. He had spent time with Jesus face-to-face, but there was apparently something he and the rest of Jesus' servants did not know about Him, and it was all about what hadn't yet happened.

But it got more intense when I looked into a different word: servant. Or bond-servant. Ultimately, Revelation was for Jesus Christ's servants. The word for this is "doulos." it can mean servant, bond-servant, or slave... one in servile condition. It's deeper though: it is a person who has totally sacrificed his own self-interests for the interests of another. It's a person devoted to another, with total disregard for his or her own desires.

In this context, it's a complete and absolute sell-out for Jesus.

This is where it starts to sting a little. Verse one teaches that the "Full Disclosure" of Jesus Christ is for those who are complete sell-outs for Jesus. They have sacrificed and now disregard their own interests and desires for the sake of whatever Jesus reveals to them. They obey no matter what they have to give up to do so, and they don't even think twice about it.

Intense stuff for an intense church!

So, here's my takeaway from this. I am writing this because I need accountability. I know people who put stuff out there on Facebook or on their blogs, asking for friends to hold them accountable to better diet, exercise, spending habits, whatever. I think I need something similar. I need to be accountable to being a sell-out for Jesus.

Here are a few questions I have asked myself... feel free to consider them yourself.

• Have I totally sold out to Jesus?
• What keeps me from obeying and following Him fully? What are my “self-interests” that get in the way?

Is it possible that many of us... that I... have not "gotten" Revelation in previous studies because of this? I'm not trying to beat myself or anyone else up over this, but if the Revelation of Jesus is given for those who have absolutely sold themselves entirely out for Jesus and what He wants in our lives and in this world, and it's not given for the half-hearted... could it be that it's necessary to be challenged with those questions?

Do I have breath and life? Yes! I still have a purpose then. Today is always the day to start! So here's my prayer today...

Lord Jesus, forgive me for not fully devoting myself to You. I’m trying, but I don’t seem to do very well far too often. I devote myself to You today, entirely. Help me to be ready to sacrifice my own interests for the sake of Jesus. May I be wrapped up in Your will and desires for humanity. “Fall me” in love with You entirely, so that it will be my first thought and desire to follow and obey You as Your bond-servant today. I want full-disclosure of You in my life.

Peace

• Which memory is harder to shake: Rejection or guilt?

For me, it's guilt. I've had to deal with rejection before, and while it's not fun, you can at least attribute that to the actions of someone else. It's much harder to deal with when I am the one who screwed up! That's the kind of stuff that keeps me awake at night and causes me to lose weight (the wrong way--I tend to lose my appetite when I'm stressed).

• Which is harder to accept: Mercy or judgment?

Wow! That's quite a question! I must admit that judgment may be easier to accept. Humans tend to be able to take what they deserve (good or bad). What we struggle with is getting what we don't deserve. If we are treated unfairly, our hackles raise. If we are treated well when we should have been treated badly... well, we often don't know how to react or process it.

Read Genesis 50:15-21. It's the story of Joseph reassuring his brothers (after their father's death) that he wasn't going to pay them back for the wrongs they did. It's the story of undeserved mercy.

The brothers were afraid. "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?" (verse 15).

What do we do when we're really afraid? Pretty much anything we can to escape that which we're afraid of.

"Your father left these instructions before he died: 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father." (verse 16-17).

Maybe I'm wrong, but this seems like an act of desperation. Genesis 45 paints a picture of a brother that already forgave them and even welcomed them to Egypt. You could read into the whole story a spirit of revenge if you wanted to I suppose, but I just don't see anything very obvious from Genesis 45 onward.

• What do you make of the brothers' fear? Is it justified?
• How does Joseph's story reveal the truth of verses 19-21?

Here's what Sarah Young writes in Jesus Calling.

"If you learn to trust Me--really trust Me--with your whole being, then nothing can separate you from My Peace. Everything you endure can be put to good use by allowing it o train you in trusting Me. This is how you foil the works of evil, growing in grace through the very adversity that was meant to harm you. Joseph was a prime example of this divine reversal, declaring to his brothers: "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

"Do not fear what this day, or any day, may bring your way. Concentrate on trusting Me and on doing what needs to be done. Relax in My sovereignty, remembering that I go before you, as well as with you, into each day. Fear no evil, for I can bring good out of every situation you will ever encounter."

Point well made. Joseph had already learned to lean on God. He had already learned to take whatever came his way... judgment or mercy... and "roll with it" in the arms of God. His brothers? Lesson still to be learned. But who better to teach them than the one who already had such experience? In Joseph, the one they persecuted, they saw a man who trusted in God's sovereignty. Now, they could learn to do the same.

• What low lights and highlights come to mind for you when you think of Genesis 50:19-21?
• When have you been tempted to replace God in judging others? In judging yourself?
• What could keep you from walking in God's peace today?

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." (Psalm 23:4)