Monday, January 30, 2006

Good Morning

 

I'm going to break down the reading a little differently, since the rest of the book has very long sections over short sections of scripture.  At the pace we were going, we'd do the remaining five churches all this week, and that would be about 60 pages of reading, which is too much for a daily study.

 

So this week, we'll do just two of the churches, Pergamum and Thyatira

Today's Reading:  Revelation 2:12-17; read pages 95 - 100 in Barclay; stop before "A Very Difficult Engagement"

 

-- this is the third church on John's list of seven.

 

--  today's section gives us the background about Pergamum, the high points are:

 

-- a major city, long-time capital city in this part of Asia

 

-- unable to major seat of commerce due to its location, it grew nevertheless due to its highly secure location on the top of a hill.

 

-- second largest library in the ancient library in the world.

 

-- the center of worship for several cults, along with Casear worship -- probably the reason John refers to the city as the home of the throne of Satan.  That description sounds very out there, and it might seem a little strange, but we do the exact same thing today -- for instance, we all know where Sin City is (Las Vegas).  Someone looking back at our writings 2,000 years from now will probably have to figure out what we meant by that.

 

-- the short takeaway is that this town was a difficult place for Christians and the church -- we'll see more about that tomorrow in one of the next sections.

-- Today's Scripture

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

Today's prayer requests:     Nelson Ferreiro, friend of Megan's family

He has just completed chemo after surgery to remove a tumor from his brain.  The tumor is gone as of now, they will recheck in 60 days, but we need to pray for his continued improvement, and that the cancer stays gone.

 

Today's class member prayer:

 

Jay Waters

Have a great day.

Jay