Wednesday, February 1, 2006

Good Morning

 

Today's Reading:  Revelation 2:12-17; read pages 104-108 in Barclay; stop before "Renamed By God"

 

-- continuing on with letter to Pergamum.

 

-- the portion of the passage today that Barclay is writing about is another example of why Revelation is a tough book to read.

 

-- Barclay has three possible meanings of "hidden manna" in this passage and six possible interpretations of what is meant by the white stone.

 

-- that said, to me the simple answer to the question and to the passage is that for those who stay faithful in these difficult circumstances, there will be a reward in the next life.

 

-- manna is not a hard idea to understand, we are familar with that concept and with the idea of Jesus as the bread of life, so that didn't really throw me too much when reading the verse.  Barclay's discussion of where "hidden" comes from within the Jewish tradition just adds a little depth.

 

-- the white stone reference is a different animal to me -- it doesn't really have any reference to anything that I've ever read in scripture before, so the whole concept is a bit strange.  All of Barclay's thoughts sound plausible, and I generally just mark this up as a reference or figure of speech from John's day that has been lost in the mists of time.

 

-- That said, this letter is Jesus talking, and I don't think he would necessarily promise people something about heaven that was a figure of speech from John's time.  I think that those who heard this word and were faithful are going to get a white stone from Christ with a name on it.

 

-- as an aside, I like the idea that Barclay mentions about having two urns or jars at your house, and that if you had a good day, you'd put a white stone in one jar, and if you had a bad day, you'd put a black stone in another jar, and at the end of your life, people would empty jars and see what kind of life you had.  That is a very interesting idea to me. 

 

Today's Scripture

 

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

John 6:35

Today's prayer requests:     Margaret Rose Severance

Brigette's grandmother, who has been battling complications from a fall last summer that resulted in a broken leg.  She went back to the hospital last week as part of her recovery, but she needs our prayers to help her recover more fully from the broken leg and the complications and the immobility that has resulted.

Today's class member prayer:

 

Joey Harbarger

Have a great day.

Jay