Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
The Apostle John’s partaking of the bittersweet book in Revelation 10:8-11 is unusual but is actually emblematic of each Christian’s daily experience. Each of us, as a familiar hymn exhorts, must trust and obey our Lord and Savior, even if the outcome is decidedly unpleasant. Furthermore, we see that John’s involvement in the dramatic spiritual battle of Revelation points us to the even larger and ongoing spiritual warfare that transcends a specific time period. We recently discussed our spiritual conflict with considerable specificity, particularly as detailed in Ephesians 6:10-18. To that lengthy study, we should hasten to add the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 7:15-25. Paul, a staunch and serious follower of Christ, here speaks of his struggles with his sin nature. Some of the good things that he dearly wanted to do remained undone, while bad things that he desperately desired to avoid invaded his life (verse 18). The Christian life is not a party (not yet, anyway – see Revelation 19:9); even the “sweet as honey” aspects of life can turn “bitter” in the “belly” (Revelation 10:10). However, we press on, certain of ultimate victory in Jesus Christ: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25a) that our harsh struggles will end in heavenly sweetness.