The life group that I am in is half way through a 6 week curriculum from Andy Stanley right now on Destinations. It has been very good, very relevant and challenging. Before we started it, a couple of months ago, we talked about doing a study on Revelations. At the time, we put it off because we had some people who were new, some who were probably leaving, and just hadn’t settled. My husband and I have been through an indepth study at another church and would lead the study here.
So now it has been brought up again as being a good time to start it. I took copious amounts of notes when I studied before. But, because I clean with a Hefty bag, I can’t find them. I have a hard time believing I threw them away, but they sure aren’t around. So I’m starting from scratch, only what is in my head and heart and researching on my own. I’m trying to remember everything and not just the things that stood out for me personally. That’s tough.
I’ve also remembered that Revelations is a hard book. There’s lots of figurative information there, lots of literal that seems too crazy to be literal and just a lot that is heavy. Some of it is frightening, sobering. If anything, it makes me want to save everyone, which is, I guess, the point.
I tend to throw myself into research, bury myself in it and become immersed in whatever I am studying. I noticed the other day that while I was studying, my heart was racing. Pray, pray, pray, was all I could think. I felt like such a wimp for not being able to handle it, for being freaked out by it, for being overwhelmed. I doubt God is ever surprised when we tell Him that, when we tell Him that we’re small and have a hard time understanding things and that we’re confused. I don’t think it shocks Him or apalls Him that we say we can’t get a grasp of something. So it occurred to me, that maybe it wasn’t Him or me that was making me feel so overwhelmed.
The message of Revelations is very powerful. I’d say it is the second most powerful in all history, second only to the gospel itself. Every single person I know who has truly dug into Revelations and gained an understanding of it has been lit on fire for God, gone to whole new levels in their relationship, in their willingness to reach people and serve. There’s no way the devil wants that to happen. He’s scared!
Our life group is amazing. The people are so genuine and sincere and I can say without a single doubt that the one common quality in the group is that every single one of us loves God in a personal, relational way, with a realness that I’ve never seen before. Every single person in our life group serves God and other people and gives to each other, loves each other, supports each other. We are a group that knows the best solution, the FIRST solution, to anything is to get on our knees. And we are some serious prayer people. We believe in it, we know it works.
Yeah, this group, lit up? Ha ha ha… look out. This is gonna be so cool.
