Timothy was mentored by the Apostle Paul. But Paul is smart enough to know that Timothy’s mentoring didn’t start with him. It started with his mother and his grandmother - women of deep faith who trained Timothy up in a way of life that oriented towards God.

Ultimately the book of Revelation paints a picture of the renewal of all things - where Jesus gets his Bride (which is you, amongst others!) and she is beautiful. She’s fully herself - just the way she was meant to be.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. - Revelation 7:9

The book of Revelation has dragons, beasts, swarms of locusts, and angels wiping out entire nations. It’s like a science fiction book on steroids.

One of the keys to unlocking the book of Revelation is asking the power question.

Have you ever sat down to watch a comedy and it turned out the movie you chose was actually an action flic? There comes a moment when it dawns on you… this is not what I thought it was! That often happens when Christians read the book of Revelation.

Today’s devotional is a little whimsical. Feel the embodied nature of what it means to really live, and let the Spirit speak to you today of joy and blessing.

Jesus points out that there’s a whole lot in your life you didn’t earn. It was just plain given to you.

The grateful soul of the wise person is the true altar of God. - Philo of Alexandria (first century A.D.)

 Give thanks in all circumstances;for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. - 1 Thessalonians 5:18

One of the overarching themes of scripture is that God blesses us in part so that we can turn around and be a blessing to others. Way back at the beginning of the story, that is what God said to Abraham.

In Sunday’s message we talked some about the penal substitutionary atonement theory, which is one view of what happened on the cross (and it is particularly popular with evangelicals). There are other ways of seeing the scripture.

The apostle Paul got real upset with Christians who thought that checking off boxes on the religion scorecard got them something with God.

The whole purpose of God drawing us to Christ is so that for all eternity God could lavish more and more goodness on us.

As 1 John 4:16 says , God is love. Amongst other things, that means that God is the ultimate bless-er. God loves to bless - to pour on us grace stacked on grace.

Over and over again the Apostle Paul tries to help us understand the implications of Christ coming. Paul’s biggest metaphor for this endeavor is that we are now family with God.

As we’ve reflected all week on what it means to be broken - by the world, by our own decisions - now we are getting set up for this coming week when we talk about healing.

When Jesus talks about the world unraveling into a deep brokenness, this is how he describes it: our love grows cold.

How hard is it for you to own your own mess? How much do you struggle with comparison?

The scripture is also clear that sin is personal. It’s individual actions that we take that hurt ourselves and others and which dishonor God and mistreat our world.