Student Devotion Week 46: The Church Prepared: John's Vision

Key Verse: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

Have you ever seen a dead church? It's kind of depressing. I know of one. It's small, and the cemetery next to it is the only part that still gets visitors. Through an open doorway, you can see the pews and the place where the pulpit used to be. Those windows might have once held stained glass, but the church is dead. No one meets there anymore, and who knows what happened to the people. It's a sad commentary, but it ought to remind us of the spiritual battle we're all involved in. It should also make us perk up and stay alert to Satan's plans to destroy us however he can.

Jesus will never abandon a church without a fight. The book of Revelation is about a vision John had while exiled on the island of Patmos. Through this vision a message was sent to seven churches, challenging and encouraging them to stand firm. The stakes were huge; they could have lost it all or gained a crown of glory.

Jesus is returning one day, and he'll do everything he can to make sure we're prepared before he comes. That means he sometimes has to tell us things that are hard to hear, but it's for our own good. And when we obey his commands, we can be confident that he'll bring about all he's promised. This week we're going to examine what Jesus said to those seven churches-and find out how we can protect our own.