NIPTO, Day 63-Long Post Warning

Disclaimer: This is a long post. For a couple reasons. I'm a little hyped because I'm running on very little sleep... still. And tonight was awesome. Annnd I generally love life, so you're getting a post about that. And I'm annotating (I think that's the word I want) the first chapter of Revelation for your enjoyment (Really about the first half. I'll do the rest tomorrow. Don't worry!) =D


Today has been an amazing day. I'm going to give you a timeline.
7:30-wake up (by back-rub from my father... LOVE him! Not just because of that either!)
8:30-Leave for church
8:45-9:25-Music practice
9:30-10:30-Music/Church/Music
10:30-11-Hang out and whatnot between services.
11-11:20ish-muisc
11:20ish-11:55-set up for the Baby shower(!)
11:55-12-Last song.
12-3:30-Baby shower for Angie and Laura :D (Very fun!)
4-5-Chill at home
5-6-NIPTO with Hannah, Erin, and Brandon
6-8-Encounter62
8-9ish-Play basketball with Katie&Paige(Lose to Paige in PIG in marvelous fashion!)

Whew. That was a fun day. Now I'm sitting here, writing this, watching Undercover Boss, and eating cake. I like cake a lot. But. I'm going to elaborate a little bit on the 5-8 part of my day. It was faantastic. I love getting together with other people to talk about GOD and his amazing-ness. During NIPTO, we really got into Revelation 1. I'm going to focus on that in this post. It was sweet to have someone else break it down and explain it bit by bit. It was refreshing to be able to listen to how other people view different things that come up.


I think I might break this into a couple posts. Or I'll do this tomorrow morning and say I posted it tonight... hee hee hee.


So we took the first chapter of Revelation and read it in 3 sections. verses 1-8, 9-16, and 17-20. I'm going to copy/paste the chapter from BibleGateway.com. Ready? Set? Go. [My notes will be in brackets. Like this. Possibly bold... definitely bold.]

¹The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon [we talked about how the word "soon" doesn't necessarily mean it's going to take place in the near future. It possibly means that once things start to happen, they'll happen fast.] take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, ²who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. ³Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. 


[These three things are important. The person who does these things will be blessed. There are a few things that go with this, but we'll get to those in a bit]

Greetings and doxology

 ⁴John,
      To the seven churches [this was written to seven actual churches. But it's also applies to the church today] in the province of Asia:   Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, ⁵and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. [Major stuff happening here. Jesus was a witness on earth. He came and he saw what was happening here. [insert more here] Jesus was the first person to be raised from the dead with a glorified body. He wasn't ripped apart from being tortured and killed on a cross. He was whole. The Bible says that he still had holes in his hands and whatnot, but he wasn't bloody and ripped apart. He is also the ruler of the kings of the earth. He is who he was made to be. He came to rule over the earth. Simple as that.]
   To him who loves us and has freed us [we're no longer held to our sins...] from our sins by his blood,[because he shed his blood for us]⁶and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. [Woaah. Priests. In the Old Testament, those were the only people who could actually interact with God. One person went into the presence of God once a year. We are able to go boldly into the presence of God whenever we want really. Jesus was the integral part of this. He was able to connect us to God. By dying on the cross, he opened up this whole new way of communicating with God that was completely unknown to the people at the time. At that time, if you wanted to tell God something, you had to go to the priest. You "couldn't" tell God yourself. Now we can talk to God wherever we are whenever we want. Crazy huh?]
 ⁷Look, he is coming with the clouds,
      and every eye will see him,
   even those who pierced him;
      and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.
 ⁸"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."


[I talked about this in my post yesterday, but the wording of verse 8. The order of the tenses. Our God is a God of here. He's not just out there somewhere. He is here. He is now.]




That's it for tonight. It's late. It's actually tomorrow.... soo it's time to go to bed. It's a stinkin' school night too. =/
But, I'm listening to awesome worship music as I go to sleep, so I mean. That's not bad. And I get to get up in the morning and continue this post in my post for tomorrow. Obviously. =P
Enough from me. I'm getting whacky b/c I'm tired. SLEEEP here I come.
G'night!