NIPTO, Day 112

Good Evening. Morning. Afternoon. ya know.
I'm sitting in the living room with my family&the Karen girls. We're watching The Spy Next Door. There were 2 Yackley lines in a row. Where did they get these lines?!

I thought it would be a good time to blog since everyone is occupied :)

I've been a little bit sick over the past couple days... just swollen tonsils/lymph nodes/sore throat. I guess I need to sleep. But I like staying up late... *sigh* bummah. Sleep. Water. Lots of water. Maybe some tea. You get the idea :)

Today is Day 29 of 100 Days of Holiness.

NIPTO was good. Encounter was good. We talked about Revelation 3:1-6. It was fun? Goofy. I think we were all tired and a little out of it... I guess I'm speaking for Brandon, Hannah, and myself. I don't know about Erin :)
Encounter was good too. We talked about intimacy and what it really is. We also talked about the mistakes that girls make when dating... the guys get their turn on Wednesday =P It was interesting to see what other people thought about intimacy and how people's opinions differed. Very interesting... :)

Okay. Everyone is in their place. 

Sooooo... I guess it's NIPTO time.

Revelation 3:1-6
¹"To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
      These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

This verse is CRAZY. So you've got this picture of Jesus goin' on. Ya know. The one who holds the 7 spirits&the 7 stars. Then: I know what you're doing. (I might seem like a creeper, but I'm not. I'm Jesus.) People think you're alive. Heck. You might even think that you're alive. But you are dead. 
The people in this church were like "Yeah! We're alive! Other people think we're alive! We must be doing pretty well." Then Jesus gives them this letter "You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead." That's pretty intense. 
When we were talking tonight as a group, we were talking about how much we base our perceptions of ourselves off of what other people say&think. We think that our business is our business. NOYB. But God's up in everyone's business. No getting away from that!
But as a church, how do you know if you're alive? How do you know if you're dead? 
Thoughts, anyone?

²Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.

God is telling them to WAKE UP. Get what you have goin' cuz it's about to die. Why? Because what you do isn't complete and fulfilling to God. He knows they're alive. They do stuff. But they're on the verge of death. Crazy!


³Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

These people had what they needed to be revitalized. They had the prescription for the illness. They just weren't using it. If they didn't start using it, Jesus was (is?) going to come like a thief in the night. They (we?) won't know what time he'll (he's) come (coming). 
We talked a little bit about how both Jesus and Satan are referred to as thieves. There was something else that they were both compared to, but I'm blanking out right now.  

⁴Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

Verse 4 is basically a "pre-overcomer" statement. But before I get to that, we were talking (or Brandon was talking) about how fantabulous our lives could be if we followed everything that God ever told us. Even a fraction of what God told us. It would be incredible to see how different my life would be. Your life would be. Our lives would be. I wrote down the following: "What could I become if I invest the amount of time and energy that I should?" 
Okay. On to "pre-overcomer" awesomeness:
There were a select few people who hadn't fallen into the trap of "we're alive!" These people didn't have on the slightly worn, slightly stained white t-shirt.  In heaven, they're going to walk with Jesus. Dressed in white because they are worthy. I am so unworthy it isn't even remotely funny. But we're made worthy. Because Jesus was worthy of heaven, and because he died for us, we are worthy to be with him in heaven. We're even going to be dressed the same as him! Crazy. More in the next verse:


⁵He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

He who overcomes... will be dressed in white. Like those other people. He who overcomes will have his name in the book of forever. Not only is it not going to be blotted out, it's going to be announced by Jesus to God and his angels. Woaaaaaaaaah.
I feel like things are going to go down something like this: Jesus-This is ___. They're awesome, aren't they? Oh yeah. And we're also twins! We're wearing the same clothes! What?
And then there might be a booyah or a boomshakalaka from the crowd. 

HAHA that's ridiculous. It's late. I sounded like a smoker just now when I laughed. Ohhhhh the joys of having a scratchy throat =P  

There's also major debate in the church about this verse about whether your name can be blotted out of the book of life. I'm not going there because it's late. And I'm not completely sure what I think about it. HUH. 

⁶He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.


Now Jesus is basically saying "don't be a dummy. You have ears. Use them."



Hah. Sorry it got a little crazy near the end! I'm a little tired.
Tomorrow morning we're going to take the Karen girls with us to the parade! And then we're going to go home and chill. It should be a fun day! I'll try to post pictures from the parade! Especially if there are cute ones. Or really fun ones! Kay?

Hope you have a fantastic Memorial Day!