Studying Revelation on Patmos!

I recently got the chance to go on a nine day trip to the island of Patmos with the Greek Bible School. Twenty of us went to do an Alpha Course Study (first time offered by HM in cooperation with the Greek Bible Institute) on the books of Daniel and Revelation. I (Mike) first must say thank you to Peggy for letting me go. It was hard being away but the time went fast.

I found it captivating to be on the island where John, who was exiled and about 80 years old, received the revelation about the last days of earth from God. We even visited the cave where scholars think he was when he wrote the book.

I really enjoyed the study of the seven churches in the beginning of Revelation. Things were not so good in them and I realized that we can learn a lot from them. We talked about how the conditions of the churches mentioned relate to the churches today. A few things that really hit me were:

-being lukewarm

-what we are accountable for?

-what is worship?

-how can we be in the world and not of it?

-how can I be on guard against Satan and false teaching?

-how do we not “water down” our faith?

-how can we prepare for suffering?

After looking at the whole study, one of the main things that keeps coming back to me is about prayer and fasting. Not just prayer to ask for something but prayer just to come before God and to thank Him and to find joy in Him. This really made me consider my own prayer life. I realize that I need to be spending more time with Him. I feel so bad for all the times that I haven’t done so well with this. I’m not good at fasting either but now I think I will try to do this more often.

I am back from my trip and life is getting busy again. Here I am writing this and already I am reminded how I need to spend more time before God. Satan sure is a good deceiver and he has ways to pull us into thinking we can put things off until tomorrow or the next day or week. Sometimes, we even think we are doing a good job or being close to God.

This trip to Patmos really made me look at my relationship with God. I realized that this is something I need to examine and I need to be honest with myself about how I am doing in this relationship. It also made me think that if the end of the world was tomorrow; would I be happy with how I’ve handled this relationship today? God is always there, waiting for us to come to Him. Don’t miss out.