From the Island of Patmos
A letter to the believers
A Timely Reminder of Our Hope
You’ve surely heard the phrase guest speaker. Yes? yes! Good! In this issue, we’ve a guest post: a post I published sometime in 2015. It bears my heart on the coming of the Lord. I’m bound by love and necessity to put you in remembrance of the hope of our faith. A hope that is rooted in the passage: And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. 1 Corinthians 15:19 NLT.
To my dearly beloved brothers around the world. The coming of the Lord seems to tarry. He, before the very eyes of those who saw him ascend, spoke of coming soon. These words comforted their hearts, knowing they would be with him in no time. Today, these words of our Lord are gradually fading, not holding much than mere words to some.
An Admonition to Stand Firm
I write to you, beloved, noting how much you must have suffered in the flesh, even as our very own brother who labours for the Lord had suffered, preferring death. I thought I could be of some comfort to you writing unto you, but not as much as the very departing words of the Lord when he said I am with you always, even to the end of the age. I commend the grace of God in you and how much help you have been to the believers, seeing that though you have little, yet have use of that given to you, diligent in the vineyard, labouring among the believers in reaching out to the heathen.
I urge you to be blameless and perfect before all men, even the believers, putting away every imperfection, for He commanded be ye perfect, for I am perfect. These are not the words of an idle man or an extremist or a joker or one drunk with wine, but they are those of your brother. For you know how much of the grace of God had been given to me and how He, the Lord, had called me to labour among the believers. Brother, I admonish you to likewise labour fervently among the believers and to keep the trust that the Lord did give to his church, for in this there is profit. Weary not with the age for we have seen how the world runs on competition, how the love of many is waxing cold and men becoming lovers of themselves, how believers are becoming entangle and the man of lawlessness is taking his place at the heart of the society, how that the woman Jezebel has enter the church to pollute it, how the sons of God are drinking of the cup of her fornication and falling prey to her seductions, how many are gaining the world and losing their souls, how the wolves have crept in silently among the flock, how the voice of men amplifies to drown the voice of the Lord. Indeed, you need not be told these are the last days; knowing that the evil one labours even harder, but we know how the Lord has made a public show of him. We are victorious.
Further Exhortation for Blameless Living and Fervent Labour
I admonish that all be constant in prayers, rejoice in persecution and trials, and do the work of the evangelist, for those are our inheritance from our father. Have nothing to do with the wisdom of this world, to seek its riches and fame. It is true, as it is said among the believers, how some of you bear your cross and burden under its weight. I have also heard of your zeal and genuine love, and compassion for the brethren and the lost. In this I rejoice greatly, thanking the Father of our lord Jesus Christ on your behalf. Continue in the grace, contend for the faith, strive for the mastery that Christ should gain more of you. We are the servants of Christ, redeemed from our sins and purged by the blood of the saviour, glory in His redemption; partake in His suffering; identify with His cross and live in His victory, and are sure to sit with Him at the table at the final feast. Let us not forget that whether it be riches or lack, famine or surplus, employment or unemployment, economic meltdown or surplus, rejection or acceptance, glory or failure, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus. For the patriarch before us were men of like passion as we, but after serving their generation by the will of God, fell asleep. I send my greetings to all believers, those who labour openly and quietly, the recognised or not recognised, the family of Christ and everyone who is still waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The day of His coming draws nearer than when we first believed. With many words I exhort you, brothers, but with this I exhort the more:
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But EXHORT one another DAILY, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (Emphasis mine, Hebrews 3:12-13)
Until He comes, may we be found faithful. Grace and peace be with you all: your beloved brother, Lekia.