Recovering First Love

FPCBR

Recovering First Love

September 1, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Revelation 2:1–7

First love doesn’t have to be cartwheels and euphoria. But recovering first love means keeping a line open and clear between where it all started and where you are now. It means scribbling a little star at the bottom of a page or on a bulletin, or even finding a star emoji so you can tell your Lord Jesus, “I really like you. I have for so long. I still do.”

More from Behind the Curtain: The Book of Revelation

Where Is the Hope

Darin Travis • Revelation 16:4–16

God’s wrath is warranted and just in its execution. The first angel takes up his bowl, walks over to the earth, and pours it out. The second angel follows, goes over the waters, pours out God’s wrath and the sequence is repeated through the third, fourth… There is a cadence to the unleashing. God’s wrath is poured out over time, it is not a tyrannical unleashing and explosion of rage. God will not be mocked, he will execute judgment in an appropriate proportion, and he will pour out his wrath as a function of his holiness and love. God alone is fit to determine what sentencing is just and how punishment should be delivered. His wrath is just, and the battle is warranted.

Joining the Song

November 10, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Revelation 15

Jesus comes down fully into the deathliness of our lives so that he can raise us fully into his everlasting life. That life can begin now. He asks that we let him join the song of our life to the mighty song of his life. He wants to take our out of tune, discordant, even grating song and tune it to his satisfying symphony.

Gospel in a War Zone

November 3, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Revelation 13, Revelation 14:1–13

So pervasive will be the beast’s power, so seductive its promises, that the whole world will be deceived. Everyone except one group. Those whose names have been written in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. That is, those who come to faith in Jesus, a faith that carries on even when the whole world has gone astray.