DAY 20

Let’s look a little closer at the letter to the church in Sardis.

Revelation 3:1-6 “To the angel a 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. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, 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.

Yet 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. The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

This letter seems to answer a few issues that have been controversial in the Church over the years. Some people think that once you are saved you are always saved and it doesn’t matter what you live like after that prayer of salvation. Others feel that you can wander from the faith. Now first we have to be careful not to twist this to mean that we earn our way to Heaven and any little sin will ruin our chances. We are saved by grace through faith. Grace never fails, ever. Grace covers every sin of ours. So we are not talking about earning our way to heaven.

This also does not have anything to do with God’s love for us. There is nothing that you can do to make God love you any more and there is nothing you can do to make Him love you any less.

This does have to do with our choice, our free will. No one can snatch us from His hand, but we can choose to walk away from Him intentionally.

There are two areas to pay close attention to in the letter to the church in Sardis. He warns them to wake up or He will come like a thief. He tells them to strengthen the little amount that’s left and is about to die. Apparently, it is possible to let our faith die. The other sentence is the promise that He will not blot out the name of those who are victorious. This seems to imply that some names may end up being blotted out of the book of life. Now does this mean that He will blot out your name from the book of life if you screw up? NO! It says that if you are victorious He WON’T blot out your name and He will acknowledge you to the Father, which means: if you are victorious He WON’T blot out your name and He will acknowledge you to the Father. If you have a close relationship with the Lord He will claim you as His and you don’t need to worry about what that sentence implies. Just focus on what it says, stay close to Him, then you will be victorious and He will never blot out your name.

You DON’T earn your way in to heaven. But you want to be actively following Jesus and surrendered to Him so that you don’t even need to worry about it.

Jesus, please help me to never choose to walk away from you. Help me to do everything that I can to stay close to you and keep my faith growing. Help me to be so close and in tune to you that I automatically help others to grow in their faith too. Show me areas in my life that threaten my faith and growth in you. Help me remove those things. Thank you for your warning and help me to stay alive in you.