Alert

"To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God," Revelation 2:7.

So the Spirit records the words of the Risen Christ to his congregations. What means to conquer? (Sounds rather militaristic, doesn't it? Well, that's because it is militaristic!) Haven't we heard? There's a war going on! A war rages for the souls of men and women. A spiritual war. Now the good news: Jesus won the war for us! But we're engaged in the closing operations - no time to let our guard down, though. It's still deadly business. Therefore: keep at it, patient endurance, don't accept just any teaching (test the teachers against the Word), bear up for Jesus' name, stay alert, especially: keep the first love, do the hard work of love, repent when we fail to love (lest we lose). And in this way, we conquer with Jesus. That's what he says.

We hug (virtually) a brother or sister today, and we encourage each other to press on to the tree of life! And, together, we give thanks. Sky kingdom.