Revelation 3:7-13
Philadelphia

Pastor Dave began with a statement in this week’s passage that grabs our attention but is not the main topic. When Jesus tells the church in Philadelphia, “I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world,” is he saying that the church will be raptured before the Tribulation? Dave ran through a long list of cross-references that clearly teach that believers are not exempt from tribulation; they should expect it. He also quoted John 17:15, where Jesus asks the Father, not to take his followers out of the world, but rather to keep them from the evil one. Dave asked us to leave our “camps” – pre-trib, post-trib, etc. – and refrain from arguing with and judging one another on this issue. Pray for yourself and for all of us to have the humility to “major on the majors” as God defines it and to freely admit that we don’t know everything.

Dave linked Jesus’ credential as the one who has the key of David to Jesus’ conferral of the keys of the kingdom of heaven on Peter and the church. (Matthew 16:18-19) Dave said that church is not about singing and listening to teaching on Sunday mornings and leaving unaffected. Rather, “The church is about loosing and binding, freeing captives, and thwarting the efforts of the enemy.” Our assignment is to interfere with Satan’s work and help free people under any kind of bondage to him and his lies. Dave’s passionate call came with a warning: “It gets messy,” he said, when we step into one another’s lives in this way. I thought first of church leaders, starting with our elders and extending to small group and ministry leaders, who bear the most responsibility for confronting sin in people’s lives. Ask the Lord to fill them with boldness, clarity, and discernment as they work to loose and bind. Ask Him to help the rest of us support our leaders in the messiness. I also thought of times I am in conflict with someone, whether a believer or not, who has wronged me in some way. Do I think of that person as an enemy to be defeated? Or as a hostage in the strong man’s house, worthy of a daring rescue attempt? Lord, help me see people who have sinned against me as You see them.

Take time today to savor the promise to “the one who conquers” in verse 12 of the letter to the church at Philadelphia. He (or she) is described as a pillar, a permanent fixture, in the temple of God. Dave imagined the name and city written on the pillar as a luggage tag affixed to it:
“This person belongs to …
Name: The Lord Jesus Christ
Address: The New Jerusalem.”
Praise and thank the Lord for the future that awaits.

Calvary Family

Dave McCauley regularly participates in a prison ministry and has involved a number of other Calvary folk in prison visits as well. Dave and other volunteers recently visited Folsom State Prison near Sacramento and Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Riverside County. They shared the gospel and, in doing so, asked the Lord to loose the spiritual chains of the men they ministered to and bind the work of Satan in their lives. Pray Isaiah 55:11 over these men: [My word] will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

The National Day of Prayer this year is Thursday, May 4. We at Calvary will gather as a body on Wednesday evening, May 3, to pray for our leaders and countrymen. It is easy to complain about the state of our nation and communities and condemn our leaders. How much better it is to pray! Pray that we will have a full house on May 3, bowing before the King on behalf of our nation.

Lift up our teenagers and twenty-somethings. The launch into adulthood has never been an easy stage of life, but the challenge is even greater now for Christian young people. The culture in which they live – the water in which they swim – is not just indifferent to God; it is downright hostile to God and His ways. Ask the Lord to strengthen and establish our young people to stand firm in the faith, no matter what.

In Christ,
Carol Gilbert