redeemed1

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy -- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude24-25

"We share in his sufferings *in order* that we may also share in his glory."-Romans8 Just because we suffer in our 'struggle' at times through the flesh, persecution, or any trials, doesn't mean that we aren't children of God, but that we are supposed to share in his suffering. It doesn't take away from the fact that "the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace." Maybe that's where we get confused sometimes.. imagine this, we should find joy in life when we suffer.. does that make sense? Well, Paul said of Jesus, "For the JOY set before him, he *endured* the cross."(Heb 12) Joy and endurance in the same context? That goes against human nature.. God has a way of doing that. "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death."(Phil 3) What if we could actually find pleasure in suffering? An example might be fasting, and maybe that's a good place for us to seek, through prayer and fasting. Seek, and you will find, when you seek with all your heart.

1:8 "'I am the Alpha and the Omega', says the Lord God, 'who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.'" In Revelation more than any other book (in my opinion) Jesus is revealed in a way that *clearly* shows his sovereignty and his equality with the Father. Even other sects that deny the diety of Christ (that claim he is not, in fact, God) have difficulty explaining why Jesus says he is the First and Last(1:17) just as the Father in 21:6 says he is the Beginning and the End. They are one and the same. This is all significant towards understanding who Jesus is because it shows his power and his never-ending love for us. The power that only the Almighty has, the Living One, "I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!"(1:18) his love is shown in the awesome sacrifice he made in humbling Himself just to be with us.