[From the version for families with children]

You’ll have to slow up your imagination to catch all the strong images that John unfolds for us in his visions.  Just as in yesterday’s psalm about good and evil and about which one is going to win, so too the verses of these chapters share similar stories, though much more grand and big.

     Let’s take the image of eating the scroll which we find in 10:9-11.  When we read the Bible each day, it really is like eating it!  We are meant not only to take the words in our mind, but into our whole body and person as well.  Just as in the case of Holy Communion, so also when we read God’s Word with great attention, this Word enters us completely and can change us.  At first, says John, there is a sweetness to it, like honey.  But then, as the Word really gets inside us, the challenge to our lives and to our call to be witness to God can move us so much that it might feel like food upsetting the stomach.  

There’s a swing from sweet and sour with God’s Word….But then again, there’s a sauce for Chinese food that deliberately is sweet and sour for the enjoyment of eating certain foods.  So really, the sweet and sour aspects of God’s Word blend into an overall great enjoyment, for the sourness becomes the joy of God’s power and triumph soon to come, just as happens in the glorious ending of the reading for today.

Revelation 10—11

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Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In season of Kingdomtide this year,
we read 1 and 2 Thessalonians; Revelation 4—11.

For all the Firestarters I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information.