The Purchase of the Pure

This morning I was meditating on the first 5 verses of Revelation 14. These verses speak of 144,000 who are spiritually undefiled. They are like pure virgins. They are also described as redeemed from the earth and purchased from among the people of the earth.
The sense I get is that this is not a purity that is achieved. Instead, it is something given to us as unmerited favor.
There is hope for us in this. Even though we may at times feel defiled by the world, God is still making us pure. He is redeeming us from a place that is so contrary to Him and making us blameless.

It's quite obvious from the last couple of posts that I am reading through the book of Revelation right now. This is always a challenging book for me, because in many places it speaks of a part of God's character that I would like to forget some times. God is holy (no concern here) and His holiness does produce wrath at times. Wrath is a reality when we walk against God's holiness and justice.
I'd rather speak about grace than wrath. Still, it is the reality of God's wrath that gives grace it's meaning. When any of us compare ourselves to God's holiness we will always fall greatly short and find ourselves worthy of His wrath. This is the wonder of grace. God offers shelter from His own wrath to anyone who is willing to accept it and trust Him for the power to live a new kind of life.
The broader testimony of Scripture tells me that God's preference is to lavish His grace on people. His wrath is a necessary reality in light of His character and ultimately limits the scope and consequences of our own evil. So, I can trust in God's grace even as I am made aware of the reality of His wrath.

Changing Perspectives

Two days ago I was reading Revelation chapter 6. It's a chapter that speaks of God's wrath being poured out on a rebellious world.
There was a time when I would read a chapter like this with a very ethnocentric and nationalistic interpretation. I don't know that it was racism as much as growing up in a time when we still lived under the delusion that the U.S.A. was God's promise land.
I look at these things differently now. I see that we all must be careful not to be the ones who will end up under God's wrath. Arrogance could make us drunk and oblivious to this possibility. We are like Belshazzar. We are consumed with our own pleasures while the warning of our fall is being written in plane view.

Laodicea

A couple of days ago I was reading Revelation 3. Verse 17 stood out to me.

You say "I am rich. I have everything I want. I don't need anything!" And you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

Sounds like American culture in many ways. We need The Lord's remedy:
1. Pure gold from Him
2. Garments to cover our shame
3. Ointment to heal our eyes.