VM Revelation 2:1-7

Hello! Welcome.
Are you seeing Spring in your area?
Lots of things popping up and budding here.

Verse Mapping (VM)
Revelation 2:1-7 is the letter Jesus told John to write to the church in Ephesus.
Seems they were slacking a little on the love they had at first. He told them they needed to repent or He would remove their lampstand from its place and they would not be able to eat from the tree of life. In other words they would be judged and found lacking.
He did like the fact that they hated the practices of the Nicolaitans as he did.
According to Nelson's Bible Commentary the Nicolaitans were a heretical group that troubled the churches at Ephesus and Pergamos.
The commentary also says that Ephesus was the most important city in Asia Minor when Revelation was written. It was the center of worship of Artemis the goddess of fertility. Paul invested nearly three years in establishing the church there.

The second picture shows a tip-in of a map of Asia Minor. I will include this map each time I VM the 7 churches and circle where they are. It may be hard to see in the picture. Remember you can click on the pic for a larger view. It still may be hard see. I think I found the map on Wikipedia when doing a search for Ephesus.

Gratitude

1. Jesus' love

2. Trees and flowers budding

3. Gentle rain

Ephesians 1:16

I have not stopped giving thanks for you,

remembering you in my prayers.

Blessings,

Deborah

VM Rev. 14-20

Welcome back!
Hope you are having a wonderful Spring day.

This post is about the verse mapping (VM) of Revelation 1:14-20.
I decided to do all these verses together, because they are describing Jesus.
He sounds just like I picture Him; full of light and glory.
I'm still enjoying the cross references and have shared a few here in my Faith Journal.

Daniel 7:9 describes His hair like white wool, just like in Revelation 1:14.

Daniel 10:6 says "His eyes like flaming torches" compares to Rev. 1:14 "His eyes were like blazing fire."

I love the rich metaphors in all these verses. Very poetic.

Gratitude (prompts from aholyexperience.com)
A gift salty, sweet, just right
1. Chips
2. Chocolate
3. White wine

Ephesians 1:16
I have not stopped giving thanks for you,
remembering you in my prayers.

Blessings,
Deborah

VM Revelation 1:12-13

I'm sorry it took me so long to update and continue my study of Revelation.
Life sometimes gets in the way of what you really want to be doing.

Revelation 1:12-13 (NIV)
I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands and among the lampstands was someone like a Son of Man, dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet and with a golden sash around His chest.

I focused on the lampstand for my study and learned a few new things about its meaning.

1. A lampstand is a menorah.

This may be quite clear to others, but in my many readings of Exodus 25:31-40 that describes the making of the lampstand ordered by God, it never occurred to me that it was a menorah.
DUH, Deborah.

2. The lampstand with seven lights also stands for the holy truths. (Zech 4:2,3)

3. The lamp denotes the Divine and the light, faith. (Rev. 22:5)

4. The seven golden lampstands represent the seven churches named in v. 11.

5. The signification of the lampstand is the Divine spiritual in heaven and in the church from the Lord.

Verse Mapping (VM) in my Faith Journal:

Nelson's Bible Commentary
1:13 One like the Son of Man is a reference to Daniel 7:13. Comparison of these two passages, along with Jesus' common use of the name Son of Man (Matt 20:28) for Himself, indicate that Christ is the subject of vv. 12-18. The robe and sash indicate the glorified Christ is dressed like a high priest. Christ was fully human and fully God.

Please share anything you can add to this study in the comments. I always like to learn as much as I can.

Gratitude
1. Learning new things
2. Verse mapping
3. Enlightenment

Ephesians 1:16
I have not stopped giving thanks for you,
remembering you in my prayers.

May I pray for you specifically today? Leave me a comment and I will do so.

Blessings,
Deborah

Rev. 1:10-11 & Verse Mapping

John was in the Spirit!!
Are you?
I'm feeling I'm being led by the Spirit to continue this study of Revelation and learn all I can.
My favorite has become cross referencing. I love seeing the New Testament mirrored in the Old Testament. Brings it all together and makes it feel even more real to me.

As it says in Exodus 17:14 and Revelation 1:11, "Write this on a scroll..;" I feel that writing down the scripture helps me to remember and understand it better. Remember back in grade school that Monday night's homework was to write our spelling words five times each?
Writing helps the brain recall what you read.

Rev. 1:10-11 (NIV)
On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea."

I can't wait to see what Jesus tells John to write to these seven churches!

I was feeling the need for a little more art in my Verse Mapping. The scroll is a Goggle image and I traced the dove from another Google image. I love the new feather washi tape I found. It was perfect for this page, don't you think?

(Click on the photo for a bigger image.)

Gratitude

1. Being in "the Spirit"

2. Art work

3. OT and NT

Ephesians 1:16

I have not stopped giving thanks for you,

remembering you in my prayers.

May I pray for you?

Leave me a comment and I will add you to my prayer list.

Blessings,

Deborah

Rev. 1:8-9 Verse Mapping

Another wonderful morning spent studying the word of God in the book of Revelation!

Traditionally it was believed that the Apostle John wrote Revelation, but more modern scholars reject this idea. Nobody really knows who this "John of Patmos" is. Well, God does and that is all that really matters, eh?

I have always loved it when God calls Himself the "Alpha and the Omega." Maybe because they are Greek words and my father was Greek. I love most things Greek, as I associate them with him. I just like the way they sound. Alpha and Omega! The Beginning and the End of all creation.

Christians still go to Patmos Island on pilgrimage to see the cave where John had his vision. I think I will add it to my "Bucket List" of places I would like to see.  According to the pictures in a search I did on Patmos, it is a beautiful island in the Aegean Sea. Lots to see and do.

My Faith Journal showing Verse Mapping of Revelation 1:8-9. 

The Alpha and Omega picture was found on Pinterest. Artist unknown.

The map was found on Bing doing a search of Patmos.

Gratitude

1. The Alpha and the Omega

2. John of Patmos

3. Visions

Ephesians 1:16

I have not stopped giving thanks for you,

remembering you in my prayers.

May I pray for you?

Please leave a comment below if you are in need of prayer.

I would be honored to pray for you.

Blessings,

Deborah

Revelation 1:6-7

I am loving this new study of Revelation using verse mapping.
I have added cross referencing and am finding this very interesting.
I found out that the book of Daniel is an outline for Revelation.
Didn't know that!

Did you know that the New Testament mirrors the Old Testament?
I heard of this a while back.
I'm finding this to be very true.

Daniel talks about his vision of "the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven" which is also talked about in Revelation 1:7 "Look, He is coming with the clouds."

In Zechariah 12:10 it says "...and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son." Revelation 1:7 says "all the peoples on earth will mourn because of Him."

I made the translations I printed from Bible Gateway look like clouds in my Faith Journal, added some washi tape, defined some words, did some cross referencing and looked up a couple of commentaries. Verse Mapping completed!

Gratitude

1. Our Savior

2. The Bible

3. Study of His Word

Ephesians 1:16

I have not stopped giving thanks for you,

remembering you in my prayers.

May I pray for you?

Please leave your prayer requests in the comments below.

Blessings,

Deborah

Revelation Study

I am doing a study on Revelation. I plan to do verse mapping and lots of reading on the subject. It has been a book I have wanted to study for years.
Time to conquer Revelation!!

I skipped to verses 1:4-5, since 1-3 were the Prologue. I do love verse three:
3) Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
Isn't that beautiful?

In verse four "the seven spirits before His throne" caught my eye, so I looked it up in four different commentaries.

Nelson's Bible Commentary says:
May refer to the angels of the seven churches. (Used this for my art. See picture below.)

The notation at the bottom of the page in my NIV Bible says:
That is, the sevenfold* Spirit.
*sevenfold = seven times as great.

Bible Gateway says:
A literal translation, perhaps referring to the perfect fullness of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

biblestudytools.com says
These spirits also said to be the "seven eyes," which are the Seven Spirits of God sent out to all the earth. (Rev. 5:6)

Can anyone add to this for me?
Please leave a comment below.

I am excited to begin this journey!
I have challenged the "Verse Mapping, Bible" group on Facebook to join me. Please join the group and the challenge to follow along and post your own work.

My Faith Journal photos:

Graphics found on Google images and traced on vellum.

Amplified Bible (AMP) translation with footnotes printed from Bible Gateway.

Remember you can always click on the photo for a larger image.

Hope you join this challenge!

Gratitude

1. Angels

2. The Holy Spirit

3. Commentaries

Ephesians 1:16

I have not stopped giving thanks for you,

remembering you in my prayers.

If you have a prayer request please leave a comment below.

I would be honored to pray for you.

Blessings,

Deborah