Guest Blog written by: Ethan Pettigrew

Last summer our youth group went to StudentLife at Lee University. The music leader was Matt Papa.  Today on my way home from school I was taken back to that trip when I listened to his CD that I bought there.  My favorite song on there is “The Lord is a Warrior.”  In the middle of the song is a rap about Revelation 19.  Its amazing how I wasn’t at all thinking about the blog when I skipped to that song, yet now that rap is about one of the things that grasped my attention in today’s reading.

In Revelation 19:1-16, John gives the baddest (in a good way) description of a man that I have ever read or heard.  He looks up and sees this horse coming down from heaven.  On this horse is the man called Faithful and True.  He judges in righteousness and makes war in righteousness.  His eyes are flames of fire. FIRE!!!! He had a name written that none know.  His robe was stained with blood.  He was the Word.  Out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword that he used to strike down the nations. He’s going to shepherd the nations with an iron scepter and trample the winepress of God’s fierce anger.  Then John notices a name tattooed on his thigh and written on his robe. They read, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”
In this passage, John was describing Jesus on the day of his return.  Not that Jesus will need it to destroy his enemies, but His intimidation level when He comes back will be a 1,000,000,000 on a scale that tops out at 1.  Its no question of who will win that battle because behind Jesus were the armies in heaven following Him on white horses and wearing white linen.
After John describes the beauty of heaven, we see Jesus give us one final message.  He tells us that that whoever stays true to the Bible will be blessed and each of us will be repaid according to what he/she has done.  He is before everything and after everything.  The Word tells us that we have the right to the tree of life once we are cleansed.  But the most important thing he has to say, he says 3 times in the last 15 verses of the Bible.
“I am coming quickly.”
Jesus wanted us to remember that we can’t at anytime slack off or put our guard down.  He’s going to come back at a time that no one knows, not event the angels.  With every passing second we draw that much closer to His return.  If we return to our old ways for a blink of the eye, we could miss it.  That’s why the Lamb stressed this so much.  When we know we’re not going to see a loved one for an extended period of time, we tell them what we want them to remember most…that we love them.  Jesus knew that we wouldn’t see him for a long time and he told us what matters most, that we need to be ready. 
There are some people that don’t enjoy reading Revelation because it’s scary, and it is an uncomfortable book to read times, but why do we feel that way?  In a video I saw the other day, the speaker said that the reason we go back to our sin might be because we aren’t sure in our relationship with Christ.  And I agree with the speaker.  So maybe the reason we don’t like reading about the demise of Earth is because we’re afraid it’ll happen to us.  And maybe the reason we feel uncomfortable in sharing the Gospel is because we’re not sure if God’s friendship is enough.  To these thoughts, I say we must fix these problems immediately!  We have to be diligent and we have to be confident in Jesus because if we don’t share Jesus with people then they will be “the dogs” outside the city gates that meet the lake of fire and sulfur.  Jesus told us what we need to keep on our minds the most…
“I am coming quickly”