Is there any spiritual complacency in you? When you read Scripture and the Holy Spirit speaks to you about sin in your life, do you listen? Or do you just get busier? Change the subject? Turn the TV on?

John is saying that when the Spirit nudges you to wake you up, don’t roll over and go back to sleep! Be alert to the work of the Spirit. Be responsive. Don’t rest on old spiritual achievements. Seek to grow in God.

Our society is big on examinations. Physical exams, financial audits, vehicle inspections, job performance reviews…it’s all a part of life. All of these serve to show us what is working well and what are potential danger spots.

We heartily examine all these areas, but very few people do an examination of their spiritual condition. Do you?

John takes two chapters and does a spiritual examination on these seven churches. He wants to address the condition of the heart. He points out where they are doing well and where the warning lights are.

Have you ever awakened your busy slumber and asked? Hey! What’s going on around here? I am confused. Who is in charge? Looks like the bad guys are winning. Chaos is gaining ground. There are wars and rumor of wars. Are you asleep at the wheel?”

It begs the question: Are we living in the last days?

When is the world going to end? Will it be in our times? How does the fall of the Soviet Union fit into Biblical prophecy? Who do you think the anti-Christ is?

I don’t think there is another book of the Bible that generates as much controversy, confusion, curiosity or misinformation as the book of Revelation.

Out of all those messianic movements, what made the Christian faith different? Christians would say it is because of what happened after the leader of this movement was killed. So what did happen to cause explosive growth in Christianity after its founder’s death?

All four Gospel writers take pains to show us that all the critical evens of Jesus’s death happened in the dark.

When this darkness fell, we know that God was acting in judgment. But who was God judging?

As Jesus was made fun of on the cross by those crucifying Him we learn about our own hearts that are filled with hostility towards Jesus and it also reveals the heart of Jesus.

Jesus was a revolutionary. He came announcing the kingdom of God. This was not just a spiritual, inner peace. The Bible tells us that the kingdom of God was going to deal with real poverty, real injustice, real suffering and real hunger.

So what is the relationship between Jesus and the State? Between the Church and the politics?

When we lock in on a single attribute of God to the dominance of the others we turn God into a caricature . He is not real. He is distorted. Today we wrap up our study of The Good and Beautiful God by looking at God as a King who comes to bring healing to the land.

Sin is more about breaking God's heart than breaking His law.