Culture

n the mid-1990’s when my wife was in the last stages of Alzheimer’s disease, I got into the habit spending the late hours of the day praying and talking to God. It was during this time that I began to sense God urging me to do something that I would never have considered doing, and certainly did not feel qualified to do under any circumstance: He continually persisted in my writing an exposition on the seven churches of the book of Revelation. Every night it was the same: He would bring it up, and I would argue that I was not qualified to undertake writing on the Bible, nor did I have the slightest insight regarding the seven churches. This went on for some time, and eventually I came across a book that had been written on the seven churches of Revelation. I thought that this was my “Aha” moment, and I immediately brought it to God’s attention, thinking that I was off the hook. No such luck, for God (as I have learned) always has a Plan B that is better, and usually bigger, in mind, and that’s when He hit me with probably what He had in mind all along: writing a commentary on the entire book of Revelation. This hit me like a ton of bricks: I had felt unqualified to write on the seven churches, now I was confronted with something so overwhelming there was no question about my inadequacy. Undoubtedly, that is where He wanted me to be all the time: totally dependent on Him for every idea, concept and interpretation that I put to paper (or computer screen in this case). So I began to study, search and write, and the words seemed to keep coming. This was something totally new to me. I had co-authored a couple of technical books in my last job as a teacher, but this was different. Here I was dealing with subjects for which I could not reach down within to draw up understanding: I had to depend totally on Him. I do not want to leave readers with the impression that everything in this book is right out of God’s mouth. What I hope is contained therein is what God gave, processed through an ordinary layman’s mind and body, and therefore susceptible to some misunderstanding. Several years ago a friend asked me why I thought God would give me knowledge that He had not given other men. My answer was that God is no respecter of persons (Ac. 10:34), He gives knowledge to those who have the greatest need and desire, with no consideration of status or position in the world. In fact, He seems to favor the least capable or honorable (1 Co. 12:22-24).