Renew The Church! – website and Blog

Rev 2:18  “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
Rev 2:19  “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
Rev 2:20  But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
Rev 2:21  I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her immorality.
Rev 2:22  Behold, I will throw her on a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her doings;
Rev 2:23  and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.
Rev 2:24  But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay upon you any other burden;
Rev 2:25  only hold fast what you have, until I come.
Rev 2:26  He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations,
Rev 2:27  and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received power from my Father;
Rev 2:28  and I will give him the morning star.
Rev 2:29  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Verses 19-20.  There are two “Catholic” Churches in the West; in the USA; in the [fill in your local area], perhaps in your very parish: two.  There is one, beloved of the Lord and true to her roots: “”‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.”  And there is the other, still here from antiquity, still clinging to the fiction of loyalty to two masters, God and Mammon: “You tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.”  

In this “church of the other”, the fiction endures that “Yes, of course we can serve both God and Mammon!  No we must not “love the one and hate the other”!  That is not reasonable or practical at all!  God is reasonable – God is practical!  God and Mammon can walk together, and work together!  We will accompany the world, and the world will embrace us!”

Verses 21-23.  God has been very patient with us, but the sin has only deepened its roots, and widened its branches, and multiplied its wayward children, and pierced the hearts of the faithful of the Lord.  The immorality only multiplies, the lusts of the flesh and of the world and the boastful arrogance of the heart only grows bolder; their abominations cloaked in purple, crowned as princes they strut in cathedrals with heads held high, mocking the God whose Cross they trample upon with laughter.  They are the princes of Jezebel, adorned and preening, invaders of the Temple of the Lord.  They rape the innocent, they rob the trusting, they sabotage the promises of Christ and the hopes of His children for their own lustful ambitions and cold, sterile hearts.  

The time is approaching, it is certain, it draws nearer and nearer.  Their dark master knows this; his hatred now enflamed, only rages more; his victim-slaves ever blind, only advance faster to their death.

Verses 24-28. The promises of God are eternal because He is, because His Truth is, because He IS, and in the end, evil is not.  The glory of God He holds as a secret only whispered now, but it is a Hallelujah! that shouted will fill the Creation – and every faithful soul – on that Day. 

Verse 29.  It is a gift, to have ears to hear.  The Word He speaks, is a Gift for the hearing of those He calls.  The Word He gives, finding place in a human heart, is a treasure more precious than an infinity of universes each more full with worldly riches than the other.  These days look dark, brothers and sisters, but the light that is eternal is just beyond the horizon.  One day – surprise!  It will come.