Ephesus signifies the beginning of our Christian experience. It is a "honeymoon" stage. We love our Lord and worship Him. He is All in all to us. We see Him everywhere.

Then we become involved in the Christian church culture and its multitude of activities. We become knowledgeable in the ways of our particular denomination or group. Soon, without our knowing how or when it happened, we lose sight of the Lord Jesus. We suppose He is "in the company" while we are traveling along confidently, but He is concerned with His "Father's business" (Luke 2:44,49).

The transition from Christ-centeredness to church-centeredness can take place quickly. As we become more accustomed to our particular Christian fellowship our faith and our thinking become like the faith and thinking of the people with whom we are serving the Lord. Their friends become our friends. Their problems become our problems.

The bloom leaves our love for Christ. We lose sight of Him. When we lose sight of the Lord Jesus we lose the essence of what it means to be a Christian. We have become a Baptist Christian or a Methodist Christian or a Charismatic Christian. Where is Jesus in all of this?

In order to please the Lord we must return to our first love. We must conquer our human desire to occupy ourselves with the visible elements of Christianity. The way back to our first love is through prayer, through intense devotion to Christ Himself. He is our Lord and we must worship Him. We no longer are a Baptist Christian or a Methodist Christian or a Charismatic Christian. We are one who is in love with Jesus and only with Jesus.

We cannot bring our church affiliation and duties into Christ. We can only bring ourselves. The affiliations and duties may prove to be necessary for a season and Jesus always will help us with whatever we are doing if we ask Him. But Christ came for a Bride, not for religious workers.

To abide in the rest of God we must love Jesus above all else.

Smyrna represents tribulation. Tribulation is a very important, very necessary aspect of salvation. We must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God.

It is through tribulation that love, joy, peace, patience, and similar virtues are developed in us. The fires of suffering and imprisonment accomplish our reconciliation to the Lord as nothing else can.

We are full of sin and self-seeking when we commence our Christian pilgrimage. We may not believe this is so, but it is.

As we suffer we come to know the Lord. The Lord Jesus was a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. It is only as we share His suffering, His imprisonments, His rejections, His pains, His griefs, that we come to know Him.

When we suffer, and accept the suffering in the right way, not blaming people or circumstances but trusting in God and bringing all our troubles to Him in prayer, a transformation takes place in us. We learn trust, and hope, and patience. The foolishness and self-seeking are driven out of our personality. We gain insight into the Lord and into people. We can feel our personality growing toward maturity.

To be continued.