2-3 “Up on your feet! Take a deep breath! Maybe there’s life in you yet. But I wouldn’t know it by looking at your busywork; nothing of God’s work has been completed. Your condition is desperate. Think of the gift you once had in your hands, the Message you heard with your ears—grasp it again and turn back to God.

“If you pull the covers back over your head and sleep on, oblivious to God, I’ll return when you least expect it, break into your life like a thief in the night.

“You still have a few followers of Jesus in Sardis who haven’t ruined themselves wallowing in the muck of the world’s ways. They’ll walk with me on parade! They’ve proved their worth!

“Conquerors will march in the victory parade, their names indelible in the Book of Life. I’ll lead them up and present them by name to my Father and his Angels.

Read full chapter

Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent.(A) But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief,(B) and you will not know at what time(C) I will come to you.

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.(D) They will walk with me, dressed in white,(E) for they are worthy. The one who is victorious(F) will, like them, be dressed in white.(G) I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life,(H) but will acknowledge that name before my Father(I) and his angels.

Read full chapter