Bethel LIFE Centre

12/18/2025

Christ offers no criticism of this church. The saints were faithful in spite of suffering. They thought they were poor, but were rich — in contrast to Laodicea, which thought it was rich and was poor (Revelation 3:17). The saints were being blasphemed (slandered) by false Christians (of the synagogue of satan, John 8:44; Philippians 3:2).

12/17/2025

Smyrna means “bitter” and is related to the word “myrrh.” One thinks of fragrance released because of crushing persecution. The church has always been the purest and the most fragrant when it was going through times of suffering.

12/16/2025

Smyrna: The Suffering Church (Revelation 2:8-11). Note how each description of Christ goes back to the picture in Revelation 1:13-16, and how each one meets the special need of that church. Smyrna was the persecuted church, so Christ reminds them of His own suffering, death, and resurrection (Revelation 2:8).

12/15/2025

He commends them for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. The Gk. name “Nicolaus” means “to conquer the people.” It refers to the development of a priestly caste (clergy) in the church that throws aside the common believers. While there must be pastoral leadership in the church, there must not be a distinct “clergy” and “laity” in which the former lords it over the latter.

12/14/2025

GRIEF is HEALED in COMMUNITY – Bishop David R. Harewood

Message from the pulpit of BLC

12/14/2025

His counsel to them is in these words: “remember, repent, repeat the first works” (Revelation 2:5). If we get back to our first love, we will repeat the first works, those labors of love that marked our first meeting with Christ. If the church does not get its heart back in the right condition, the lampstand will be removed. The local church is to shine as a light in the world. Without true love for Christ, its light will go out.

12/13/2025

Like Martha, we can be so busy working for Christ that we have no time to love Him (Luke 10:38-42). Christ is more concerned about what we do with Him than for Him. Labor is no substitute for love. To the public, the Ephesian church was successful; to Christ, it had fallen.

12/12/2025

But the Man in the midst of the churches saw what was missing: they had left (not “lost”) their first love (Jeremiah 2:2). The local church is espoused to Christ (2Corinthians 11:2), but there is always the danger of that love growing cold.

12/11/2025

Ephesus had a busy church with high spiritual standards. They could not bear “worthless [evil] people” and would not listen to false teachers. The work had been difficult, but they had not fainted. In every way, it was a successful church from the human point of view.

12/10/2025

The church at Ephesus had works, labor, and patience — but no love for Christ. In contrast, the Thessalonians were commended for their “work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope” (1Thessalonians 1:3). It is not “what” we do for Christ, but the motive behind it, the incentive, that counts.

12/09/2025

Ephesus: The Backsliding Church (Revelation 2:1-7). The hands and feet of the exalted Christ are emphasized here: He holds the stars (the messengers of the churches), and He walks in judgment among the churches (lampstands). He begins with Ephesus, the city closest to Patmos. It was a great commercial center. Most important was the great temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

12/08/2025

G. Laodicea. The lukewarm, apostate church, with a big budget and no blessing. This is the church that is materially rich and spiritually poor. And the tragedy is, the people do not know how poor and miserable they really are! Christ stands outside the church, calling for even one believer to yield to Him.