Daily PresenceSample

During the month of October in downtown Kansas City, there are several old abandoned industrial buildings that get converted into haunted houses. I’m talking snakes in cages, clowns with chainsaws, and ax murderers chasing you through the hallways and stairwells of a 20-story building. Terrifying doesn’t accurately describe the experience.

So what do my idiot friends and I do? Convinced several naive girls to come with us for a “Halloween surprise,” at the Edge of Hell haunted house. Yes, that’s actually its name.

With a little peer pressure, we’re all walking into what would most definitely be Kourtney’s last experience and lifelong PTSD struggle. Within the first 10 minutes we were trapped in a dark room with sand on the floor, snakes in plexiglass cages, and people popping out of hidden spaces with chainsaws and knives threatening to kill us. She was so scared she started having a panic attack. Realizing the situation had quickly gone from funny to serious, the directors of the haunted house turned the lights on and rescued her from the horror. The amazing thing to me was how quickly all the fear and anxiety subsided when the lights came on.

Reading the book of Revelation can be a scary experience if you’re in the dark. But once the lights come on it becomes the most beautiful story of redemption, return, reunion and reign. We are redeemed! Jesus returns! We’re reunited with the Father. He rules and reigns on the earth.

Keep that lens as we read the chapters for today. Revelation 15 begins with the wrath of God being poured out on people who refused to believe in Christ then the narrative turns to God overthrowing Satan and his henchmen in 17-19.

Here’s the light: Jesus wins. We win. Victory is promised.

Yes, the tribulation will be terrible. Yes, the wrath of God will be poured out. Yes, Satan will wreak havoc. But no, we don’t have to be subject to it! We are redeemed. Jesus returns. We are reunited! This is the underlying light of the book of Revelation – our story ends in victory.

Live in victory today – we’re getting closer to the end, and that’s a good thing!