Daily Lesson for November 16, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Revelation chapter 21 verses 5 through 7:

5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ 6Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. 7Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.'

We are coming to the end of the Liturgical Year. Sunday is the last Sunday of this year and the week following Thanksgiving we will begin the new year with Advent.

This morning's reading is a reminder of God's presence in both beginning and also end. God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. And God wants us to know -- really know -- this so deeply and so assuredly that God said, God demanded, "Write it down."

Write it down that the end is coming, but that God will be there. Write it down that God will not forsake or abandon us. Write it down that God knows and is the last word -- the final Amen.

There will be water in the end. And there will be water in the next beginning. The first drink was a kind of water made for us by life itself. The last drink will be a swab from someone who loves or at least cares for us. All in between, there is water on the way.

Do not be afraid, beloved. Do not fear the future. Do not fear your past! The journey is long and arduous, and we have fallen many times. But we have not failed.

And more important, God has not failed us.

These are the last days. The Penultimate week. Sunday is Christ the KIng. He will stand before Pilate. But He will not bow, or beg, or shudder.

Neither shall we. But we shall drink with the one who is, and was, and will be in the kingdom that is to come.

Write it down.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Braodway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.