HOLD FAST TO WHAT YOU HAVE

REV. 3:11. THIS IS OUR FOCUS TODAY.

"Behold i come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown"

THAT NO MAN TAKES THY CROWN
One of the promises that God gave to the church in Philadelphia was that He would keep them from the hour of temptation which shall come. Rev. 3:10. This time of trouble is the time of the tribulation.

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Three schools of thought ponder on this. One says that Christians will go through the tribulation. The second says that Christians will go through only three and half years of the tribulation before God will take them away. The third says that Christians will not be here when the trouble starts.

Our greatest support for the third premise is found in Rev.3:10. Jesus Christ says if you keep His word, you will be out of the trouble that is coming.

He gave a warning even to to the church in Philadelphia. He said that they should hold fast to what they have so that no one will take their crowns. This message is also to us.

Let us share a story. Once upon a time, in a Communist state, fifty Christians were being tortured. The soldiers torturing them took them to a lake of freezing water and they stripped them naked. Near the lake they made a large bonfire.

The idea was that when these Christians decided to deny Jesus, they can come and warm themselves near the fire. Still these Christians resisted. Suddenly fifty angels appeared with fifty crowns and they moved towards the Christians, It was at this time that one of the Christians could not hold fast again. He started moving out of the water. The angel bringing his own crown became sad and was about to move back to Heaven when one of the soldiers stripped himself naked and started claiming the crown meant for the runaway Christian.

Please hold fast to what you have or else someone else will claim your crown. Let us ask God to remove any temptation that will make us deny Jesus Christ and lose our crown.