This past week BSF started back up. This year our study is on the Revelation. The thought of this usually immediately stirs up fear and thoughts of those last days, possibly coming of a literal fire on earth. I’m excited for this study because the ultimate goal and end to all this is hope.

I learned something new over the past couple weeks called inclusio. This is a literary term in which the ending and beginning are like brackets, mirroring each other and the events in between kind of span outward. The very middle is also like a crescendo. Anyway, Revelation is a mirror of Genesis because though this world is ending, it also is a beginning. In both, there’s a tree of life, and so on. I’m sure there’s even more things one could go through and list. In every story we reference and talk about, God’s plan has been redemptive and that’s no different in Revelation – this is what gives us hope.

I’m looking forward to this deep dive into Revelation because even though I just studied it with my friend, it’s still a bit (read as a lot) mind boggling. I have a few books in mind to read up on Revelation as well, but BSF has always been so well with explaining and showing the cross references in an easy-to-understand way, that I think in this season of life, BSF is where I will glean the most. They’ve already emphasized that we’re not here to just gain head knowledge, but to draw closer to Him.

This past week and a couple more weeks, we’re just going through an overview and more so building a foundation to talk about Revelation, showing how Scripture has been fulfilled and documented. Tomorrow we’ll have our first discussion group going over questions with my new group. Our week one questions were so good! They were all references to Old Testament prophecies and how they were fulfilled through Jesus and how even through those, we have so much hope left for tomorrow – what lies ahead of us in Revelation. I didn’t know exactly where and how all the prophecies were told and fulfilled, so it’s been fun to see all the connections and how spot on they are (though we expect nothing less from God, right?).

I hope to share more about what I learn through this study with you!