A Missionary Looks at the Love Letter

Jesus gave Revelation as a love letter for his servants to share with the church. It is addressed to us from, "...him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," (Revelation 1:5) He reminds us that he personally suffered and gave his very best for his bride, the church. But then with a broken heart, in his first letter to the church he says, "...you have left your first love." (Revelation 2:4) This book interprets Revelation by following the instructions given to us in the first chapter. We are told to compare Revelation to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:2). Revelation is a heart heavy message, very carefully and personally delivered by Jesus Christ himself. That is why this particular book carefully considers the spiritual heart message that is being delivered to the ministry, and we will address each scripture within Revelation in the same order as it was originally given. Almost every scripture within Revelation (hundreds of them) are derived from other scriptures within the rest of the Bible. There is no way to interpret Revelation without carefully considering what those scriptures spiritually teach us, and then what Jesus is telling us with them through his Revelation. Revelation is also a book of many sevens. Addressing things seven times is God's way within scripture of completing his purpose and his work. There are four different patterns of seven that are explicitly identified within Revelation: 7 churches, 7 seals, 7 trumpets, and 7 vials of the wrath of God poured out. This pattern of four sevens matches how God said he would correct his people back in Leviticus chapter 26. He said four different times that if his people stray away from him, he will correct them seven times, and in the last seven he will correct them in his fury. Accordingly, the last pattern of seven within Revelation is done in God's wrath and fury. Revelation finalizes the corrections for all the problems in the church.

Jesus gave Revelation as a love letter for his servants to share with the church. It is addressed to us from, "...him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," (Revelation 1:5) He reminds us that he personally suffered and gave his very best for his bride, the church. But then with a broken heart, in his first letter to the church he says, "...you have left your first love." (Revelation 2:4) This book interprets Revelation by following the instructions given to us in the first chapter. We are told to compare Revelation to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:2). Revelation is a heart heavy message, very carefully and personally delivered by Jesus Christ himself. He doesn't take it lightly when people write up their own interpretations and imaginations about what it means. That is why this particular book carefully considers the spiritual heart message that is being delivered to the ministry, and we will address each scripture within Revelation in the same order as it was originally given. Almost every scripture within Revelation (hundreds of them) are derived from other scriptures within the rest of the Bible. There is no way to interpret Revelation without carefully considering what those scriptures spiritually teach us, and then what Jesus is telling us with them through his Revelation. This is exactly the way that the apostle Paul taught us to understand scripture, "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." (1 Corinthians 2:13) Revelation is also a book of many sevens. Addressing things seven times is God's way within scripture of completing his purpose and his work. There are four different patterns of seven that are explicitly identified within Revelation: 7 churches, 7 seals, 7 trumpets, and 7 vials of the wrath of God poured out. This pattern of four sevens matches how God said he would correct his people back in Leviticus chapter 26. He said four different times that if his people stray away from him, he will correct them seven times, and in the last seven he will correct them in his fury. Accordingly, the last pattern of seven within Revelation is done in God's wrath and fury. Revelation finalizes the corrections for all the problems in the church. "A Missionary Looks at the Love Letter" has been written so that you can respond from your heart to the love letter Jesus wrote to you. Christ died so that we can have a personal heart-to-heart relationship with him and his heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit. That is how he first established the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Consequently, the purpose of Revelation is to fill us in a greater way with his sacrificial love. Intellectual understanding into the different symbols, types and patterns of Revelation are a byproduct of that heart transformation. Consequently this book will also explain all of these symbols, types, and patterns in complete detail directly from the scriptures. The book is titled, "A Missionary Looks at the Love Letter…" because as a missionary, the author has taught this Revelation message to over a thousand ministers already. The purpose of Revelation is first to shake and awaken the ministry to their responsibility to respond directly to the heart of God. For those ministers where that spiritual heart change takes place, a revival breaks forth in their life and spreads to others! Revelation is for revealing Jesus Christ in a greater way than we have known him before. And that is what will happen if we really get true understanding into the book of Revelation. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19)

Richard Lehman is from the USA. He is a non-denominational missionary, currently ministering the gospel primarily in East Africa. In the past he has ministered in six other countries including: Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Mexico and Cuba. Additionally, he has open invites to other African countries which he hopes to visit in the future. Richard is not a typical modern missionary. He is not sent and directed by a missionary board to an established outpost in a foreign country. Richard typically travels to a foreign country alone. And when he arrives he meets many new people and prayerfully assesses their spiritual needs, as he labors together with them in the gospel. The principal audiences of his missionary work are ministers. So he spends much time personally developing instructional material specific to their needs. And he travels to many places within these countries to also personally train and educate them. More recently he is sensing a need to work with college young people in these same African countries. In addition to these missionary travels, he has been writing gospel related material for over 30 years. Including seriously studying and teaching a spiritual interpretation of the book of Revelation since 2003. Richard teaches a Revelation message that delivers people, especially ministers, from the politics and corruption of divided church organizations and returns their hearts back to responding directly to their heavenly Father. He brings many ministers from different denominations into one training room to learn about the heavenly vision given us by both Jesus Christ and his Revelation. He presents Revelation as a very personal love letter from Jesus Christ to the church, because that is how Jesus first presented it to the church.