Called to Write

⁹ I, John, your brother who shares with you in the hardship, kingdom, and endurance that we have in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and my witness about Jesus. ¹⁰ I was in a Spirit-inspired trance on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice that sounded like a trumpet. ¹¹ It said, “Write down on a scroll whatever you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” ¹² I turned to see who was speaking to me, and when I turned, I saw seven oil lamps burning on top of seven gold stands. ¹³ In the middle of the lampstands I saw someone who looked like the Human One. He wore a robe that stretched down to his feet, and he had a gold sash around his chest. ¹⁴ His head and hair were white as white wool—like snow—and his eyes were like a fiery flame. ¹⁵ His feet were like fine brass that has been purified in a furnace, and his voice sounded like rushing water. ¹⁶ He held seven stars in his right hand, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword. His appearance was like the sun shining with all its power. ¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. But he put his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the living one. I was dead, but look! Now I’m alive forever and always. I have the keys of Death and the Grave. ¹⁹ So write down what you have seen, both the scene now before you and the things that are about to unfold after this. ²⁰ As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands, here is what they mean: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.