Revelation may be the most difficult of the New Testament letters to clearly understand. John draws word pictures that challenge our understanding and our imaginations. Perhaps no group of passages has had a wider range of interpretive meanings. These messages thundering from the gates of heaven indicate that these letters to seven ancient churches have relevance infinitely beyond the circle of the original recipients. They are a composite word to the church universal throughout time. The letters to the seven churches are not exempt from these varied historic, preterist (everything has already happened) futurist (not much has already happened), or idealist \ spiritual interpretations and blending of these views. John writes to churches about things that must soon take place. In the churches things are already happening - churches that face trials, temptations, quarreling and social unrest in the cultures around them as their Jewish neighbors and civic authorities place pressures on the members, resulting in a loss of fidelity to Christian doctrine and the call to holy living. John presents us with the challenges of the Christian life. Answers to the question, "How then should we live?" among our cultural surroundings become clearer as we read through the words to the churches. John becomes the kind of friend who stands alongside us and loves us enough to tell us when we have lost our Christian walk. His advice is clear and to the point. There is no mistaking the call to remembrance and repentance.Ephesus - where is your love?Smyrna - I know your tribulationPergamum - Satan's throne is where you liveThyatira - you have a leadership problemSardis - You are dead Philadelphia - I will give you strengthLaodicea - pride is your problemWe can see something of ourselves as we hear Christ speak to His body. Will we have the "ears to hear what the Spirit says the churches?"