Be First and Last (A Prayer)

Rev. 1:8-19 + John 3:21

Almighty One, Who are, Who were,
   Who ever yet shall be,
Be First and Last in all my thoughts
   And all that comes between
That all my words might echo Thine
   My deeds be wrought in Thee.
       Amen.


8 "'I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.'

9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, 'Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.'

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, 'Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.'"
   ~Revelation 1:8-19 (ESV)

"But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." 
   ~John 3:21 (KJV)