Her glasses are in the drawer and have been since about February, and you have been meaning to offer for five months.
She read constantly. Everybody on that street knew it. And then the sight went, over about eighteen months, and it went past the point where any magnifier or lamp was going to help, and now the glasses are in a drawer because there is no version of the arrangement where they are useful.
And you have thought, roughly forty times, about walking over and offering to read to her. And you have not, and the reason has one word in it.
The word is charity. Or something adjacent to it: pity, being an object of, having a person come round because you cannot do a thing any more. You have imagined her hearing the offer that way and it has stopped you every single time.
Two things are not coming here, and you have met them both.
Nobody is handing you a list. Not a title, not an author, not a genre, and no shelf of what anybody ought to have read by now. Being handed one has never once opened a book.
And nobody is saying one word about your phone. You know about the phone. Everybody knows. Being told again by a stranger returns nothing at all.
What I want to look at is who gets the blessing in a room where somebody reads aloud, because Scripture answers that specifically and it is not one person.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear
There is a line at the front of Revelation about reading and hearing, and it counts the people it applies to.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. (Revelation 1:3, King James Version)
Read the two parties in that sentence.
Blessed is he that readeth. Singular. One person reading. And they that hear the words. Plural. Everybody listening.
So the blessing is on both sides of the arrangement, and it is stated in that order, with the reader first. The one holding the book is not the benefactor in that verse. He is one of the blessed.
And notice what the arrangement assumes. One person reading aloud and a room hearing is the normal method being described. Nobody in that sentence is being read to because of an incapacity; it is simply how the words got to people.
You are one of two parties being blessed, and reading to somebody has never once made you the benefactor in the room. Revelation 1:3 puts the blessing on the reader and on the hearers both, with the reader named first, and the Holy Spirit is the one saying that over a porch and a drawer with glasses in it.
There is one more piece and it settles the shape of the offer.
And keep those things which are written therein. Both parties are expected to do something with what came through. Which means the hearers in that verse are not passive recipients of a service. They are participants with an obligation of their own.
You have a listener who would be a participant and not a recipient, and hearing a page has never once been a lesser role than reading it. It is written and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, the hearers carry the same charge as the reader, and the Spirit of God is saying that plainly here.
The word charity is doing all the stopping
Here is the mechanism, and it is worth naming because it is not cowardice.
Her dignity is being protected, and that is a good instinct, and it is working off a wrong picture of the transaction.
The picture in your head is one person giving and one person receiving. In that picture the offer has a small sting in it, because it names her loss out loud, and it puts you in the position of the one who can and her in the position of the one who cannot.
Now look at the actual transaction, which is two people in a room with one book between them. Both of them hear the story. Both of them get the afternoon. One of them is holding the pages, which is a mechanical detail and not a moral position.
That is not charity. Charity has one direction and this has none.
You are looking at a shared afternoon and calling it a service, and one person holding the pages has never once made the other one a recipient. Revelation 1:3 blesses reader and hearers together in a single sentence, and the Holy Spirit is present with a woman who has thought about knocking forty times.
And there is a second thing, and it is the one that makes the offer easy.
The offer as imagined all these months is: would you like me to read to you. That is the one with the sting in it, because it is entirely about her.
The offer that has no sting is: I am reading something and I would like to read it out loud to somebody. That is about you, it is true, and it invites her into something rather than handing her something.
You have an offer available with nothing in it to refuse, and asking somebody into your own afternoon has never once been an act of pity. The written word blesses the reader first and then the hearers and gives both of them the same charge, and His Spirit is the one who takes a wrong picture off a good instinct.
One page out loud tonight
So here is the assignment, and the practice comes before the porch.
Read one page out loud to somebody in your house tonight.
Whoever is there. One page, out loud, from whatever you are reading. No preamble.
Here is why the house first.
Five months of hesitating is not really about her. It is about the sound of your own voice reading to somebody who did not ask, and one page in your own front room settles that entirely, in about ninety seconds, before you ever get to her door.
Then walk over this week. And use the second offer rather than the first. I am reading something and I would like to read it out loud to somebody, and I thought of you.
That sentence is true, it is about you, and there is nothing in it for her to be the object of.
You are able to read one page out loud in your own front room tonight, and ninety seconds of your own voice has never once been the hard part. Revelation 1:3 says blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words, and the Holy Ghost is the one present with a woman reading a page out loud to whoever is in her house.
And when you are over there, sit where she can hear you easily and read a page and then stop. One page. Not an afternoon, not a project, not a standing arrangement announced in advance.
You have a blessing that lands on the reader as well, and a shared page has never once had a direction in it. It is written for the time is at hand, the blessing is on both parties and the reader is named first in the sentence, and the Spirit of God is saying it on a porch this week.
So here is what I believe is going out over a woman who has nearly knocked on that door forty times.
You are one of two people who would be blessed in that room, and holding the pages has never once made you the benefactor. Nobody here is handing you a list and nobody here is mentioning your phone. Revelation 1:3 blesses the one who reads and the ones who hear in a single sentence, names the reader first, and gives both parties the same charge about what came through, and it is the Holy Spirit and not my saying so who takes a wrong picture off a right instinct.
And this, which is the word I came with:
You are free of a word that was doing all the stopping, and asking somebody into your own afternoon has never once been an act of pity. It is written blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, the arrangement of one voice and a listening room is simply the normal method being described, and the Spirit of God is saying it on that street this week.
One page at home. Then walk over.
Declare this over yourself
Say them out loud in the front room with the book in your hand, or on the step before you knock. Not because saying them makes anything move: the moving belongs to God, and He was blessing readers and hearers together long before anybody lost their sight on a street. You say them because you belong to Christ and Christ is in you, and Scripture gives His people a mouth to agree with what He has already settled. What those afternoons turn into, and when, is His to work out in His own way and on His own clock, and I put no timetable on Him.
- Word charity that stops me at her door, you are a hesitation and you were never the truth of it. Revelation 1:3 says blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words, so by the Holy Spirit I read one page out loud tonight in the name of Jesus and I walk over this week.
- Picture of one giver and one receiver, go. The written word blesses the reader and the hearers in one sentence and gives both of them the same charge about what came through, and by the Holy Spirit I am done calling a shared afternoon a service.
- Father, You blessed the one who reads and the ones who hear, and You named the reader first. Your word says and keep those things which are written therein, so by Your Spirit I read one page out loud tonight and knock on that door this week.
Revelation 1:3
This message is free, and always will be. There is nothing to unlock, nothing to subscribe to, and nothing you owe for having received it.
