Day 03 - "I Know"

Today marked Day Three of our journey, and what a day it was.

We began by wrapping up our time in the Lycus Valley at the ancient city of Laodicea.

Since 2003, Professor Celal Şimşek and his team have been painstakingly excavating Laodicea, breathing life back into this once-bustling first-century city. Nearly a week never passes without another column raised, another stone restored. It’s a place alive with discovery. You could visit Laodicea six months apart and find a city transformed yet again — a living, breathing reminder of the ancient world being resurrected before our eyes.

From there, we journeyed west, stopping at the breathtaking city of Aphrodisias. A city famous for its world-renowned sculpting school, stunning marble artworks, and one of the best-preserved stadiums of the ancient world.

By day’s end, we found ourselves gazing out over the wine-dark sea — the Aegean, as Homer called it. We sat, literally, looking out over the Aegean Sea as the sun sank into the horizon. 

Throughout these first few days, one truth has been echoing louder and louder in our hearts:

When Jesus spoke to the churches of Revelation, He began each message with two simple, stunning words: “I know.”

“I know your deeds.”

“I know your affliction.”

“I know your struggle.”

Jesus isn’t some distant, detached deity.

No, as Psalm 139 reminds us, “He is intimately acquainted with all our ways.”

He knows.

He not only knows what we are going through, He sees it accurately.

He invites us to see life from His perspective, not merely our own.

For example:

To the church in Smyrna, He says, “I know your affliction and your poverty — yet you are rich.”

Physically, they were battered. Economically, they were crushed. But Jesus saw a deeper reality. He saw a richness that the world could never measure.

To the church in Laodicea, He says, “I know… you say ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’”

Yet Jesus looks deeper and says, “But you do not realize you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.”

We live life on the human level.

God sees life from the heavenly dimension.

And today, walking among the stones and ruins of these ancient cities, we felt His invitation:

See as I see. 

Hear as I speak. 

Live as I lead.

In every message to the churches, Jesus ends with the same stirring call.

“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

He still calls us today.

He sees our trials, our struggles, our victories, our temptations, our frailty, and He whispers,

“I know. I know you.”

And He invites us to know ourselves not through the lens of fear or pride or pain, but through His eyes of truth, grace, and peace.

As Isaiah 26:3 promises:

“You will keep in perfect peace (shalom, shalom) those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You.”

Today, may we pause.

May we listen.

May we lift our eyes from earth to heaven, and see not as the world sees, but as our Savior sees.

And stepping into that vision, may we walk in His peace.

Shalom, shalom.

Jerrell