8. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God – the one who is, and who was, and who is still to come – the All-Powerful!
9. I, John, your brother and the one who shares with you in the persecution, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus.
10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day when I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,
11. saying: “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches – to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12. I turned to see whose voice was speaking to me, and when I did so, I saw seven golden lampstands,
13. and in the midst of the lampstands was one like a son of man. He was dressed in a robe extending down to his feet and he wore a wide golden belt around his chest.
14. His head and hair were as white as wool, even as white as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame.
15. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.