8 The Lord God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the One who is and was and is coming. I am the Almighty.”
9 I, John, am your brother. All of us share with Christ in suffering, in the kingdom, and in patience to continue. I was on the island of Patmos, because I had preached the word of God and the message about Jesus.
10 On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard a loud voice behind me that sounded like a trumpet.
11 The voice said, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12 I turned to see who was talking to me. When I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands
13 and someone among the lampstands who was “like a Son of Man.” He was dressed in a long robe and had a gold band around his chest.
14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like flames of fire.