2003-10-10
Good Morning Cherished Readers,
It gives me such pleasure to remind each of you how you are cherished by me and by the Lord Who loves us all. I am led by Him today to begin writing about what He tells us in REV 21: 1-22: 5 about the Eternal City. When all of this is put together with what has already been discussed in the series, I am left (and hope you are too) with a eagerness to go there. The Lord calls this place a permanent home for us and refers to us as “tent-dwellers” living in temporary homes here on earth. Happily, all believers are considered “citizens of heaven” [PHIL 3: 20]. My eagerness to be there adds me to a very long list of people who share my sentiments. Just listen to this wonderful prayer David wrote long ago from PS 42: 1-2, “As the deer longs for a stream of cool water, so I long for You, O God. I thirst for You, the living God. When can I go and worship in Your presence?”
It is very hard for us to step out of the limitations placed on us by Newtonian physics and even Einsteinian relativity, but where God is concerned, we must do this. This in no way denies the truths that earthly science teaches us, but instead, widens the realm of our thinking to include things which can’t be explained by the scientific laws of earth. God is real and personal, a Force so much greater than anything in earth-bound science can be. His will for us is always righteous and always just. No human is capable of the depth of love and loyalty that God is, but our loving Abba has commanded us to try to be Christ-like in our ways and has equipped us to do so through His most excellent grace. Let’s step out of our earthly bounds to examine what we learn from Revelation’s last two chapters. REV 21: 1-4, “Then I [John] saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth disappeared, and the sea vanished. And I saw the Holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared and ready, like a bride dressed to meet her husband. I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: ‘Now God’s home is with mankind! He will live with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them, and He will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared.”
To even stretch toward the Lord’s understanding (which I fully recognize that we can’t achieve) we must look at some cross references for illumination. IS 67: 17, “The Lord says, ‘I am making a new earth and new heavens. The events of the past will be completely forgotten.’” This is huge in its implications to us. It tells us that God has the power to create a completely new place, despite the fact that He created the present earth and heaven with which we are familiar. God never lost any of His power to be Creator. It also tells us that He knows the exact right time that mankind is ready for Him to make any kind of change; we can’t know this. Thus, we must trust Him. PS 34: 8, “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” One more huge implication has to do with “the events of the past will be completely forgotten.” This answers a long-standing question of mine: How can we be happy knowing that those we loved who rejected Christ will not be there with us? For people like me who come from a family where there are members who have rejected Christ, this allows for me to be at peace with God’s decisions. And yes, He is the only One who can decide who will have faith which endures and thus, enter the Kingdom of Heaven and who will not. God further adds in IS 66: 18, 22, “I know their thoughts and their deeds. I am coming to gather the people of all the nations. When they come together, they will see what My power can do…Just as the new earth and the new heavens will endure by My power, so your descendants and your name will endure.” And He inspired Peter to write, in 2 PET 3: 13, “But we wait for what God has promised: new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will be at home.”
There are too many wonderful cross references to examine to put them all in this message. They are too good to pass up, so I’m led to continue discussing them in my next message. Suffice it to say that what is revealed in the citations discussed today should cause us to burn with the desire to deepen our faith and trust in God, obey His commandments, seek eternal bliss with Him, and help make His oft-stated assertion about “writing His laws into our hearts, so that we are His people and He is our God” come true, as soon as possible. It should also, by implication, remind us of the extraordinary grace we have been given by God’s sacrifice of His Son on the cross to enable believers to be saved and at peace with Him.
PRAYER: O Lord, we stand before Your throne today in consideration of the wonderful blessings You heap upon us. We are sinners in need of Your guidance and wisdom. Without You, we cannot make the choices necessary in our lives to conform to Your will. We cannot even know Your will. When You decided to grant us faith through the Holy Spirit and sent Christ to die on the cross for us, You opened the possibility of being at home with You forever in the Eternal City. We dedicate ourselves to expunging the sins we know are in our individual lives, to discovering other sin that may be subtle and getting rid of it, and to acting in our congregations in a way which obeys Christ’s new commandment in JN 13: 34-35. You allow us a view of heaven which is amazingly detailed, even though it is nothing more than a foretaste of how wonderful it will be. We feel honored to be both Your servants and Your friends. Two Scriptures in our minds today are RO 5: 8-11 and RO 12: 1-2, cited here: “But God has shown us how much He loves us-it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us! By death we are now put right with God; how much more then, will we be saved by Him from God’s anger! We were God’s enemies, but He made us His friends through the death of His Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life! But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has now made us God’s friends…So then, my brothers, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him. This is the true worship that you should offer. Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by the renewal of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God-what is good and is pleasing to Him and is perfect.” The words of praise that we speak are little in comparison to what You deserve. We can’t even adequately thank You for what You have done for us. So, we ask You, Dearest Abba, to look into each of our hearts to see what is there, just as we have been taught that You do. PS 139: 23-24, “Examine me, O God, and know my mind; test me, and discover my thoughts. Find out if there is any evil in me and guide me in the everlasting Way.” In humility, we offer You our eternal worship, adoration, loyalty, diligence, trust, obedience, glory, honor, thanks, and praise. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
As promised above, I will continue to share the marvelous verses God has given us to deepen our understanding of His will to eventually have us in the Kingdom of Heaven with Him forever. I’m stunned at the extraordinary, indescribable love He shows us every day of our lives. PS 116: 1, “I love the Lord, because He hears our prayers and answers them.” Maybe His answer will be “no” or “maybe later,” instead of the “yes” we want, but that answer will always be in our best long-term interests. Waiting, trusting, and enduring pain for the Lord are hard things to do, but do them we must! When we think of the alternative (also amply described for our benefit in the Scriptures), our choice must be clear. We must examine our lives, get rid of the sin in them, serve the Lord in accordance with the talents He has given us, encourage others to come to saving faith through the Holy Spirit, and be God’s friends. After all, He is the best Friend any of us will ever have.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn