Skip to main content

The New Jerusalem

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
Hebrews 13:14

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
Revelation 21:3, 4

If it wasn't enough that God has forgiven the sins of His people through faith in Jesus Christ, He promises us something in addition that none of us can even fathom. He promises us a new city. He promises to dwell with us, His people, who are set apart as God's treasured possession (Deuteronomy 7:6).

Is there anyone who, when thinking about the sinfulness of our flesh, would even consider that a righteous God would love him or her at all? I'm brought to my knees when I think of the reality that God loves me...Crazy, isn't it?

I'm just so amazed that God has only begun to show His love for us! Can you imagine the evidence of His love when Christ comes back for His church? How about when you see the streets of gold, pearly gates, and the glory of God that acts as street lights?! How about when you think about the spotless lamb wiping away your tears and ending your heartache?

I like this life, but the more I think about the life that awaits, the more I find myself daydreaming about being with Jesus. What men like John saw couldn't even be described accurately because it was so much more fantastic than anything ever known or seen!

Be encouraged that this world doesn't compare to what awaits, saints! Our citizenship is in Heaven. Wait on Jesus with courage and joy. No one or nothing will ever be more worth it than Christ.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Convicting And Compelling Gospel

Which adjective in the title more closely aligns with your predisposed way of thinking about and speaking the gospel to yourself and others?   Are you more likely to present a gospel that is heavy on the convicting realities of sin, righteousness and judgment?   Or do you find yourself more readily appealing to the benefits of following Jesus?   If you think about it, neither adjective fully encapsulates the message of Jesus.   It’s right to compel people using the promises of God and the joy filled benefits of a life submitted to Jesus.   But it’s also right to warn of the consequences of rejecting Him.   Since we’re all naturally inclined to emphasize one, we need to allow the other to constrain us, to balance us from taking our natural disposition to the extreme, which may confuse the gospel and the Jesus we wish to present.   Let me attempt to illustrate one example of an unconstrained leaning toward each in turn.   A compelling gospel that is...
  “Where grace exists, it reigns.”   C. H. Spurgeon I’m scared of grace.   And this realization comes in the midst of a journey I’ve been on that has the fingerprints of God all over it.   If we were to gather 50 Christians in the same room and invite people to share adjectives that come to mind when trying to describe “grace,” I doubt “scary” would be anyone’s answer.   (It probably wouldn’t be mine either, in case anyone is thinking I’m exalting this term in some sort of holier-than-thou way.)   We’d hear things like amazing, undeserved, free, kind, love.   Of course, it’s inevitable that the crucifixion of Jesus is vocalized in some way.   Essentially, we’d have a huge list of very positive and affirming adjectives that rightly depict the wonderful activity and riches of God’s grace.   What if we asked a slightly different question?   How would we answer, “how does a person obtain grace?”   I’m guessing we’d start throwing out an...

Why Plant A Multiethnic Church? Biblical Foundations

In the first post, I tried to answer the question, “why plant a church?” by speaking of the necessity of the Church as the possessor and proclaimer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   It’s worth reading my initial thoughts on that question before diving into what follows.   My aim in this writing is to answer the title question: Why plant a multiethnic church? Church planting itself seems daunting to begin with.   Strategically, launching a new church with as few obstacles for growth as possible seems wise.   We want to fast track to self-sustainability after all, don’t we?   We want the new church to succeed for the sake of the gospel.   Besides that, a multiethnic church requires a very narrow range of potential locations.   Typically, the place where multiple ethnicities reside in close proximity is the city, and more specifically, in economically diverse (and challenged) areas of the city.   This creates an even greater burden and po...