Keep watching

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

KEEP WATCHING

Rev 22:6-7

6 The angel said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place." 7 "Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book." 

NIV

We are coming to the closing statements of this revelation. The angel is saying a few words. John will make his statement, and Jesus will make his final appeal and concluding words, and the Spirit will make his final statement to close out this revelation. Then we will have John finish up that which he was told to write. Here we are seeing the words of the angel and of Jesus. The angel is telling us these words, all these words of the revelation are trustworthy and true. All the things that have been shown to John to write down are true, and we should trust them as what is to happen. The reason we can trust them and know they are true is because the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show John, his servant, the things that must soon take place. This was not something John conjured up by himself. This revelation was not written by a man, although he wrote it down, it was not from his own thoughts, but from the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets who sent this angel to show John all this which we have read. This would speak well of not just this revelation as the very words of God, but all of scripture, as we have been told so.

2 Tim 3:15-17

 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

NIV

This certainly includes, as we are told so, is all the words John recorded he saw in the revelation given to him by the angel sent by the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets. This is why we had to take a closer look at this revelation rather than to dismiss it as being too confusing and too difficult to understand. It is the word of the Lord and thus it has been given and is available for us, with the help of the Spirit to comprehend the truth for our lives. We can use all this revelation for teaching us, or to rebuke us, or to correct us, or we can also use it for training in righteousness. It might serve to do all of that in our lives, as we have seen throughout our investigation. It would be good for us to remember the truths we have had revealed to us. This we are told by none other than Jesus.

7 "Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book." 

We are blessed, fortunate, well off, happy, connected to God, if we keep the words of the prophecy in this book. This would certainly imply that we needed to not only read it, but keep it. This Greek word, keep, carries the meaning of to guard, to keep an eye on it so it will not escape, to attend to carefully. This is why we had to read and observe the truths within this revelation and now we have to keep them in our mind, not letting them escape. We cannot allow them to slip away under the cover of our being distracted by the things of the world. We are going to see that Jesus tells us in the next closing statement the he is bringing his reward with him and that he will give to everyone according to what we have done. We need to keep our eyes on the prize, the reward. This is not to say this reward is the only reason we should love the Lord our God with all our hearts, our mind, our spirit and our strength. But by doing so, Jesus is certainly bringing us a reward, which is eternal life and all that encompasses, living in this new city. The other word that bears a little thought is this word, soon. What does soon mean? How soon? He told that to John, and that was some two thousand years ago, and that is definitely not soon, at least what we consider soon. When we think of soon, we think of a couple of minutes, our hours. We will be there soon, when we are getting close to our destination. But what is soon to God is certainly not soon to us. When we use the Greek meaning of soon we see, He is coming soon, quickly, without delay. Now that has something we need to see. He is coming without delay. This simply means nothing more has to be done. All is complete for his return. The revelation is complete. when all these events revealed to John are done, Jesus will give us our reward. Does that mean we have to experience all this madness, these plagues first? No, that is not the meaning here. The meaning is because we keep watch over all the words of God, all the scripture, all the truths of the Lord we will be rewarded in the end. How that all plays out does not really matter in the sense that we always stay true to him. He is coming in the clouds for us one day. It might be today, it might be tonight, it might be in a few weeks, or months, or years, but in the time of God it is soon. We always need to be ready, at a moment’s notice to leave everything, when we hear the sound of the last trumpet call of God and we need to look up, look to the eastern sky, for our redemption draws nigh. Let us keep watching.

Really Living

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

REALLY LIVING

Rev 22:1-5

22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

NIV

All sorts of ideas are conjured up from this description. Is this but one street in this city? Is there only one river flowing down the center of this street? Is there just one tree of life? How can it be on both sides lining the river? Going back, why are there twelve gates? How does a river flow if this city, as some would suggest is a cube? If this city, as we envision is a pyramid/mountain with the throne of God at its peak, then the river of life would be flowing down all the streets which eventually lead to the twelve gates. Streets that wind their way down throughout all the mountain/city with the river flowing in the center of those streets. On each side of the river it is lined with the tree of life. The Greek word used as tree, can be anything of wood, a stick, a club, a tree, both singular and plural. So it is possible this tree of life is many trees of life lining the streets of this city. All bearing fruit twelve months of the year.  But of course we are in a new order without a sun and moon, and we have no days and nights, we are in eternity. So it is unlikely we have months. But what we know is these trees, this tree of life will continually bear fruit for all people to eat. This certainly has some reference to the tree of life that stood in the Garden of Eden. We know that because Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil God had to cast them out so they would not reach out and eat from the tree of life as well and become like God, which is living for all eternity. This is also one of the promises in the seven letters to the churches, to the one who overcomes, that we will be able to eat from the tree of life. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations. That could mean a lot of things, but the point of it is that all the people who are living within this new city of Jerusalem, that are living with God for all eternity are from all over the world of today. Sometimes we think we are the only ones, who know God, after all we consider ourselves a Christian nation, even if our current leader does not. But there are believers in every nation, and although we cannot communicate, or experience communion with them, once we all get to this new city of Jerusalem we will all be of one language, one nation, one people of God, living in peace and harmony with each other. There will be true healing, of all peoples. Because of the act of disobedience of Adam and Eve they were under the curse that God put upon them. Eve or woman was to be ruled by her husband, Adam was to painfully toil all the days of his life to product food from the ground. But here in this new city there is no more curse. All has been healed. We will all in fact be equal in the eyes of God, women will no longer be ruled by men, as it still is today in many countries. We will no longer have to toil or work for our food, this is true retirement. The tree of life will be food for us all the time, which as well as providing food, it gives us the right to be like God, eternal, living forever and ever. God had said at one time that no one could look at his face and live, but now we all will see his face. We will have a very personal experience with God. Who knows, but we might even find him walking throughout the streets, hugging us as we meet him, as he desired to do with Adam. This is the reason he created us in the first place, to have fellowship. With this in mind we ought to consider it might serve us well to get used to that now. To consistently be in fellowship with God now. This would not mean we could just sit around and do nothing, but sing hymns and praise and pray. It would mean, however, that no matter what we are doing we are aware we are in fellowship with God. This should effect our behavior, our interaction with others, our responses, our thoughts about others, and every aspect of our lives. Now do we fail at that? Yes! But that does not mean we should give up either, we need to seek forgiveness for our failure, and get back up and try again. Just as a parent will hug their child when it is trying to walk and it falls. The parent will pick it up and let it try again until it does. So it is with our God, when we fail, he picks us up and tells us to try again. Someday we might just get it all right. But for now, we do have to keep getting up and keep trying to live as if we are in fellowship with our Lord, as if he is walking by our side along the streets of gold with the river of life flowing down their center and lined with the tree of life, where we can reach out our hand and eat its fruit everyday all day for the all of eternity. We should live as through we are already there.  There we will be really living, but for now we can also be really living. 

The Light shines

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

THE LIGHT SHINES

Rev 21:22-27

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

NIV

We might imagine this could be talking about the Christian church, as some of our ancient scholars would, in the sense its doors are always open to sinners. But that is really not the case in our day and age, as many churches lock their doors except when some service or activity is scheduled. With all the expensive things they manage to amass, they fear all that stuff being stolen if they were to leave their doors forever open for sinners to find Christ. No this is the new city of Jerusalem on the new earth which sits in an all new universe. Everything has been made new, even the order of things. On the past earth we built structures specifically designed for the worship of God. Others built shrines for the worship of their gods. Here in this new place there will be no temple, no one place we would go for worship because the whole of the entire city is a temple. God is there, Jesus is there, and although John does not say it, the Holy Spirit would be there as well. Again we see this new world order as this great city 1400 miles wide by 1400 miles long and just as high, shines so brightly it gives light to all the rest of the world. This could be an illusion to the gospel being the light of the world. That in the darkness of the mind of mankind, having their heart bent toward evil all the time, the gospel brings light into their lives. But again that is a historical vision of this whole revelation. What we have here is the presence of the Lord with his people in this new city. We can just imagine how many people will be living with God in his temple city. If we were to enter a gate and turn to the right, we could walk for a total of 5600 miles, seeing aboding places all along this road. Then we would find ourselves back at the original gate, but turn left and go up to the next road, and travel the circumference again, but this time perhaps travel only 5400 miles as we would be a little higher up the pyramid/mountain. On and on we would travel getting a little higher each time and traveling a little fewer miles. The point being it would have so many dwelling places that Jesus went to prepare for us. This again is the truth of all scripture. When Jesus said he would prepare a place for:

John 14:1-4

14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going." 

NIV

We know that Jesus ascended to be at the right hand of the Father:

Matt 26:64

 64 "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." 

NIV

Acts 7:54-56

 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

NIV

Col 3:1-4

3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

NIV

This new city is that place Jesus has prepared for us at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven and it has come down from Heaven to sit upon this all new earth. Just imagine if we started in Boston and drove to somewhere in the Southeastern corner of South Dakota, and turned south and traveled to somewhere of the coast of Mexico in the gulf and then East to a place in the Bahamas turning north and going back to Boston we would have traveled the size of this city along its wall. This is why the light which God emits will shine throughout the whole of this new earth. It would also seem there will be people living outside the city in other places on this new earth and they will be bringing their riches to worship God. But this may not be. What we see here is that people from every nation have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The only people who can enter this city are those whose names are in the Book of Life. People who accept Jesus Christ are the glory and honor of each nation that is on this present earth. Man, by himself is not pure, but we who have Jesus are pure in him as he is our righteousness, our purity. Now it is possible that God creates more people, to live outside the city. All things are possible with God and we certainly cannot put him in a box, so to speak. But it makes sense that we are the glory and honor of our nation, as all believers are to theirs. We will be within this city, but will able to come and go, and enjoy all the splendor of this new earth. God will never shut us out, as he did the day he shut the door to the ark, and the day he shut the door of the cross. Right now the door is open for all to enter.  Salvation is available to all at the cross, but someday God is going to shut that door and the final judgment will happen. Once we have been judged, and found being in Christ and thus our names are written in the Book of Life, we will have the freedom to live in the city and to travel throughout the earth, always being illuminated by the brilliance of God. He will always welcome us home within the city, as the gates will always be open because there is no night. This of course has some reference to the days of John, when walled cities would close their gates at night, to guard against attacks under the cover of darkness.  We will never see darkness again, we will always be in the light. We should live as such now. We should not allow the darkness to enter into our lives, getting used to always being in the light. The darkness usually has a reference to some form of sin, and we cannot afford to allow that darkness to have a place in our lives. The light always shines, and the darkness cannot prevail against it. This new city is all light, all purity, all goodness, and we will see each other there. 

The City

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

THE CITY

Rev 21:15-21

15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.   21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.

NIV

It is almost comical reading what the supposed scholars or theologians of old think about all this. It seems they cannot think in terms of God, but only with their human minds. They explain away all this as symbolic language which refers to the church in some way. They cannot see how a city could possibly be 12,000 stadia, or 1400 miles high. They also talk about the church now being perfect as in ancient times anything that was a square or in fact a cube was perfect. It is true that many walled cities of ancient times were constructed to fit along the topography, with rise and falls, out crops and indentions depending on the various changings in the land. This city is a perfect square and just as high. We have heard many thoughts as to this shape and with other words in this passage some are of the opinion this city is a clear cube. But again a cube would have no need of a wall. As far as it being 1400 miles long and 1400 miles wide and 1400 miles high, we have to know this is a new earth and a new universe created by God with a whole new order. It might be absolutely different than anything we are now familiar with, in fact, it has to be in order to be that high. We have investigated this before and have some degree of certainty believe we have found how all this fits together with all things. First we know that Satan is a lair. He has been trying to counterfeit all that God is since his beginning. When God created him, and he was Lucifer, a great angel, he believed he could be greater than God, but was thrown out of heaven, cast to earth and here he has been trying to deceive people from their very beginning. Satan knows what this new city looks like, he was with God once, and it would be right to think this city has been in existence all the time, as with God everything is present. There is no past and no future, so all things already are in Heaven. It sounds a little convoluted, but it is not, it is God. Satan has been trying to deceive people with a trick. There has been and still are many places which advertise the power  of the pyramid. There are companies which manufacture pyramids made of various materials so we can construct them over our beds, to sleep under the pyramid bringing power and insight into life so we can be successful, powerful and wealthy. Today there are websites selling pyramids. This is a deception of Satan because he knows the power of God and this new city of Jerusalem. It is a great pyramid shape, or more like a mountain, with a great wall 200 feet high around it. This translation say 144 cubits thick with a footnote, or tall. The Greek text does not include either the words for thick or tall. It would only make sense the measure of a wall would be its height, the reason for a wall is its height. If a wall was 200 feet thick and a foot high it would have no use whatsoever. Now it could also be that wall is both 200 feet high and thick. That would be one impressive wall, in fact one that would need twelve foundations. The wall itself was of Jasper. Here is another incredible idea. Once again Satan has tried to deceive people. Investigations of the gem stone Jasper reveals some very interesting insights. The following is just a portion of what we see:

Wear or carry Jasper to alleviate stress and induce tranquility. Its cleansing effect eliminates negative energy and stabilizes the aura. It makes an ideal worry or rubbing stone for soothing the nerves and increasing one’s focus, and is a wonderful stone for banishing nightmares or harmful thoughts. [Melody, 345][Hall 154-155][Hall III, 112][Mella, 88-89]

Jasper is superb for healing and sustaining the physical and emotional bodies during injury, prolonged illness or hospitalization. Its Earth energies bring gradual strength and renewed vitality, while helping one to understand and endure these frustrating or painful experiences.[Melody, 345][Hall, 155][Simmons, 215-220][Gienger, 50-53]

Jasper makes an excellent diet stone, lending emotional support and strength in self-discipline, as well as boosting physical energy levels. Its slow, steady vibration helps avoid extremes and encourages perseverance. It is also useful for long periods of fasting. [Mella, 42-43][Melody, 345][Margherita, 506][Gienger, 50-53]

Once again Satan attempts to counterfeit that which God has used as the great wall around his new city. This city is of pure gold. We don’t need much thought to see the worlds preoccupation with gold. Multiple companies spend millions of dollars on advertising to get us to buy gold, the only source of security in troubled economic times. Another deception of Satan, trying to counterfeit this power of God. Of course we might think a mountain that great of gold would be difficult to live in. But the idea here is the city is as pure as gold is pure, there is nothing impure within the city. The reason we can believe this is because the great street of the city is pure gold. We also will see streams flowing from the throne of God and trees lining the streets. This looks more and more like a pure city of God, in the shape of a great mountain, a pyramid. Here again we see how God brought all those plagues on Egypt, plagues that showed his power was greater than all their gods. They even built, under the influence of Satan, pyramids to take their pharaohs to the next life. All deceptions by Satan because he knew what this great place would look like where we would spend all of eternity with God, while he was cast into the lake of burning sulfur.  We will see more of this city, but for now we should know it has been prepared for us. A pure place, free of all the ills of life we face in the now. A divine place. We need to remain focused on the prize, the finish line. We cannot afford to get distracted by all the tricks of the devil. We cannot afford to be influenced by his schemes. There is no other truth than that which God has revealed to us. All else is nothing but lies, invented by Satan to deceive us, especially we who are of the household of faith. He could care less about those he has already won to his camp. His attacks are aimed directly at us. We must stand firm and we will be living in that great city. 

A new home

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

A NEW HOME

Rev 21:9-14

9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

NIV

We are now at the beginning of the description of the new city of Jerusalem. What we are seeing here is that this angel, and we have no idea why God chose to use this angel who was one of the last seven angels with the bowls full of the last plagues. We do not know which of the plagues this angel carried out so there is nothing which we can determine of the significance of this angel being the one to show John the new city. He takes him, in the spirit, which again means not in the physical, as this is a revelation, a vision, not an actual physical experience. Perhaps in the physical John is laying somewhere in his place of worship on the Lords day, being in the spirit. Nevertheless, this angel takes him to a high mountain so as to get a better unobstructed view of this city as it came down from heaven, or the sky. Knowing this city is the dwelling place of God as we already have been told, that he will dwell with his people, this city can only be the most majestic, magnificent place we will ever see. Surely, although God has dwelt with man before, in a tent with Moses, and in the Holy of Holies within the temple, both those places were, although under the direction of God, built by human hands. This city is not built by man, but by God and therefore it is going to reflect all his glory and majesty. John tells us it shone with the glory of God. He does not tell us that it is a jasper clear as crystal, but its brilliance was like a jasper. This is important, as some have been of the opinion this city is a clear cube. The dimensions we will be given will show us it is as long as it is wide and just as high. Combine with this clear as crystal image, is what drives their opinion. But, when we get to these other descriptions we will see another view of what it actually is. Another reason for it not being a cube, is this great, high wall with twelve gates. A cube would have no need of a wall. In the times of John, and in years preceding him, many cities were built with a great wall to protect them from any attacks of their enemies. We are familiar with the old city of Jerusalem as well as of those great castles in the years when kings and knights reigned over the lands. Today we have different type of defenses, except now we are seeing a great wall debate regarding our southern border. But let us focus on this great, high wall of the new city of Jerusalem that is shining with all the glory of God. This leads us to another truth, which we will also see a little later. This new earth and new universe is a completely new order. We will be told there is no night and day. There is no need of a sun or moon as God will be its light and the lamb will be its lamp. That is why this place is so full of splendor, so brilliant, so bright, because it is the dwelling place of God, built by him. We may never know exactly just how brilliant this city is until we get there, but we know it is going to be like nothing we have ever seen before. This great, high wall is so great and so high that is has twelve foundations. Just imagine how large this wall is. We build huge buildings with only one foundation, but this wall has twelve. John tells us each of them has the twelve names of the Apostles on them, which would include his. That must have been a real mind blower for him to see his name on one of the foundations of this wall that surrounds the city. This wall also has twelve gates, three on the north, three on the East, three on the South and three on the West. Each gate was named after one of the tribes of Israel.  Although the size of this city, as we will soon see, is much larger than the one Ezekiel described it still has the same twelve gates named after the twelve tribes of Israel. This has a meaning which is clear enough to us. This city is the completeness of God, all those who had faith in him in the Old Testament and all who have faith in him in the New Testament. This includes those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. This city is going to be absolutely beyond our wildest dreams. Man has built some really far out structures, very imaginative in design. Some buildings are so tall, we wonder how these stand. But this city, this dwelling place of God among his people will outshine anything man could ever design and build. This is our destiny, this is our new home for all eternity. Sometimes we talk about buying a new home, about moving someplace different. This city is going to be our new home, and we cannot buy it as it is free to all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. This our ultimate new home. 

Responding

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

RESPONDING

Rev 21:5-8

5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

NIV

God is speaking directly to John here, and it is certainly a prelude to how all life will be in the new city of Jerusalem. From the beginning God spoke directly with his creation, from Adam through all the prophets. Then there was four hundred years when he said nothing to them. After that time Jesus came to earth, and it was God the Son who spoke with man and when he left, he sent God, the Holy Spirit to speak with us. But now being the Alpha and Omega, it is God once again who speaks from the throne. Now it is true this could be God the Son rather than God the Father speaking. But Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, and where is the Spirit? Although this is interesting to contemplate it is what he said that is of the greater importance. He told John that he was making everything new. Everything, all, the compete, the whole will be new. Everything that we know about our earth, our solar system and all the universe will be gone and everything will be new. A whole different system will exist. Just for a start, when we see the description of the size of the new city of Jerusalem we will see that is it fifteen hundred miles long and fifteen hundred miles wide, a square, but it will also be just as high. This is well beyond our current atmosphere. A whole new environmental system will exist. What exactly it will be we will not know until we get there, but we know for sure all that exists today will no longer be. All of mankind’s efforts to save the world will be for nothing. All the talk about climate change will is useless for God is going to destroy it all anyway and make all things new. That is not to say we should pollute the earth on purpose, but the fact still remains, man cannot destroy that which God has created, unless God permits it, then it is his will. He goes on to tell John what the result will be in this all new creation for believers and for unbelievers. Without repeating all his words, the point he is making is we who continue to believe, to trust in him, not just for salvation, but for every aspect of our lives, will drink from the spring of living water. We will inherit all this that is new. We will be living for all eternity with God in this new city of Jerusalem. He also explains in rather detail the condition of human life without his influence upon them. When a person repents and turns to God, accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior, he has an influence in their lives. We understand the word grace as it is used throughout scripture carries the meaning of the divine influence upon our hearts and how that is reflected in our lives. This influence directs our lives, it is a light onto our path, and he directs our footsteps. The choices we make in life are because of his influence. This affects every aspect of our lives, we cannot divide his influence between our own desires and his desires for us. We cannot serve two masters. Although that is specifically speaking about loving God and loving money, that we cannot do that, in fact as we have already discovered that may well be the adultery committed against God, this two masters could also apply to our wills. We cannot serve the will of God and serve our own will at the same time. We can only serve one or the other. To us who can overcome our own will and submit it to God, we will be with him forever. But to those who are engaged in this list of attitudes and behaviors, it is a different outcome. The cowardly, which in the Greek means fearful, timid, faithless, will not inherit the new, but will be cast into the burning lake. The same fate awaits those who do not believe in Christ. In the Greek this would imply a heathen. A person who rejects the whole idea that in order to be saved, in order to go to heaven, in order to have eternal life, they must repent and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they must be born again. Although this would certainly include all people who believe in some other god. This would include Bahi’I, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism Islam, Shint, Judaism, Taoism along with a list of many others. But it also might include many who consider themselves Christian, but do not ascribe to all the truth within Scripture, such as having to be born again in order to see the kingdom of God, which are the words of Jesus. It might also include those who say or consider themselves as Christian, but do not live according to other aspects of the truth, such as trusting in money for security, that is back to the two masters thing. The list of attitudes and behaviors which people engage when they do not submit to the divine influence upon their hearts could be quite long. This point is we either believe it all, or we do not believe. We cannot pick and choose what we believe and what we do not. It is all or nothing. There are some really nice people in this world who do some really great things for others. Thes are people who would not be among the list of vile, murders, sexually immoral, practitioners of the black arts and liars, yet they would also not be among the group called believers. This is a case of either we are in or out, there is no middle ground, no gray. It is either black or white. We either believe or we don’t. These are the words of him who sits upon the throne. Believers are with him, all others experience the second death. That may sound a little harsh, but he has been, for a very long time, giving all people an opportunity to believe. All mankind, no matter what current man made faith, or god they have created for themselves have had the opportunity to know God.

Rom 1:18-20

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them , because God has made it plain to them . 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

NIV

None of us are without excuse. There is no excuse for not being a believer and inheriting all that is new. The only reason a person would be sent to the lake of fire and experience the second death is because they have chosen to refuse the truth about God. It is their own fault and nobody else’s. We need to make sure we remain true to all the scriptures, to all the truth of God. This is not creating a list of do’s and don’ts, but rather being aware of his influence upon our hearts, and responding accordingly. It is all about responding.

New World Order

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

NEW WORLD ORDER

Rev 21:1-4

21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

NIV

We just saw the old heaven and earth had no place, that there was only the throne of God. The whole of the universe we know today is gone. With only the throne of God, except of course including all the angels and people we are back to square one, as before all of creation. So God speaks into existence, as he did the first time, a new heaven, a new universe and a new earth, as again we are told the old had passed away. This new earth seems to be void of the great oceans we have today. Jumping to the last portion of this passage for a moment, we can understand that whatever order there is in our universe and on this earth will be no more. There will be a completely new order of things, both in the universe and in the way of life. We are going to see a very comprehensive description of this new city of Jerusalem, where we will live for all eternity with God as he will no longer be off in some distant invisible place, but he will be here on the new earth dwelling with his creation. This appears to be just as he intended when he created the Garden of Eden and placed Adam and Eve within it. We know that God was there with them as he walked in the cool of day with Adam. We also know that after they had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they hid from him when he showed up for his walk with them. This is a whole different lesson and we need to remain focused on the revelation rather the creation, except this portion of the revelation is about the creation of everything new. We will leave the new order of the universe for later in the course of the description of the new city, so let us peer into the new order of the way of life. First, there will be no more death. Our lives today are all about death. We all face death at one time or another. We might try to focus on our lives, on what we do, what we can gain, having a certain amount of joy at the birth of a new life in our family or in some event, but the fact remains we all know that at some time we will have to die. We mourn when we lose a loved one to death, perhaps not that they are dead and will no longer enjoy life with us, but because we will have to carry on until we die, without them. Being believers, we know when we do die, being absent from the body, our spirit, who is who we really are, is with God. But the fact is we still mourn over situations in life, such as death. At present we cry about things. That could be a whole lot of different reasons for different people, but the fact is we do cry about situations in life. We also experience pain, physically, emotionally and perhaps even spiritually. But this new order will be without any of that. We will never have to experience death again. We will have absolutely no reason to mourn or cry about anything. We will never, ever have to go through any type of pain. Our lives in the presence of God within this new city of Jerusalem will be a paradise, in fact we have never tasted food here on this earth as we will there. There will be no decay, no need to freeze anything, there will be no need of pesticides or preservatives in our food. A whole new order of life will exist, perhaps beyond what we might try to presume. Some people here and now talk about a new world order, a one religion, one governing body created, of course, by man. But here we are seeing that God is the creator of all things good, and this will truly be a God ordained, God created new world order. There will be only one faith, we will be with the one true God. There will be only one world government, God. We will lack nothing in his presence, for we will be living in his new world order. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! 

The Book of Life

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

THE BOOK OF LIFE

Rev 20:11-15

11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

NIV

It could mean a lot of things if we were to see this metaphorically as some scholars are in a habit of doing since they insist on viewing this historically, but when the Earth and sky fled from his presence it surely means there was no place for them. If we tried to look for them they would not be anywhere. All there is left is the throne of God, his presence. At the time the earth and sky vanish, that is the whole of the universe is gone, all the dead great and small are standing before the throne of God. Here is where there is some need to expand. These dead, these people both great and small are the ones who had not yet been resurrected. They were not part of the first resurrection as the believers in God were. We just were told in the preceding portion of this revelation. We saw the believers being resurrected, but we were told the rest of the dead were not.

Rev 20:4-6

They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection . 6 Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection . The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

NIV

 There also is somewhat of a different take on this. We need to understand a few things that might seem a bit confusing, but are not. If we consider these two passages along with this portion of the revelation we might get a better picture.

1 Thess 4:16-18

16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.

NIV

2 Cor 5:6-10

 6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

NIV

Those of us who are part of the first resurrection, those who are the great multitude that John sees standing by the crystal sea, and those who are riding on white horses clothed in fine linen, the righteousness of Christ, coming with him in the clouds to rule and reign for the thousand years have already left our bodies and are present with the Lord. It may be that we are in the spirit and our bodies are still in the earth. That is possible, yet those who are still alive are caught up with those who have already died to meet him in the air during that first resurrection, we call the rapture. We also know the rest of the dead had not been raised. So now the earth or the grave gives up the dead bodies, the sea also, those people who died at sea and had no grave, but only the sea, are now raised. As far as death and hades giving up the dead that were in them, we have to consider a few things. Could this mean the souls or spirits of people who died refusing to accept Christ have their bodies still in the sea or the grave, but their spirits are in hades or hell for keeping until the final judgment? This would give some credence to the Catholic idea of purgatory, a holding place until the judgement. We believers when we die, as Paul reveals to us, leave the body behind and are present with the Lord wherever he is. If the first resurrection is of the dead and those who are alive, then we are, in fact, reunited with our bodies, in a glorified state, such as Jesus was after his resurrection. He was able to pass through closed doors, appear and disappear at will. This is the condition we will have. There are other reason for us to believe we will be reunited with our bodies. For one, we will be riding on white horses clothed in fine linen. A spirit needs no clothes nor, in addition, needs to ride a horse. We also will see we will have some type of abode or living space in the new city of Jerusalem on the new earth under the new universe, which will be extremely different than the existing one, which we will see when we get to those passages.

Now as to each person being judged, we have several ways to look at this. First we could see this as some have in the sense that all our deeds have been recorded, all the good deeds as well as the bad deeds. If this were so, then we would have to consider there is a scale of sorts to determine if our good deeds outweighed our bad deeds. Then our admittance to heaven would depend on which the scale tipped in favor toward more good deeds than bad. That almost sounds ludicrous. Again it would be much like that movie, defending your life, by Albert Brooks. This judgment is in accordance with what each person had done, but is also in the context of finding or not finding their name in the Book of Life. Combined with all we know about salvation, about it being a free gift of God and that we are saved through faith, least any man boast, we have to conclude the deed for which all people are judged is the deed of accepting or rejecting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. If we were in fact judged by the deeds of our life, who of us could ever gain entrance? Who of us would be in that Book of Life based on our actual living deeds? The scripture is absolutely clear about even the smallest of the smallest sin being equal to the whole of all sin. Although the Lord through James is talking about the Law, the same principle applies to sin.

James 2:10-11

10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it

So we are left with the simple truth that those of us who did the deed of accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior will have our names found in the Book of Life. Those poor people who did the deed of refusing Jesus Christ will not have their names found in the Book of Life. The result of each deed is rewarded. We who have our names in the Book of Life will enter into the new City of Jerusalem, which we will see later. Those whose names were not in the Book of Life simply means they will not experience eternal life, but they will be thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. This is the death of both the body and the spirit or soul. This is what the word perish means, as John so clearly stated in his gospel.

John 3:16

16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

NIV

The opposite of eternal life is perish. The Greek word used as perish means to fully destroy, complete destruction, that is nothing, no part of a thing remains. This means neither the body or the soul or spirit of a person remains. They cease to exist in any form.

We could go back to the time of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they were thrown into the fiery furnace that was fired up so hot that the soldiers who threw them in were burned up immediately by the blaze. Yet Shadrach, Meshach and Adednego had not a hair harmed on their heads, nor their garments scorched as there was a fourth in the fire with them, it was Jesus.

The truth we have here is that we will not suffer the second death, at all, but eternal life. Those who are thrown into the burning lake, the fire, will be without Jesus to save them as they rejected him, and thus they will perish.

Once again we are faced with a dilemma of sorts. We know people who, at present, if they were to die in the condition or attitude about Jesus, or simply have not actually heard the truth about Jesus yet, would be among those who perish. Although the Spirit is always at work convicting people of their sin and need to repent and accept Jesus, we are also called to go out into the world and tell them about Jesus, testifing about the gospel message. How can we do this? How can we explain in a way they will listen? Can we do that just by showing them the love of God? Or do we need to use words as well? We can praise God for because of our deed of accepting Jesus our names are in the Book of Life. But as the same time we can feel a certain sadness if those we know do not do that same deed. It is all about the Book of Life. God says we can have life, we can have our names in the Book of Life, it is free, and it is our choice, choose wisely.

Remain

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

REMAIN

Rev 20:7-10

7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth — Gog and Magog — to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. 9 They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

NIV

Although there has been peace on earth for a thousand years and the powers of Satan have been kept from influencing any wickedness on mankind, he is set loose for a period of time. As we have thought before and stated so, God does not desire his creation to be mindless followers, but to choose to love him and follow his commands. Without the temptations and influence of Satan man would not have that choice. But John also tells us that Satan does indeed deceive the nations all over the earth and gathers a great number of people who will oppose God with all their strength. They will not only oppose God, but think their power is great enough to attack the church, attack Christianity with violent force. Surely we see various attacks today against Christianity around the world and even to some extent in our own country, but our own government. But this is just a small action compared to what will happen during this attempt by Satan. This will appear to be an attempt to make an all-out war on Christianity.  It is his last ditch effort to win, but he will lose. There is no one greater than God. The bothersome idea that even after a thousand years of peace under the rule of Christ, with all the blessings upon mankind that he brings with his authority, there appears to be millions of people who will once again be deceived by Satan. Is it that he appeals to the base wickedness of man’s heart? We have seen this scene once before prior to the flood.

Gen 6:5

5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

NIV

It is troublesome to think that people, especially after experiencing such a blessed life under the authority of Jesus would be deceived and turn against God. Is it possible in our day and age? If it is true that we all have an inclination toward evil all of the time, and it would appear we may be no different than any other person who has ever lived or will live, we need to be especially careful not to allow Satan to deceive us in any way. His schemes are extremely devious and we might think certain behaviors or beliefs are permitted, or at least excused because, after all we are human. In the final analysis, all sin is against God. If we are content to live with a certain amount of sin in our lives, have we been deceived by Satan? True we are not going to join in a force to engage in an all-out war on God, on Christianity, as this passage pictures. But nevertheless we can see the deceptive schemes of Satan at work in our own lives, even though we profess to love God with all our heart, our mind, our soul and our strength. The fact is he is a lair, he never has ever told the truth. Anything he attempts to tempt us with is a lie, an untruth. In the end he will meet with destruction. His power to tempt will be utterly sealed up forever, as he will be cast into the lake of burning sulfur. Now whether this is an actual burning lake or a place of extreme heat, or simple a type of confinement created by God for the Beast, the false prophet and Satan, they will be bound forever without the ability to have any contact or influence on mankind ever again. Or it might just be a burning lake of sulfur where they will not burn up, but be in torment of the flames for all eternity. Either way it matters not, as we will not have to worry about this lake or place where they are in torment. We will not give up our belief in God, in Jesus Christ for any cause, even though our heart might be bent toward evil thoughts. We understand this bentness, this propensity for sin, for evil, if not in our actions, in our thoughts. Of course we have to be all inclusive about what is sin, what is considered evil in the sight of God. Most of us focus on immorality issues when we think of sin. Some of us focus legal issues, living under the law, so to speak. But fewer Christians ever focus on material issues, the desire for things or money itself. Every aspect of our lives are subject to review. We need to see how deceitful his schemes really are and make sure we remain focused on God. He is our salvation. He is the only truth. Although we will have already been with our Lord riding on our own white horse and coming back to earth to rule and reign with him for one thousand years, there will once again be people who will attempt to destroy any sense of God. But the end is already written and they will lose and lose big time. We need to forever stay on the side of God. When we do fail him, when we do allow sin into our thoughts or even in our behavior we need to repent, to seek forgiveness.

1 John 1:8-10

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

NIV

So let us remain in Christ. 

Priests of God

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

PRIESTS OF GOD

Rev 20:4-6

4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

NIV

Our scholars are both at odds with each other and having a hay-day with this passage in an effort to maintain their position of this being a historic vision. They are trying to find anything that could mean, except what this actually means. First there is no thousand years, but just a long time. Second there is no actual resurrection as John uses the word souls instead of bodies. Third, they cannot reconcile this as future but only see there is a period in which Christianity has a great influence upon the world. That it has it's time when it overcomes the influence of Satan. Yet there appears to be so much they, through their scholarly efforts, have not, or are not willing, to see. First let us examine this word souls and do so in the context of this passage. They conclude souls mean only the soul or spirit of a person and not that actual body. But in the context of the rest of dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended, then these souls are people who came to life. The word soul is the word for breathe, that which has life, a living being. Now it is a little different that some people might believe, but again this all is not exactly in perfect chronological order, so we are not exactly sure the precise moment of the first resurrection. It might appear it is as these thrones are set up, but we already have seen the army of God riding with Jesus coming in the clouds. We also have seen a great multitude in heaven standing by the crystal sea, praising God. If the dead just now came to life to reign with Christ, then it would not agree with the rest of scripture. What we do know is that some people will not be dead when the first resurrection of the believers happens.

1 Cor 15:50-53

50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

NIV

1 Thess 4:13-18

13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.

NIV

When we take these passages in context with this revelation of the saints of God, the believers who are to rule and reign with him for a thousand years, we can see who they are. They are the ones who refused to have anything to do with the ways of the world. Those who did not become intoxicated with the wine of adultery, the love of money, the accumulation and trust in money for their future. These are the multitude that have been in heaven with him all along and came riding on their own white horses dress in the righteousness of Christ, fine linen. These are the living beings who have been changed, who have been resurrected, and who have been raised imperishable.  These are those who were either dead or still alive, but both have been taken up to heaven in order to come riding with him in the clouds. We also know that the rest of the dead are not raised yet, because they are those who will be judged and sent on their way to perish. Those who refuse to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will not take part in that resurrection, that time when we all will be changed, when we will be catch up to meet our Lord in the air. That is quite a different time then when we will be riding back to earth on our white horses with him. We also have the insight given to us here that we who believe will not be harmed by the second death. This gives us a view of what is to come. We all, every person on earth will experience the first death, that of our body simply wearing out from old age,  or being extinguished by some violent means earlier in the time of life on earth. But we who believe will only experience this death of the body. Those who refuse Jesus will not only experience the death of their body, but also of their soul, or spirit, the second death. The fact is we will live forever, and for this period of time, we will be a priest of God and of Christ. We should get used to that, and live as though we already are. We should be his priests now, ambassadors to the world, speaking for our Lord.