Then the devotional contact today. Today' s abbreviated biblical reading is from Revelation.
Chapter twenty- one. I saw a new heaven and a new earth
and I, John VI the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down
from the heaven of God ready as a bride adorned for her husband and I
heard a great voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God with
men and he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God
himself will be with them as his god will wipe out every tear from their
eyes and there will be no more death, no more weeping, no more
crying, no pain, for the first things happened and he who was seated
on the throne said, behold, I make all things new and he says
to me because these faithful and true words and he told me done is.
I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. To him that
thirsteth, I will give freely of the fountain, of the water of life.
He who overcomes will inherit all things and I will be his god and
he will be my son. Then one of the seven angels came to me
and took me in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me
the great Holy City of Jerusalem, descending from the heaven of God. Having
the glory of God and his radiance was like a precious stone like a jasper
stone like crystal. It had a large and high wall with twelve gates and
twelve angels and names inscribed in the gates, which are those of the twelve
tribes of the children of Israel, and the wall of the city had twelve
foundations, and on them the twelve names of the two twelve apostles of the
lamb. He who spoke to me had a golden measuring rod to measure the
city, its gates, and its wall. The material of his wall was
of jasper, but the city was of pure gold like clean glass, and
the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone,
and the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each of the doors was a pearl
and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass. And
she is not coming a temple, for the Lord God almighty is the temple
of her and the lamb. The city has no need of sun or moon
to shine for it, for the glory of God illuminates it and the lamb
is its light. Their doors will never be closed by day, for there
will be no night there, no unclean thing will enter into it, or
that does abomination and falsehood, but only those who are inscribed in the book
of the life of the lamb. Heaven is the future home of the believer
and we have all wondered what it is like but the Bible gives us only
a glimpse. Even if God revealed more in the sacred scriptures, we would
not be able to understand Him as earthly creatures. We lack the experience and
frame of reference necessary to understand the eternal realities of that dimension. Desiring to
know more about heaven, some people have sought information outside the Bible, often
in books written by people claiming to have gone there. But the only legitimate
source about the reality of heaven is the word of God. You can'
t rely on anything else to have a sure foundation of truth. When the
apostle Paul was taken to the third heaven, he heard ineffable words that he
did not give to man to express. None of your letters include details of
your experience. God also entrusted the apostle John with a vision of heaven,
but human language is inadequate to communicate the realities of that kingdom. Although we
cannot visualize everything John describes, we can all identify with what he says.
As for matters that are absent from heaven, crying, death, mourning or
pain more, we will still never suffer from anxiety exhaustion, frustration, anger
or sickness, because our new bodies will be imperishable, sinless and powerful.
Heaven is a perfect environment, sinless and sinful. And the best of all
is that God will dwell with us