Tag: our hope

8.s. “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

Revelation 21:9  Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Ephesians 2:19  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,  in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

1 Timothy 3:15   But if I should be delayed [I have written] so that you will know how people ought to act in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

Hebrews. 3:6   But Christ was faithful as a Son over His household, whose household we are if we hold on to the courage and the confidence of our hope.

1 Peter 2:4-5   Coming to Him, a living stone – rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God – you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Interpretation of Revelation 21 has scholars commenting from both sides who say this is figurative and or that it is literal.  The Bible does tell us about the establishment of the new heaven and earth and new Jerusalem and we see it follows the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the millennium.  Wether or not this is to be take figurative or literal one key point for certain is about those who will live here and those who will not.  The bride of Jesus Christ, the church, those who have acknowledged their sin, sought forgiveness, repented, turned away, and believed and completely served, trusted, followed, and obeyed Jesus Christ for their redemption and salvation.  There is no place here for those who are lukewarm, complacent, and neglectful. Nor is a place for those who have rejected the offer of salvation, repentance, and redemption.  How many will stand at the Great White Throne Judgment with expectation of eternity in heaven only to here, “depart from Me for I never knew you”.  They will come to this judgment with thoughts of being good enough and done enough on their own to deserve entry.  They have not yielded to Jesus Christ.  Oh, they may have said things from their lips but the indwelling desire deep within their hearts and minds to have the Spirit live within them to guide, direct, and lead them in humble service for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ is not present nor was it.  Me, myself, and I have a way of not wanting to fully yield to Jesus Christ.  Yielding means we will put to death our self-centered and self-reliant ways and thoughts.  We need to daily surrender authority of our lives to Jesus Christ and keep our heart, mind, and soul, focused on Him, for He is truly worthy of all honor, power, and glory.

Fallow Ground

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.”

Zechariah 10:1  Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field.

James 5:16     Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.  Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.  Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

Deuteronomy 11:14    he will give the rain for your land in its season,

Isaiah 30:23     And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous.

Jeremiah 14:22  Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O LORD our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things.

Amos 4:7   “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;

Psalms 65:9   You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.

Hosea 10:12   Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

I wonder if we believe God is the supplier of the rain we receive.   Or, do we think it is by chance and nothing God gives thought to.  Scripture is full of examples of those who either believed or not that God supplied it.  We see examples of people believing and then praying in line with that belief to God.  It seems to me that we have become complacent in thinking about what God is supplying.  Like rain.  But there are hosts of other things we are complacent in acknowledging God as well. Our days on this side of eternity are to be purposed in humbly serving, honoring, following and obeying God.  I wonder if we are not in the practice of acknowledging Him for the things we take for granted, will we be able to see those that are  more complex to understand.  I this is why Hosea spoke about breaking up the fallow ground in our mind.   Take time to reflect on all that you take for granted.  Spend the day adding to this list.  It is good to see God’s hand and handiwork.