7/5/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

(Revelation 21. 1-2)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S:

[Follow-up from yesterday- In the reflection on “grains of sand by the sea” in application to the descendants of Abraham as the people of God their true Father and those who surrendered themselves to the Father of Lies- Satan, we dare not overlook an unmentioned difference. When God promised the blessing of Abraham from the Ur of the Chaldees, He included “…as numerous as the stars in the heaven.” This is not associated with the followers who had become subjects of Satan and sin. Satan was the “fallen and cast out” star from heaven. We might say he was and is a “falling star.” Such “falling stars,” meteors make an impact on the earth and in the world. They burn up in the atmosphere and in a variety of remnant sizes they collide with the earth. We find their cratered remains as a testament of what was but not of what will be. They may give us a glimpse of the past but their fate remains there. Some remain waiting to be a global killer such as have impacted the earth in the past. According to the prophecy in Revelation, one will again become a world threat- Wormwood (Revelation 3.10-11). We would remember that one-third of the angels in heaven followed their fallen Lucifer by choice. They renounced their place in Heaven and loyalty to God as their father. They cast their lot with life in the world and of the world to be “on earth in the place of Heaven.”]

As we allow the word of God to surround us today, we should feel the warm embrace of what does lie ahead for us as mighty ones of God. There is that saying “what goes up must come down.” The iteration for us is “this world is not our home.” No, our home is in promised preparation by the spiritual architect and builder who is Jesus the Christ. It is fashioned not with human hands but with the hands of those whose choice is to serve the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength being eternal in the heavens. They are as numerous as the stars in the sky which we know are seemingly beyond count and increasing in number as time goes on. When the rebellion against God is finally put down, the 1000 year reign of peace which was momentarily interrupted is blessed with the full measure of dwelling in the midst of God and God in the midst of them. It is there that the grand reunion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is manifested with all the believers in one place and at one time. There is only the New Heaven, the New Earth and the New Jerusalem: the three as one. It is Jesus the Christ, the Lamb of God who was slain and raised to life again in Heaven as it will be on earth, who ascended into Heaven from Mount Tabor (on this or that mountain) and will come down from Heaven to meet His Bride, the body of believers in Him as “one Church.” It will not be any Church as we know it by today’s standards. It will not be defined by politics, schisms, denominations, ministries and community affiliations for its institutional survival. It will be defined by its central focus on God as the center of life. And that Church will come down from Heaven being filled with those who had been delivered from this world on earth. Their centrality is and will be “faith in Jesus as the Christ.”

Where is our faith, mighty ones of God? Is it in the things of this world flavored by a sense of being accountable to faith in Christ? Is it in the things of the kingdom flavored by a sense of being in the world accountable to one another? How is it that it has been said “We can be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly/worldly good”? It may also be said “We can be so worldly minded that we serve no heavenly good.” Cynical, I know. Yet, I am challenged by the call to put our faith in God and trust Him in all things. They certainly may not match our sense of fairness and justice and rightness according to the world. They may exist seeminly as polar opposites of the way we “wish” it would be. Regardless, we are given the blueprint of life as God intended and are challenged to abide by it in the midst of being of and living in a broken world system. We cannot spend so much time with the hope of amending and healing the broken world and forget that the real crux of the matter is to be healed ourselves. We cannot do this without returning to our true “ground of being.” That ground is not of this world and only in the flesh is it of this earth. The true ground of our being is in the heart, mind and spirit of Almighty God. He is the creator and sustainer of all life and living. He has promised to make all things new which are committed to Him. This is intended to be our central focus on life in this world on earth as it was anticipated in Heaven. That life is coming to us. It is promised and secured in the Word of God made known to us in and through Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ of God and the Lamb by whom we have life and have it abundantly.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY:

You are our God and we shall be Your people in spirit and in truth. Continue to dwell among us. Let the revelation by Your Holy Spirit inspire us to greater service in a more refined identity. We do not live as ourselves for ourselves. Rather, we live in Christ as He lives in us. We declare it with all the elders and angels in Heaven, saying “Holy, holy, holy is He who was and is and is to come.” In Jesus’ name we live, serve and pray. AMEN.