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New Earth Coming from God


Our Revelation pilgrimage continues with:
"And in the spirit he carried me away to a great,
 high mountain and showed me 
the holy city Jerusalem coming 
down out of heaven from God."

 The Word of God in the Bible is about love. 

 I think it's human nature to read Revelation as a book of fear and threats. What are the 4 horsemen about? Who will be left behind? How will the earth end?

This hardly sounds like God's love.

God's love begins knowing Revelation was written to comfort Christians harassed by a cruel Roman emperor. They suffered for withdrawal from, and defiance against, Roman society, which imposed very real penalties. 

They were hanging on to hope for strength to endure the harassment. 

Revelation offered a hope over their reality by describing an apocalyptic end to the world.

The problem is that Revelation and its message remains blurred to 21st century Christians. 

Wars, hate, poverty, and pandemics have robbed people of faith with a belief in God's love. 

The harassed Christians of Rome were promised a future in God’s Kingdom, the New Jerusalem.

In the New Jerusalem, "the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb." In that New Jerusalem, "its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there".

The message isn't just about God’s love, but also describes God’s prevenient grace.

Prevenient Grace is like looking around you and realizing that God's creation, orderliness, diversity, and beauty are hallmarks of grace and love.

I think this belief in the God of Revelation may be lost in people’s hearts mainly because of the troubles and wounds of life.

It's easier to see God's presence when surrounded by nature than when in the midst of a tornado.

Yet, God's hope through Revelation is shared with all believers, whether in the seven churches in Asia, our world today, our our world to come.

The holy city, the New Jerusalem, will come from God. 

 
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