Skip to main content

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. 

 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ruler of All Earthly Kings

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. (from Rev. 1:4-8 ) About 17 years ago I wrote a letter to the people in the United Church of Underhill. The purpose of the letter was to explain I was retiring at the end of the Conference Year. I felt the time had come for me personally to move on and for the church to grow with a new pastor. I secured a moving company while the church formed a search committee as we both prepared for the inevitable. This is the nature of the book of Revelation, as recorded in 1:4: “John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia.” This is Revelation’s context: it was written for the benefit of particular people at a particular time for their particular situation. John’s letter narrates a drama about God’s imminent invasion of the “kingdom of this world” ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grantchester's Warning

"But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, the owner would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (from Luke 12:32-40 ) I regularly watch Grantchester; a murder mystery set in 1950s England. The main characters are a local detective and an Anglican priest who, as a team, solve mysteries set in the town. Two aspects of Grantchester impress me. First, the simplicity of the 1950’s police communications done by a landline phone and not cell phone. Second, the simplicity of daily life with little television and fewer possessions allowing the characters to focus on their vocation of detective and priest. This simplicity is more than a nostalgic return to the “good old days”. Instead, it’s a Shaker type of simplicity where austerity allows freedom from distractions to focus on worship and community. Today’s distraction-filled world has seemingly countless activ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jesus, Deliverance, and Demons

"Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind." (from Luke 8:26-39 ) Astrid is a streaming program I often watch. The plot is a basic cops and robbers action until the criminal is caught. The uniqueness of the program is Astrid, who is on the Autism spectrum, is brilliant at solving puzzles including connecting clues to solve the crime. Watching this program has given me a more profound insight to people living with this condition and their acceptance in society. My first-hand experience with children on the Spectrum was driving a Special Needs school bus for 6 years. With this experience, I can imagine the life the possessed man was experiencing, especially living among the tombs, bound with chains and shackles, having to live in the wilds. It was no wonder he cried for mercy. Jesus, with his power and mercy, cast the demons out and even...
Post a Comment
Read more