Saturday, September 10, 2011

"HEAVEN! I CAN HARDLY WAIT!"


And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. (23) And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. (24) And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. (25) And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. (26) And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. (27) And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. Revelation 21:22-27 KJV

According to the NIV: I did not see a temple in the heavenly city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are it's temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, not will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, bot only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. (NIV)

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river, stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. Revelation 22:1-5 NIV

Do you realize that New Jerusalem is going to be laid out in a perfect square, 1400 miles in length width and height? It is approximately half of the distance of the continental United States in length.

I know a lot of people have a "hang-up about the Book of Revelation. I've heard some say they "are scared of that book. I've heard others say it's too difficult to understand, and then I've heard people even say they don't want to know about the "end of the world".

To me, all of those reasons are sad. I personally look forward to hearing God tell me "well done thy good and faithful servant. When I read the above passages, it makes me hunger for that time even more. People have said to me, how can we be sure we'll go to heaven? I tell them to read their Bible like they were going to be given a test over it. Learn it, and live by it. If they do this they have nothing to worry about.

As far as not understanding Revelation, that is NO EXCUSE, because there are too many Contemporary Versions and now they even have the Books of the Bible for Dummies! While I would not suggest that this "Dummies" book take the place of reading your Bible, you can look at them side by side, just as I do my King James Version, the Message and NIV. Even though they are all versions of the Bible, I do have my preference, which is the King James, but I like the others to refer to when I'm studying or doing my blog posts.

When I read the book of Revelation, especially the above passages describing heaven, I can't imagine anyone not wanting to live for God and end up there.

While this was only a "glimpse" into our beautiful eternal home, if you will read starting at the 10th verse of Chapter 21, it goes into much greater details about it.
Good Night to All and May God bless!

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1 comment:

Angela said...

Hi PJ,
Do you know I'm studying the book of Revelation right not? It's my nighttime reading. Of course I've read it before, but every time I read the Bible I see something I never saw before, or I get a new insight I never had before. I don't think Revelation is a scary book. If they're outside of Christ it might be scary, but if they're in Christ and they read about the beautiful things you mentioned in your post they wouldn't want to wait to get there. I am looking forward to being in heaven.
Wonderful post, PJ. Have a blessed week!