Tag Archive for Revelation 21

Building a People

2021-07-23 Devotional with Hymn, Magnificent God No comments

Jesus said to His disciples:

“Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” (Matthew 16:15-16, NASB)

The Apostle Paul wrote:

You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22, NASB)

If you had all eternity and all the resources of the universe,
what kind of home would you build for yourself?

God is building a home for himself.
That home is His people.
Our infinite, holy, all-wise, and endlessly creative God
is planning to live forever
with and in His people.

Imagine knowing such a people,
the home of an infinite God!
Imagine actually being part of them!

If God is investing all His energies in building a people,
that’s how I want to invest my life as well.
A material home will last a short time.
God’s people will last forever.

We believers are all together
in the same room,
waiting for God to finish the deliverance
He has so beautifully begun.
As we endure these final hours of
pain, darkness, grief, and death,
let’s encourage one another to the
hope and joy that are ours.
Let’s share songs, stories, and
acts of kindness that
remind us of God’s unfailing love.

Hymn: Revelation 21

The Fruits of Your Presence

2019-02-22 Devotional Companion to Revelation, Devotional with Hymn No comments

A prayer response to Revelation 21:22 – 22:5,
the glories of heaven

Father, we will have no more need for a temple,
no need for a symbolic reminder of Your presence.
Your presence will be
full,
personal,
immediate.
We Your people will be Your temple.
You will live in and among us.

We will need no other sources of light.
You and Your Son will be the light, and
You will shine
within us and
in our midst.
We will glow and sparkle transparently
with the glory of Your presence.

Life will be
fresh,
fruitful,
abundant,
freely available,
constant,
forever.
We will live at its very source.
There will be no need to
horde it or
haul it in small doses.
It will flow in the water around us.
It will grow on all the trees.
Health and wholeness on every level will be
complete and
universal.

There will be no more curse,
no more shame.
Never again will we hang our heads and say,
“I am only human.”
Christ the Holy,
Christ the Glorious
is the new Adam, and
we are of His race.
We are His beautiful bride,
His chosen ones,
a blessing to all creation.

No longer will we be banished from the presence of the King.
We will see His face.
His name,
His character,
His glory
will radiate from us.
We will fully share
His life,
His authority,
His holy splendor
forever and ever.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: When Christ Our Healer’s Work Is Done
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

The Jewel

2019-02-15 Devotional Companion to Revelation, Devotional with Hymn No comments

A prayer response to Revelation 21:9-21,
the New Jerusalem

Father, in the new creation
Your splendor in
Your Son
will be
the Light of the world and
the glory of all the universe.

We Your people,
redeemed from every age and nation,
will be fully formed as
Your temple,
Your dwelling place.
We will be expertly prepared,
pure and transparent, so that
Your blazing glory,
the light of all You are, will shine
within us and
out through us
unhindered.
Your presence within will make us
glow and
sparkle
like a precious jewel.
We will be perfectly fashioned to radiate
Your love,
Your life,
Your holiness,
Your boundless joy.

All the universe will bask in the beauty of
Your presence in
Your people.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Revelation 21
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

All Saints Day

2017-11-01 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Each year the Christian calendar takes us on a journey with Christ. We anticipate His coming during Advent and celebrate His arrival at Christmas. During Epiphany we receive Him as the Light of the World that has entered our darkness. Through Lent we walk with Him on His road to the cross. We witness His triumphal entry, His crucifixion, and His glorious resurrection during Holy Week and Easter.  We stand with His disciples as they watch Him return to His Father on Ascension Day. We are among them as the Holy Spirit gives birth to the Church on Pentecost.

Then during Ordinary Time, this Spirit patiently forms us into the people of God. Near the end of that time, only weeks before we crown Jesus as King of all Kings, we are given a glorious overview of what it means to be His Church, His Body, His Bride. This is the purpose of All Saints Day. “Saints” literally means “the holy ones”. On All Saints Day we consider what it means to be “the holy ones,” members of the Church Universal spanning all ages, nations, and human divisions.

On All Saints Day we read Isaiah’s description of the great banquet where all God’s people will feast together and death is destroyed forever (25:6-9). We share Daniel’s vision of the coming and goings of the various earthly kingdoms, culminating in God’s saints possessing His eternal Kingdom (Daniel 7:1-18). We are given a foretaste of our destiny as we welcome the King of Glory into His holy temple (Psalm 24) and as we watch Jesus raise Lazarus (John 11).

We sit on the mountainside and listen to Jesus describe what it means to live in the Father’s presence, now and for all eternity (the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12). And with John we watch as Christ’s pure and lovely Bride descends for unending union with her Husband (John 21:1-6).

All Saints Day is a chance to revel in our oneness with Christ and all His holy people. In this dark and difficult world, it is a reminder of who we are even now and who we are surely becoming in Him. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Revelation 21
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

The Ultimate Fulfillment of God with Us

2016-05-12 Devotional with Hymn, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read Ephesians 4:11-16; 5:25-27

What a wonderful gift is God’s Holy Spirit! But He is only a down-payment on the full gift of God’s presence.

Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession. (Ephesians 1:13-14, NIV)

God’s people are to be the Body of Christ. When God with us is completely fulfilled, our relationship with Him will be as close and interrelated as the head and the body.

Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:15-16, NIV)

God’s people are to be the holy temple of God. We are to be His home, His dwelling place.

You are…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22, NIV) 

God’s people are to be His holy Bride.

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. (Revelation 21:2, NIV)

We are to be God’s holy temple, the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ. These three images are intended to suggest one grand reality. We will be united with God in love, intimacy, and unbroken oneness. We will share in Him together, fully and forever.

Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. (Revelation 21:3, NIV)

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Imagine Your Creator’s Breath
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics