SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 10/23/2015
My
Worship Time Focus:
Introduction to Rev. 20:1-8
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 21:1-8
Message of the verses: “1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer
any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven
from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud
voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among
men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God
Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes;
and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or
crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 5 And He who sits on
the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said,
"Write, for these words are faithful and true." 6 Then He said to me,
"It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I
will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without
cost. 7 “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and
he will be My son. 8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and
murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their
part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the
second death.’”
I
want to begin with a verse from the Psalms, Psalm 73:25-26 “25 Whom have I in
heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. 26 My flesh and my
heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Let us look at a favorite verse of mine from
the Psalms, Psalms 42:1-3 “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul
pants for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall
I come and appear before God?” As we
look at these verses we can see that the writer of these verses desired to be
with the Lord in heaven, something we are going to be looking at during our
time in these last two books of Revelation.
The question that I want to propose here in this first introduction to
the first eight verses in Revelation chapter 21 is how much do you think of
heaven in today’s world.
A
friend of mine who I use to work for when I had a full time job for 35 years
has just seen his wife of 55 years die and go on to be with the Lord in
heaven. I know that when we go to
funeral services or memorial services and we are very sure that the person that
has just passed on is in heaven that we think about heaven during those times
realizing that our friend or loved one is now in the presence of the Lord as
the Scriptures tell us that absence from the body is present with the Lord. We may dwell on that person for a while
wondering what they are now doing, what they are seeing, things like that. Later on as we continue to dwell on our lives
now on planet earth we perhaps forget about what heaven is like as we think of
other things like trying to make ends meet, like perhaps what am I going to be
doing tomorrow and how much fun am I going to have tomorrow. Perhaps we are looking at buying something
like a new car or house or getting something repaired. Perhaps we adults are thinking about the new “toy”
we are going to buy, things like this and not think too much about heaven. This was not true for the Psalmists who wrote
these wonderful verses though as they thought about what heaven would be like.
John
MacArthur writes “Sadly, that is no longer true (thinking a lot of heaven) in
today’s church. Caught up in our society’s
mad rush for instant gratification, material comfort, and narcissistic
indulgence, the church has become worldly.
Nothing more graphically demonstrates that worldliness than the current
lack of interest in heaven. The church doesn’t
sing or preach much about heaven, believers seldom discuss it, songs are no
longer written about it, and books about heaven are few and far between. Believers who do not have heaven on their
minds trivialize their lives, hinder the power of the church, and become
absorbed with the fading things of this world.”
The
Bible tells us that we as believers are to focus on heaven as we read from
Philippians 3:20 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly
wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Colossians 3:1-2 says “1 Therefore if you have been raised up with
Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right
hand of God. 2 Set your
mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” James tells us not to be friends with the
world, which is the world’s system when he writes “You adulteresses, do you not
know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever
wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4).” John wrote the following in 1 John 2:15-17 “15 Do not love the world nor the things in the
world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For
all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and
the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17
The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of
God lives forever.” I have a piece of
paper on my refrigerator that says the following: We are not human beings going through a temporary
spiritual experience. We are spiritual
beings going through a temporary human experience.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The picture is clear that I need to think more
of heaven and less of what is going on with my life on earth. One of the items of the Spiritual Armor is
the helmet of the hope of salvation which is something I need to pay better
attention of.
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
Think more about heaven and less about earthy things.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “There was a famine in the land” (Genesis
12:10).
Today’s Bible question: “In what was Paul exceedingly joyful?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/23/2015 9:29 PM
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