SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/7/2015
12:10 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Privileges of Its Inhabitants
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
22:3-5
Message of the
verses: 3 There will no longer be
any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His
bond-servants will serve Him; 4 they will see His face, and His name will be on
their foreheads. 5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not
have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God
will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.”
John continues his tour of the New Jerusalem and could
not help but notice that “There will no longer be any curse.” Of all the things that will be the most
wonderful living in a place with the Lord in the New Jerusalem without any
curse will be close to the top of my list, something I truly look forward
to. Not having the world, the flesh, or
the devil to continue to tempt me will be wonderful and I truly look forward to
living there under these new and wonderful circumstances. Living in the wonders of the New Jerusalem
will be wonderful, but living there without the curse is the best. Genesis 2:17 says “but from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from
it you will surely die,’” as this is the first thing we learn about the curse
that it meant death. Later on in Genesis
chapter three after we read about the fall the Lord tells Adam, Eve, and Satan
more of what was about to happen: “14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done
this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the
field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your
life; 15 And I will put enmity Between
you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on
the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."
“16 To the woman He said, "I will greatly
multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet
your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you."
“17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have
listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I
commanded you, saying, ’You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground
because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow
for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.’”
Paul wrote the following to the Romans in the eighth
chapter “19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the
revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the
creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who
subjected it, in hope 21 that the
creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the
freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole
creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves,
having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in
hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for
what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with
perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”
What we are now reading about in the book of Revelation is the
fulfillment of what Paul writes in this passage.
Next we read about the throne of God and of the Lamb will
be in the New Jerusalem. We have already
said that there will be no temple there and the reason for this is because
there will never again be any sin, but we do see that the Lord Jesus Christ and
His Father will also be there. John
MacArthur writes “Since God will continue forever as heaven’s sovereign ruler, ‘His
bond-servants will serve Him forever’ (cf. 7:15). They will spend all eternity carrying out the
infinite variety of tasks that the limitless mind of God can conceive. Incredibly, as the parable in Luke 12:35-40
indicates, the Lord will also serve them.”
Verse four tells us that we as believers will see His
face, and then goes on to say that His name will be upon our foreheads, and
this is a far cry different from those in the Tribulation Period who had the
mark of the beast on their foreheads.
This identification will leave no doubt that we belong to the Lord.
Next we learn there will no longer be any night and also
there will be no need to have a lamp for light, nor have need for the sun or
the moon, for the Lord will illuminate the New Jerusalem. There is a passage in the book of John that
speaks of Judas going out to betray our Lord and it says that Judas went out,
and then it says “it was night.”
Darkness is in the night as we all know, and spiritual darkness pictures
people being in the dark and also in many cases doing wrong things under the
cover of the night. In heaven there will
be no darkness, either physical or spiritual darkness.
We next see the concluding statement John makes like a
crescendo as he writes “they will reign forever and ever.” Yes believers will never die and will reign
forever and ever, and this is something different than what we have on this
earth. It seems that many times in our
lives we have to go to funerals and say good bye to love ones and friends, but
this will never happen in heaven for we will say hello to those who went on
before us as they will be there waiting for us to arrive in that wonderful
place.
John MacArthur concludes “The eternal capital city of
heaven, the New Jerusalem, will be a place of indescribable, unimaginable
beauty. From the center of it the
brilliant glory of God will shine forth through the gold and precious stones to
illuminate the new heaven and the new earth.
But the most glorious reality of all will be that sinful rebels will be
made righteous, enjoy intimate fellowship with God and the Lamb, serve Them,
and reign with Them forever in sheer joy and incessant praise.”
Well our journey through the book of Revelation is close
to being over as we only have fifteen more verses to study. It has been and will continue to be a
wonderful voyage through this last book of the Bible and so we will continue until
the last verse is studied and we then move on to what I believe will be a
wonderful study in the gospel of John, so we will continue to read from the same
author, but a different book.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: No more curse, no
more sin, no more temptation will be wonderful and I look forward to that.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To fight the good fight.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Wives of deacons” (1 Timothy
3:11).
Today’s Bible
question: “With what did God anoint
Jesus?”
Answer to our last SD.
11/7/2015 12:57 PM
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