December 30/31, 2010: Revelation 20-22
“Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” (Revelation 21:1-8)
The Holy City– New Jerusalem– sounds like quite a place. Paradise, actually. After the final judgment, the scriptures above describes the place where those whose names are in the book of Life will forever live. A place where we will get to dwell with God, a place absent of any sadness, death, or mourning. But a place with streets made of gold, with the walls adorned with the most precious of jewels. A place of peace, joy, love, and celebration.
But whether we ever get there depends on how we live now. We almost have a responsibility to ourselves to live our lives in a manner that is holy, pure, and righteous now so that we can enter into the Holy City after the final judgment. If we do not, then as the verses describe, we will be consigned to a lake of burning sulfur– the lake of fire.
Throughout the Bible, there are countless passages that speak of living holy lives, repenting of sins, having faith, being humble, showing love, etc. And the thing that is most amazing about it is that all of those words of wisdom and guidance were created as a guide for us– so that when we follow those things, we can enter into paradise with God. Yes, when we sin we grieve the Lord– but to sound a bit selfish for a moment– we not only grieve God, but we are just hurting ourselves.
The Bible was not written for God’s benefit– it was written for ours. God does not need to learn how to be wise or loving. He is all those things. They were simply written down and recorded so that we can have a manual to follow– almost like a map where we are trying to find our way to the final destination– the final destination being Heaven.
As we end 2010 and start 2011, I pray that we would learn to follow the map (that is the Bible) more closely– to step closer to our final destination, as opposed to a step back, and that we will be able to experience God’s goodness and greatness on a more personal and powerful level.
