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<<Word
for the Moment Menu The Splendor of the City—New
Jerusalem by Rose Murdock "Arise, Shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Isaiah 60:1 The Lord is speaking of the great city—Zion, or the New Jerusalem. This city and all its splendor is described in Revelation 21. The foundations are made of beautiful gemstones of all kinds. And the city, including the street, is made from pure, transparent gold. Each gate is made of one giant pearl. And it’s light comes from the glory of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a glorious place! But as beautiful as it is, its true beauty will not come from the gemstones. Its glory is from the Lord, but the Lord sees it as valuable and precious because of the people who will occupy the city. Back in Isaiah, we read of ‘your walls’ and ‘your gates’ and that it will be called, ‘The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel." But we also read for the city to ‘lift up your eyes’ and ‘your heart shall thrill and tremble with joy." This is a city that not only has walls and gates but also eyes and a heart. It’s the people who will live in the city, whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, those who will be able to live within the glory of God, which will give the city value in the sight of God. The splendor of the city is simply an expression of the value the Lord places on the people who will live there. Those who have kept their heart pure in spite of great tribulation. Those who have made it a priority to walk in the ways of the Kingdom of God while living in the midst of the gross darkness of the world. Jesus gave an example of this same idea when He said that it was foolish to think that the gold in the temple was greater than the temple. Or to think that the gift placed on the altar is greater than the altar itself (Matthew 23:17-19). The thing that made the golden vessels in the temple great was the fact that they were in the temple—the place where God dwelt. The temple and the altar are what sanctified the gift and the gold. In the same way, it will be the people, who are the true dwelling place of God, who will give value to the city.As John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven he heard a great voice from Heaven say, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God (Rev. 21:1-3)." God will live with His people in this great city. You may have heard the statement, ‘You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.’ That statement is trying to say that there is a certain culture or manner of living that gets inside a person. And once it’s in a person you can’t change it just by moving the person to a different geographical location. Change has to come from the inside out. Along the same line of thinking is the idea that we need to get the ways of the Kingdom of God inside of us now, while we’re living in the middle of the dark ways of the world. And when we do that by faith, we will reap the privilege of living in the place that has become our true nature—the city of God. We will feel right at home because we will have learned to live in the Kingdom before we ever arrive there geographically. Seek to live in God’s Kingdom now. Make it your home now. Learn to feel comfortable with the presence of God, the glory of God and the ways of His Kingdom. We don’t have to wait until Heaven comes to earth, we can go there and live there by the Spirit of God now! |
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