Last week, I attempted a family tree for Thomas, tracing back through the generations still living on both sides of his family. He wasn’t necessarily following, but it was fun to write out all the names he knows and have him recognize them by their first letters. He has a great great grandmother on my mom’s side. He visited her for her 92nd birthday, and he mentions her anytime he sees a wheelchair, even in his storybooks. On his daddy’s side, there was a grandmother who lived past one hundred. He comes from good stock, and I pray he inherits length of days.
Purely from curiosity, on more than one occasion, I’ve attempted to draw a timeline from Adam to Noah from the Genesis account. It’s fascinating to see how close some of those first humans made it to the the time of the flood, except for Enoch who lived 365 years walking in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared, like Elijah after him, not tasting death, because God took him. (Genesis 5:23-24, II Kings 2:11 NLT) God’s Word gives incredible detail at times and I am always in awe of the orderliness and structure, especially when items, people, lengths, and measures are numbered precisely. My attention is drawn immediately to the symbolism pointing toward perfection.
Ezekiel, Daniel, and John were given great revelatory visions of heavenly beings and locations. Only by the Spirit were they able to perceive the glory of the eternal God, but to be tasked with communicating them in the words of mere mortals- not even Lewis and Tolkien were equal to that challenge! Thrones are pictured as living and moving beings with wings and wheels and eyes. Streets of gold as clear as glass, gates of giant pearls, a tree of life as in the garden of Eden, bearing twelve fruits, a different fruit in each month of the year, able to feed the nations. We are meant to be spellbound! We live in a phenomenally complex world! If all we experience is but a breath, a shadow of heavenly things, how incomprehensible heaven must be!
“So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.
The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.
When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long.
In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles.”
Revelation 21:10, 15-16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.21.16.NLT
Commentary from the Passion Translation for verse sixteen reads, “the city was laid out in a perfect square. Proportionally, the New Jerusalem is the same shape as the Holy of Holies.” The tent in the wilderness that became Solomon’s Temple, where the glory of God dwelled visibly among men for a time, was built from a vision given to Moses. “For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.” (Hebrews 8:5/Exodus 25:40) What I see when I look at those dimensions- 1,400 miles cubed- is plenty of room for everyone who will believe in the name of Jesus and become sons and daughters of God. (John 1:12)
Jesus said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.
There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.“
John 14:1-3 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.14.1-3.NLT
The Psalmist wrote, ”You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.“
Psalms 139:16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.139.16.NLT
God’s omniscient sovereignty should only inspire our worship and awe. He alone can balance the knowledge of good and evil with the gift of free will and still work all things together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. (Romans 8:28)
”For God is the God of harmony, not confusion, as is the pattern in all the churches of God’s holy believers.“
1 Corinthians 14:33 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1co.14.33.TPT
No one is left out of this equation except by his own choice. Will you be angry with a God who put on flesh to die in your place, defeating sin and death on your behalf, for not forcing His will on you?
”Jesus said to all of his followers, “If you truly desire to be my disciple, you must disown your life completely, embrace my ‘cross’ as your own, and surrender to my ways.
For if you choose self-sacrifice, giving up your lives for my glory, you will discover true life.
But if you choose to keep your lives for yourselves, you will lose what you try to keep.
Even if you gained all the wealth and power of this world, and all the things it could offer you, yet lost your soul in the process, what good is that?“
Luke 9:23-25 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/luk.9.23-25.TPT
”So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come.
He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world.
With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.
Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity.
Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God.
For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them.
For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf.
And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began.
But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.
And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.
He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.“
Hebrews 9:11-15, 24-28 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.9.11-27.NLT
”Most of all, here is what you must understand.
In the last days people will make fun of the truth. They will laugh at it. They will follow their own evil desires.
They will say, “Where is this ‘return’ he promised? Everything goes on in the same way it has since our people of long ago died. In fact, it has continued this way since God first created everything.”
By God’s word the heavens and earth of today are being reserved for fire. They are being kept for the day when God will judge. Then ungodly people will be destroyed.
The Lord is not slow to keep his promise. He is not slow in the way some people understand it.
Instead, he is patient with you.
He doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed.
Instead, he wants all people to turn away from their sins.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. Fire will destroy everything in them.
God will judge the earth and everything done in it. So everything will be destroyed in this way.
And what kind of people should you be?
You should lead holy and godly lives. Live like this as you look forward to the day of God. Living like this will make the day come more quickly.
On that day fire will destroy the heavens. Its heat will melt everything in them.
But we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth.
Godliness will live there.
All this is in keeping with God’s promise.
Dear friends, I know you are looking forward to this. So try your best to be found pure and without blame. Be at peace with God.
Remember that while our Lord is waiting patiently to return, people are being saved.“
2 Peter 3:3-4, 7, 9-15 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/2pe.3.3-15.NIRV
”Then Jesus came to them.
He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So you must go and make disciples of all nations.
Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And you can be sure that I am always with you, to the very end.”“
Matthew 28:18-20 NIRV
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