Tuesday, December 30, 2014

ZECHARIAH 13,14:

These last two chapters cover God's cleansing of Jerusalem and the Second coming.  Mirroring Revelation, Zechariah tells that a third of the people will be left in the whole earth, that God will:

...bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold.  they will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people', and they will say, 'The Lord is our God.'(13:9)

God will then establish his permanent Kingdom.

Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles...On that day HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord's house will be like sacred bowls in front of the altar. (14:16-20) 

REVELATION 21:

John sees the New Jerusalem.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth...I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God...And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live 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." (21:1-4)

The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod...The city was laid out like a square as long as it was wide. He measured the city thigh the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and his as it is long.  He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick... (21:15-17)

The converted measurement is 1400 miles long, high and wide.  It's walls are 200 feet thick.

JOURNAL:

Beyond comprehension.  It makes me realize that most of the things I hope for are so trivial when compared to the promised Kingdom of God. How often have I quietly sold out to hopes and visions that are so cheap and pale in comparison.  I realize how silly are my worries, how misplaced are my fears.  

Why would I ever compromise and disobey God for cheap, imperfect, idols?  Yet in the course of a day, I am deceived and my desires want things now.  It reminds me of Esau...being so hungry that he willingly gives away his birthright. How often I am willing to settle for a crumb, when the feast awaits.  

Yet as only an amazing loving God can do...he forgives me, turns my head back toward him and restores my hope.  I think of how Christ left the perfect and endured the filth, agony and horror of his life and the cross...only so that we would accept, believe and be covered for eternity.  It truly is beyond my comprehension...

"God loves you!...make it a great Day!"