December 30

Malachi 1:1-2-17, Revelation 21:1-27, Psalm 149:1-9, Proverbs 31:10-24

Pray: Lord, You restore and You reconcile broken people to a holy God. Please open my heart to reconciliation. Help me to claim it for myself and accept that it is Your desire and will for all men…no matter how broken.

Read: The Apostle John sees the city of God, the New Jerusalem, descending from heaven to earth in chapter 21 of Revelation. Heaven has come to earth. God is dwelling amongst His people. It is interesting that heaven, sometimes called paradise, started on earth. God would spend time with Adam and Eve each day and the place they lived was called the Garden of Eden or paradise. The next time we hear of paradise is when Jesus spoke to the thief on the cross promising that the thief would be with Jesus in paradise that very day. We know from the scriptures that Jesus first descended into the lower parts of the earth and preached before ascending into heaven. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus we see a further description of paradise in the lower parts of the earth as being divided into two chambers…paradise and hell. Lazarus, the poor man, was in paradise. The rich man was in hell. There was a great gulf between the two chambers. Later we see paradise up in what we call the heavens when Paul was caught up there. Finally we see paradise descending to earth…full circle you might say.

Edify: We are created in God’s image. Although we fell and chose our own way God still desires to live with us and have us reign with Him. He desires reconciliation and restoration so much so that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our sinfulness and to make possible reconciliation and restoration.

Practice: Practice seeing what you can be in Christ and what others can be in Christ rather than focusing on what you are and where you are right now. We are under construction but God sees us as whole. Others are under construction as well. See them as whole. Sometimes that isn’t easy, but it is heaven’s perspective.