God's Home

God’s Home

John 14:2 NKJV
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
(Note:  The Greek word for mansions is monai, the plural form of mone, which literally means dwelling place or abode.)

   As I was writing last week, He shall come.  And He promised us that He is preparing a place for us in His Father’s house.  Heaven is mentioned, I’m told, over 400 times in the Bible.  Never counted them, so I’ll use that number.  But it’s not until we get to the last book do we get much in the way of a description of heaven, and much of what we read isn’t directly about Heaven.
   John the Beloved wrote his description of his vision on the Isle of Patmos.  John was a fisherman from the Sea of Galilee living in the 1st century, so when he saw his vision, he had to use familiar words to describe what he saw.  What he saw must have been an overwhelming sight, because his description is awe-inspiring.
   John tells us the city of New Jerusalem descended out of heaven and “it shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” He tells us that this city, which is not the whole of heaven but only came out of heaven, was twelve thousand furlongs long and another twelve thousand furlongs wide at the base.  A furlong is one eighth of a mile, so twelve thousand furlongs is about 1500 miles.  It’s hard to imagine something that big, but if New Jerusalem were set down in the US it would extend from Fort Kent, Maine to Miami, Florida, and would reach from Manhattan all the way to the Colorado River.  And its 1500 miles tall!  That’s 5447 Sears Towers on top of one another.  (And yes, I know the Sears Tower was renamed the Willis Tower.)  If New Jerusalem is this big and this beautiful, what must Heaven itself be like?
   The famous “streets of gold” we hear so much about are the streets of New Jerusalem as are the twelve huge gates made of pearls.  He will leave the Gates open because New Jerusalem will be a pure place where no unclean or evil thing will be allowed.  The city will not need the sun or the moon because it is lit with the radiance of God’s glory and the Lord Jesus will be its light.  Heaven is not a Motel Six, but I sure am glad that God will leave the “Light” on for me.
   So it seems that God really hasn’t revealed much about Heaven to us.  But is that the important stuff we needed to know?  No.  Knowing what Heaven looks like is isn’t really important.  What we need to know about Heaven we already know.  Jesus said, “You know the way to the place where I am going…I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:4&6)
Let’s not lose sight of the goal in our travels.  It’s not really important to worry about whether or not we’ll have a mansion on a street of gold near a gate made of a giant pearl.  It’s more important that we know Who we’ll spend eternity with.  It’s more important to know how we can get there.
   When I turn my thoughts towards Heaven, I am amazed; again, that God did so much to make the way for me to get there.  I can scarcely get my head around the sacrifice Jesus made allowing Himself to be beaten and crucified to buy me ticket into eternity.  We used to sing a song called “Just As I Am” and rarely does a song describe so accurately the condition of a lost soul in need of salvation as that one does.  The song begins, “Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me.” And in verse 5 is a line, “because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”
   Yes, Jesus shall come.  He shall come to those of us Who have come to Him believing in His promise.  Do you still come to Him?  In your busy life, do you still come to Him?  In your trials in life, do you still come to Him?  Nothing has changed; He still waits with open arms.  And because He promised, we can believe.  O Lord, I come to You.

Stephen Cram                                  December 11, 2011                    Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8