An Imaginative God

“The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.” Revelation 21:21

Everyone talks about the streets of gold, but how often do you hear about a gate made from a single pearl?  This has to be one huge pearl.  This chapter is talking about the New Jerusalem and says it is about 1400 miles by 1400 miles in area.  The walls are 200 feet thick.  There are only twelve ways into this city and each way in is through a gate made of one pearl.  I don’t know how much traffic is going in and out of the city, but since there are only 12 ways in and out there has to be a lot going through each gate.  So these gates have to be huge and the pearls just as big.

I think seeing those gates will be impressive, but what I really want to see are the oysters that grew those pearls.  I want to go diving into the crystal sea and hunt out those oysters and marvel at how huge they are.  If the pearls are just 200 feet in diameter (the thickness of the walls) than the oysters have to be at least a couple thousand feet across.

This picture is a small version of what must live in the crystal sea, in Heaven.

I look around at what God has created in this world and how imaginative He must be. It helps make you realize how awesome our God really is.  When we get to heaven I believe there will be even greater sights, and even then we will only begin to understand how imaginative He really is.  He can create such huge oysters just for building gates.  There is nothing beyond His imagination or His ability. 

When I look at problems here in this world, personal situations or worldwide  problems, I see huge obstacles standing in the way of what I believe is a good resolution.  Health issues, financial problems, marriage conflicts, and any other problems we might have in our lives are infinitesimal situations to God.  He is all powerful, all knowing and has an imagination that has created a universe of trillions of galaxies with billions of different wonders in each one.  Never doubt his imagination to find the right solution for your problem.

Serving God for Whose Sake?

Some day, and not too far in the future, I will get to see Heaven.  I will walk through those gates, which are each made from one single pearl.  Coming from the gate, I enter  that eternal city and stroll down those streets of purest gold. I will open a large blue door and with a smile enter  my new mansion. 
My mansion will be so marvelous that human mind could never have imagined such beauty and workmanship.  Exhibited, for all to see, will be trophies and crowns awarded to me by God for my good works.  I will have angels serving me and bringing my messages.  I will eat from the tree of life and visit anywhere in the universe I desire.
There will be no sickness, no sadness, no death and no fear.  Anything I want, will be provided to me.  I will have God’s power at my beck and call.  Miracles will be normal.  All knowledge will be but a thought away.  How much greater can life be?
Nothing, absolutely nothing, which I said above is about heaven.  It’s only about a place which actually exists and where someday I will live forever but all those things do not make Heaven truly Heaven.  Streets of gold do not make it Heaven.  Mansions do not make it Heaven. Even doing miracles or living forever does not make it Heaven.  The only thing which is important and makes Heaven, Heaven, is that Heaven is where God lives.
If God is not there, Heaven is not where I want to be.  You can keep it all.  If God is on some barren rock out in cold space, I want to be there.  If He gives me a corner of a shack to live in and He is there, than I have a mansion and I want to be there.  I don’t care about anything else.  Keep your rewards, keep your gold and mansions.  Just give me Jesus.
Even eternal life is not worth living without Jesus.  What would be the purpose of living if I did not have Jesus in my life?  Andrae Crouch wrote a song which says, “If heaven was never promised to me, neither the promise to live eternally, it's been worth it just having the Lord in my life.”
I would rather live a few short years in this life and know Jesus, then to live all of eternity and never meet him.  He is my reason for living.  He is the reason I do anything which is good.  My next breath is a waste of energy if somehow my life does not bring him glory.
Someday I will get to Heaven, and I will live eternally as God has promised.  I will be given lavish rewards, but they are all dross compared to simply getting a glance of my saviors face.

Jehoshaphat Fasted

Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.
Andrew Murray

The first thing Jehoshaphat did, upon learning of the impending attack on Judah, was to call upon a national fast.  He did not call upon them to pray but to fast.  Shouldn’t he have appealed to the people to pray?

I use to think of fasting as the magic ingredient that somehow changed God to be more benevolent and give me what I sought after.  If I desired something bad enough I would express that desire by fasting.  Wrong!  Fasting does not change God.  Fasting changes me.

When fasting, we are putting aside our flesh and allowing God to work on our spirit.  We are crucifying the old man and letting him die, so that Christ can live and control us.  As we become more Christlike by fasting, we are allowing the power of God to flow through us in a more powerful way.

By proclaiming a fast among the people of Judah, Jehoshaphat was calling upon the nation to draw nearer to God.  He knew that in order for their prayers of salvation to succeed, the flesh had to die, and God’s righteous lifestyle must be manifested.

God desires to work in your life.  He wants to do great things with you and through you.  He has great plans for your life but, unless you are willing to be like Christ, he cannot  move within you as he desires.  Fasting helps to kill self and allows God that opportunity of working His power in and through you.  Because of the nation of Judah fasting, God could move within the people and fight for them.  He can do the same with you, if you’re willing.

What sign were you born under?

Astrological signs are very important to some people.  It tells what friends they are compatible with, who would make a good mate for them, and who to stay away from.  It tells them what the future holds for them and what actions to take in light of their horoscopes.

Recently, I had the opportunity to be with some people who prayed for a woman who needed healing.  The Lord led me to ask her, “Have you been involved in anything within the occult?”

She looked at a friend of hers, who was with us, as if to say, “Did you tell them?”  The friend laughed and said, “I never said anything to them.  It’s the Lord speaking.”

She turned back to us with a sigh.  “I used to make Astrology forecasts for people.  I would advise them using their astrological signs on what the future would be.  Now whenever I meet someone new, the first thing I think is “I wonder what their astrological sign is.”

We advised her about astrology and how she needed to renounce and repent of all of it.  Then the lord spoke to me about her, and as soon as he did a brother in Christ turned to me. “David, do you have something to say?”

I smiled.  The lord was truly with us, leading in this.  “Yes,” I said and turned to the woman. “The lord wants you to remember and never forget the sign you were born under.  Never forget your birth sign.  You were born under the sign of The Blood Stained Cross.”

When you accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, you died to the world and were born again.  Whatever your astrological sign was does not matter.  Maybe you were born a Virgo by natural birth, but by your spiritual birth you are now born under the sign of The Blood Stained Cross.

Your spiritual birth is more than just a ticket to heaven.  It means you are now no longer under the power of this world, but you are free to be the man or woman God designed you to be.  You think the stars have power to influence your life?  The power of Jesus in your life far exceeds any power in this world or in the heavens.

Your horoscope can tell you what you are like or what will happen to you but then Jesus steps in and says, “I break that curse off of you.  You are no longer what your horoscope says you are, but you are my child and I will make you into my image.  Your future is no longer what the stars say, but will instead be full of my blessings, and you will follow my path.”

1 John 5:4 “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

You have been freed.  God’s tremendous power is now focused on you.  He will bring you out from under the power of this world and into an abundant life, tapped into the power of God.  His power is freely given for your edification, for the blessings of others and for the glory of God.

A One Question Bible Quiz

This is not a trick question.  How many sheep were on Noah’s ark?
Such an easy question, from a story everyone knows.  Right away the answer pops into your head.  Even as children we heard this story and have seen hundreds of pictures of Noah’s ark and the animals going on board two by two.  My wife made a quilt for one of our granddaughters with Noah’s ark, and of course there are two of each animal on the ark.

So why should I ask such a question which is so easily answered?  Because most likely you have the wrong answer.  You, like most people, said “Two”
Genesis 7:2 “Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,”
There were seven sheep on the ark?  They are a clean animal so Noah had seven of them on board the ark.  A story you have heard all your life, and you still had the story wrong.
How many other Biblical facts do you know but are wrong about?  I guarantee, the number of sheep on the ark is not the only thing you have wrong.  We go through life with many beliefs about God and His word without truly investigating whether it is true or not.  We have been taught by our parents, pastors, friends, or through experience things which, if we searched the scripture, we would find to be false.
Acts 17:10-11 “¹⁰ As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹ Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
You have a choice.  You can live your life based on the inaccurate knowledge you have collected throughout your life, or you can search out the truths which God offers in his Word.   God wants you to know Him, but you need to search Him out.  Don’t assume you know who God is.  I guarantee He is much more glorious then you think.

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