Hi Guys
Last week I wrote about the glory of the third temple, and the majesty of what this temple contains, all the power of the universe, listen to what Philip Brooks wrote at the turn of the century..................

Slowly, all through the universe, that temple of God is
being built. Wherever, in any world, a soul, by free-willed
obedience, catches the fire of God's likeness, it is set into
the growing walls, a living stone. When, in your hard fight,
in your tiresome drudgery, or in your terrible temptation, you
catch the purpose of your being and give yourself to God, and
so give Him the chance to give Himself to you, your life -- a
living stone -- is taken up and set into that growing wall.
Wherever souls are being tried and ripened, in whatever
commonplace and homely ways, there God is hewing out the
pillars for His temple. Oh, if the stone can only have some
vision of the temple of which it is to be a part forever, what
patience must fill it as it feels the blows of the hammer, and
knows that success for it is simply to let itself be wrought
into what shape the Master wills.
... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), The Law of Growth [1902]


I have been visiting a man in hospital for some weeks now. Robert is a pitiful sight to behold. A man whose circulation has all but shut down, his left leg has been removed, his right foot is gangrenous and if he lives, which is unlikely, this leg too will be removed. Just before they wheeled him into surgery, he was warned he may not awake. This awoke him to cry out Jesus, and right there and then he was saved in a moment of time, not unlike the thief on the cross. Since the surgery he has not had an easy time, and will probably not survive the week, and yet the Lord has walked through this darkest of valleys and supported Robert. No sign of any self pity, just a simple trust in Jesus. Oh how sweet and bright the light is in the darkest of valleys, the light of Jesus shines even in the darkest moments because He Himself walked through the valley of the shadow of death. We serve a God that "even if we make our bed in hell, behold He is there. "

Robert is a stone that is part of the temple forever. Pray for Robert this night, it is time for Robert to take his rightful place in the glorious temple. The stone has been shaped in the masters hand, the chiseling is over and now Robert, as we all will, is about to take his place in the temple of the Living God, a temple not made with any human hands, a temple in which only the Lord Himself is glorified. There is such a richness to this life, no matter what our circumstances. If we can grasp the glory and the potential in every single situation to see the treasures of this life unfold. We will find the gold and the silver in the strangest of places, not where you would think to look, but in the majesty of the human experience touched by a God whose ways are so much higher than ours. We look at men with "great ministries," yet there is no greater ministry than where you are right now, and the treasure you can unearth, right where you are, will astound you and send your spirit soaring.

You made the sun and the moon
And all this with Love
You put the stars in the heavens
And the clouds high above

I see the mountains so high
They stand in your name
I see the birds in the sky
I hear them sing of your fame

Man praises man for painting these things
Yet it is because of God that the bird sings
Open your eyes and watch the dolphin dance upon the waves
Open your heart and know that our creator Jesus saves

Watch a baby crawl
Hear a man laugh and sing
See a mothers tears of anguish
And know that life is not a simple thing

To laugh, to cry, to feel, to see
I am truly amazed just to be
To hear, to touch, to breathe, to sigh
A walking miracle from the one on high.

As you live your lives no matter where
Dancing or crying, always be aware
Its better to have lived than not at all
For this is your chance to hear the Masters call.
In the beauty of Holiness
Frank

Thank you for the quote from Brooks... very beautiful and goes with something the Lord showed me 'in Him all things consist' (Col 1:17)

I like this regarding the New Jerusalem in Revealation 21-22:

I. ITS SIGNIFICANCE
A. The New Jerusalem Being the Greatest and the Ultimate Sign in the Scriptures
Revelation 1:1 says that the Lord Jesus sent His angel to John to make His revelation known by signs, so the New Jerusalem is the greatest and the ultimate sign in the Scriptures (21:2, 9-10). A sign is a symbol with spiritual significance.

B. Signifying an Organic Constitution of the Processed Triune God Mingled with His Regenerated, Transformed, and Glorified Tripartite Elect
The New Jerusalem is a city, but this city is not literally physical. It is a sign, a figure, signifying an organic constitution. It is not something organized, but something constituted organically. The holy city is a constitution in life of the processed Triune God mingled with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite elect. It is an organic constitution of two parties: God and man. The first party is divine. The second party is human.

1. The Tabernacle of God
The New Jerusalem has two natures, humanity and divinity. According to its humanity, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God among men—the dwelling place of God in His humanity among men on the earth (Rev. 21:3). In the Bible, the tabernacle is a human dwelling place. The New Jerusalem is a human dwelling place because it is constituted with humanity. It is God’s human dwelling place on earth. John 1:14 says that God was incarnated in the flesh to tabernacle among men. He is God, but He has become a man. He partook of humanity as His nature, so He dwells in humanity.

2. The Temple of God
According to its divinity, the New Jerusalem is the temple of God as the dwelling place of His redeemed elect (Rev. 21:22). The holy city is the temple of God because it is divine. It is the temple of God, yet it is the dwelling place of His redeemed. How could this be? Because this is God’s temple, the dweller must be divine, but what about us? Are we divine or human? According to its humanity, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle, but God dwells in the tabernacle. God can dwell in a human dwelling place because He has become a man. According to the divinity of the New Jerusalem, it is a temple for God to dwell in. If you are only human and not divine, you cannot dwell in the temple. We human beings can dwell in a divine temple because we have been made God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. The New Jerusalem is a mutual abode. According to its humanity, it is a human tabernacle. According to its divinity, it is a divine temple. It is a human dwelling place, but the Dweller is God. How can God dwell in a human place? Because He became a man. In the same way, how can we humans dwell in God’s temple? Because we have been made God. This is the mutual abiding of God and man.

. The Human Wife of the Redeeming God
According to its humanity, the New Jerusalem is the human wife (with the divine life and nature) of the Lamb— the redeeming God (21:2, 9). This human wife can marry a divine Person because she has the divine life and nature. This qualifies her to match the redeeming God. On the one hand, she is human. On the other hand, she is divine. Because she is human, she can be the redeeming God’s human wife. Because she is divine, she can marry Him, a divine Person.

4. The Divine Husband of God’s Redeemed Elect
According to its divinity, it is the divine Husband (the redeeming God in His consummated embodiment, Christ, with the human life and nature) of God’s redeemed elect. The wife is human, and the Husband is divine. How can a human wife marry a divine Person? Because she has the divine Person’s divine nature and life. How can the same entity also be a husband? Because the New Jerusalem is divine. The divine God is a part of its constituent. Therefore, on the one hand, it is a wife. On the other hand, it is a husband. The New Jerusalem is the wife according to its humanity and the husband according to its divinity. But as the divine Husband, the New Jerusalem has the human life and nature. In its humanity and in its divinity it is both a mutual abode and a couple, a wife and a husband.

II. ITS BASE

A. Pure Gold
The base of the New Jerusalem is pure gold, signifying the divine nature of God as the base for its building (21:18b). The New Jerusalem is a golden mountain. Because we are the constituents of this New Jerusalem, we must be gold. We were made of dust, but when we received Christ as our life, we were regenerated into gold. In regeneration we received the divine life, the golden life. In the old creation, represented by Adam, we were dusty men, but when we were regenerated, we became golden men.

B. The Solid Foundation of Its Throne for the Divine Administration
The base of the New Jerusalem is the solid foundation of the divine throne for the divine administration (22:1b). The river of water of life, signifying the Spirit, proceeds from this administration in the middle of the New Jerusalem’s street as the supply to the entire city (v. 1a). In the river grows the tree of life, signifying Christ, as the main supply to the entire city through the river (v. 2). The divine and human communication, signified by the street, proceeds from this glorious center to reach all twelve gates of the city, in order to bring the entire city into the submission to the one divine administration and to blend the entire city into the oneness of the one divinity-mingled-with-humanity communication, fellowship (21:21b).

The throne on which God reigns is the center of the glory of the New Jerusalem. It signifies God’s ruling, God’s reigning. A street comes out from the throne. This street connected to the throne is for communication and mainly for the throne’s administration. The divine ruling has the divine administration.

On the street there is the traffic, the going and coming. First, the street is for God’s going and coming, which are for God’s administration. Eventually, this street becomes a “fellowship street.” This fellowship is between the redeeming God and His redeemed people. The redeeming God and His redeemed people must have going and coming fellowship. Not only so, God’s redeemed people must have going and coming fellowship among themselves.

THE APPLICATION OF THE INTERPRETATION OF THE NEW JERUSALEM TO THE SEEKING BELIEVERS


Graftedbranch

Let us not resist God as He wields the hammer and the chisel in the shaping of our lives through circumstances. We are being made to fit perfectly into a part of the glorious temple to come, let us yield as He weilds...........Frank

Amen. I'm going to print out this quote from Brooks. It's beautiful!

(There was an internal server error message on my screen.... :-?