The New Jerusalem

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Comment by SIS LISA ALFORD on January 26, 2009 at 4:48am

Then Jesus said, 'Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.' When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, 'The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, ' 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!' ' Mark 4:9-12 TNIV Bible

Comment by SIS LISA ALFORD on January 16, 2009 at 2:33pm

Comment by SIS LISA ALFORD on January 4, 2009 at 9:07pm

. Revelation 21:10-27 (NIV): 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadiaa in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 He measured its wall and it was 144 cubitsb thick,c by man’s measurement, which the angel was using. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.d 21 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.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.Just think this description does not even come close to the splendor of our future eternal home. For now, we are living in a trash heap compared to the Holy City or New Jerusalem to come. However, in our prayer life we can prepare ourselves for this future home in heaven. Jesus left us with this model prayer in order to prepare us, not so that we can dump our laundry list on God everyday and then blame Him because nothing came true on our wish list. This is juvenile praying.

Some might ask, “What is hallowed be thy name”? That sounds like a foreign term for movie flick, yet, it is profound. “Hallowed” means holy and “thy name” is God Almighty. It is the “Holiest Name of All”. There is no other name in heaven or on earth that is more holy than Elohim and Adonai and Jehovah and any other name that is strictly reserved for our God. When we enter into prayer we are speaking to the holiest person that will ever exist or has ever existed. As a believer in Christ Jesus we have access to the most important being ever. Do you understand the meaning of this? You do not have to go through a priest on earth or any other person on this earth….Jesus Christ is our high priest and it is through Him that we go before our heavenly Father. He wants to hear directly from His people, not from another fallible man on earth.
As the prayer goes on to ask that God’s will be done. This is the key to the entire prayer. This is the key to our prayer life. We must pray that God’s will be done and not our own. One of the difficulties that most of us struggle with in our prayer life is getting to the point to where we desire God’s will over our own. This is a huge nail in the coffin of our Free Will over God’s Free Will. Our prayer life will go no where as we exercise our will, but rather once we understand that our prayers are to be reflecting the will of our heavenly Father, then our prayer life takes on new meaning that experiences results. As men we are so result oriented anyway…we have a drive that compels us to get results. This is a God-given drive. However, Jesus is telling us how results are achieved here…the achievement is not in ourselves nor is it about ourselves. The achievement is getting to the point that we prefer God’s will to reign above our own desires and will. In short, God’s will becomes our will and God’s will becomes the desire of our heart. It is at this moment we stop bleeding selfishly and start bleeding righteously for the glory of our heavenly Father. To further the Kingdom of God, our prayers need to reach a higher place that is high above the earthly mindset.

We should set our minds on heavenly things in order to be of some earthly good. The wrong saying is “Don’t be so heavenly minded that you become no earthly good”. That is incorrect! If this earth is to improve, believers must become more heavenly minded to be of some earthly good.
What is truly valuable to you? In your prayer life, what is it that you pray for the most, yourself, your family, happiness, joy, money, job security, groceries, devine revelation, safe travel, an easy life, and so on? I know that none of us pray for a car accident tomorrow, marrital troubles in June ‘08, to loose our job in the Fall! That would be crazy, but why do we pray in defense of these types events in our lives? All we need to focus on is God in our lives at any given moment regardless of the circumstance. Come to grips with the fact that the only thing secure for us on this earth as believers is our salvation in Christ Jesus….nothing else is secure. We must live the remainder of our life outside of that committment in total faith that God will see us through to the other side into eternity.

Comment by SIS LISA ALFORD on January 3, 2009 at 8:21am

Comment by SIS LISA ALFORD on January 2, 2009 at 9:01am

Comment by Stephen R. Rizzo on January 1, 2009 at 5:15pm

Comment by SIS LISA ALFORD on December 31, 2008 at 7:23pm

THANKS SIS FOR THE NEW HOME AND GROUP GOD BLESS HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR LOVE YOU.