New Jerusalem's Walls & Gates (Rev. 21:12-14)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR

11/28/2005

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Jerusalem’s Walls & Gates

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Revelation 21:12-14

            Message of the verse:  “12  It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.  13  There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west.  14  And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”

            Verse twelve speaks of the city have great high walls, and the walls had twelve gates in them.  Verse thirteen says that there were three gates on each side of these walls, and on each one of the gates was a name of the tribe of Israel.  There are different lists of the names of the tribes of Israel in the Bible, and on the first list the name of Levi was omitted because they were the tribe which the priests came from and also they were the tribe that served in the Temple worship.  There was a different list in Revelation seven, but as Dr. Wiersbe points out John may be just showing that all of God’s people will be here in the New Jerusalem.  John goes on to say that there were twelve foundation stones and on them were the names of each of Jesus’ apostles, and here again there were thirteen apostles which include Paul.  I have often thought that Peter may have acted in too much of a hurry when the decision to appoint another apostle came about in Acts and maybe should have waited for God to appoint the apostle replace Judas, which seems to be Paul.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Throughout the entire Bible I can see that God always has a plan, and He always works out this plan just the way that He wants it to work out.  I can see this principle here in these verses as there was surely a lot of planning went into the design of this city which was seen here by John.  God also has a plan for me, and for my life, and I must submit to that plan, even though I am not sure what it is all of the time, and sometimes I do not like it to much.  With this been said I still need to trust the Lord with the plan that He has for my life, because God makes no mistakes, and won’t with my life either.

The Word of God has spoken to my heart in the form of a challenge this morning, and has also been refreshing .

My Steps of Faith Today:  I must draw strength from the Lord to fill me with His love so that I might love others, and especially my wife, in the way Christ loves.  This is a supernatural kind of love that can only come from the strength and power of the Lord. 

I also want to trust the Lord for the plan that He has for my life at this time of it, and do the things that He is leading me to do at GBC to the best of my ability, and in the power of His Holy Spirit.