And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” Revelation 21:3-4

How I love the book or Revelation! I must confess I lack understanding in some chapters, but I certainly understand the glorious future the bride of Christ has to look forward to. It is truly a marriage made in heaven that will last forever! We truly do have a Knight in shining armor on a white horse that we will join. Read Revelation 19. This is not a made up fairy tale. This is the Word of God. As it states multiple times in Scripture, it is faithful and true.

Notice in Revelation 19:13 His name is called The Word of God. It is the only way any of us can ever find and know Christ Jesus. It is only through His Word He can reveal to you how much He loves you. The greatest and most rewarding thing you can achieve in life is a knowledge of the Word of God. The worth of that knowledge cannot be bought with silver or gold. It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are, or how poor you are on this earth, it is available to all at no cost, except for your time and effort to study and meditate on it. Within the pages of the Bible are the keys to eternal life and the purpose you were created for by a mighty, holy, perfect God of love Who is love. But you must study the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation to acquire the absolute truths of life. All wisdom for life is within those pages. As you seek for the truth, you will find it, and you will develop faith in the invisible God, and He will open your eyes to see Him everywhere you look for Him. I know this to be true!

Revelation 21 is describing the descent of New Jerusalem. This will be our eternal state of being. We will be with God Himself. We will be in a state of perfect love with God, who is love and we will have His love for each other. It will far exceed any love we have experienced on earth. Isn’t it amazing He Himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more pain. We will no longer fight sickness, disease, and disabilities, or the pain of a broken heart from betrayal and rejection. We will no longer experience the pain of bitterness, jealousy, and unforgiveness. The sin nature we were all born with will be shed! Hallelujah!
What I treasure most is the knowledge I will never hurt God or my fellowman again due to my own limitations living in the fleshly state we are all confined to. Don’t we all hate failure? We will finally be totally free to be holy, and we will be like our God!

I want us to look together at the following verses picking up at verse five in Revelation 21:

And He who sits on the throne said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true. ”
And then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts for the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be His God and He will be My son. But for the cowardly, and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

How do we overcome? Revelation 12:11 tells us:

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death.”

‘But for those who are cowardly,’ in verse eight stood out to me. I am afraid I see a lot of cowardly, professing Christians that are afraid to proclaim their testimony of God in their lives to others. We are believing the lies of the enemy instead of the words that are faithful and true. We care more about approval from man, than we do their souls who are going to hell, because we are cowardly with the truth of God’s Word that can set them free, and give them eternal life. The truth has always been an offense to the religious and wicked people. It certainly was when Jesus walked the earth. He warned His bondservants offense will come. In fact Jesus was called a “rock of offense.” You will be too if you follow Him. 1 Peter 2:6-8 declares:

For this is contained in Scripture,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and He who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve,
“The Stone which the builders rejected, this became the very Cornerstone.” and,
“A Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offense; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the Word, and to this doom they were appointed.”

The offense comes from disbelief and disobedience to His Word. They loved the darkness rather than the Light. With our free will we must choose which path we will take. If we choose wrongly our future will be in a lake of fire and brimstone which burns eternally, that is the second death according to Scripture.

Another sobering verse comes to mind for the cowardly in declaring the Word of God to others. Mark 8:37-38 proclaims:

“For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Jesus came the first time not to judge or condemn, but to save the lost. He did so by dying on the cross for all mankind. His second coming is for His Bride who will be adorned in His robe of righteousness washed His blood that was shed for their sins. He is coming as King of Kings and Lord of Lords in all His glory and He will judge each one according to their actions and words they have spoken. Acts 17:30-31 reads:

“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all man by raising Him from the dead.”

Let us heed the words of Scripture together and encourage one another daily. May we not be found cowardly in speaking His Words to one another, for in them we attain everlasting life for now and eternally. May we truly become overcomers by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimonies, and loving not our lives unto death just as our Lord and Savior did.
In His love.

Teresa Roberts

Masterpiece Fitness

www.masterpiecefitness.com

276-237-6680

Photos are of the start and finish of a 16 mile trail run on the Virginia Creeper Trail and Iron Mountain. No photos in between. I crossed the finish line and headed for the Creek to cool off. The Iron Mountain Trail was pretty brutal, but I had no regrets even with multiple falls!