“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
~ Revelation 21:4
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like living in your home? Are you looking forward to living in the new Jerusalem? What do you think that the difference will be between living in your home and in the new Jerusalem? Your grandmaa and grandpaa have lived in a lot of different places. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have owned and are now buying a house. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have lived in several different apartments that they rented. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have stayed in a lot of different hostels, motels and hotels. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have lived in four different countries. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have spent nights sleeping in trains, in their pickup, in hammocks and on air mattresses on the ground, on cement floors and on church benches. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have stayed in small rooms. One of the small rooms where your grandmaa and grandpaa stayed in was in Xalbal. Xalbal is located in the Ixcán region in Guatemala. Your grandmaa and grandpaa stayed for nearly two weeks in Xalbal – where they stayed in one of the rooms in the local Xalbal ‘hotel’, while they co-taught the final Programa de Educación (P.E.B.) module to the guys who were studying in the P.E.B. that was in Xalbal. The rooms in this ‘hotel’ barely had enough room for two single beds which your grandmaa and grandpaa pushed together. There was about an eight inch space between the floor of each room and where the planks that made up the walls began. The height of the planks that made up the walls came about to the top of your grandpaa’s head. There was an open space between the tops of the planks that made up the walls and the ceiling of the ‘hotel’. Brown toads to get from one ‘hotel’ room to the next ‘hotel’ room would hop through the space between the cement floor and where the planks that made up the walls began. Would you look forward to being in the new Jerusalem if the new Jerusalem is like Xalbal’s ‘hotel’?
God – as God the Spirit, gave Apostle John visions during the time that he was exiled on the Island of Patmos. One of the visions that God – as God the Spirit, gave to Apostle John included a description of what heaven looks like. Apostle John scribed in his Revelation Book – in Revelation 21, what God – as God the Spirit, showed him about heaven. The new Jerusalem and the Holy City are other names for heaven. The place that Apostle John saw in his vision – which was referred to as being the new Jerusalem, is an extraordinarily spectacular place. Apostle John had one of the seven angels – each who was carrying a bowl that was filled with one of the last seven plagues that God – as God the Father, will soon pour out on planet Earth and on the guys, gals and kids who will be living on planet Earth, approach him in his vision to take him in his spirit to the bride of the Lamb – who is Jesus – who is the Son of God. What Apostle John saw in his spirit is cube like. The length of the cube is 12,000 stadia, the width of the cube is 12,000 stadia and the height of the cube is 12,000 stadia. One stadia equals about 202 yards. If one stadia equals about 202 yards or 606 feet than 12,000 stadia equals 7,272,000 feet or about 1377.3 miles. Where your grandpaa’s dad and ma live in Volga, South Dakota is 1394.8 miles from where you are living with your dad and ma in Newark, Delaware. The new Jerusalem is like you going on a trip west to almost to where your dad’s grandpa and grandma on your dad’s side of his family are living, and then going the same distance north or south to another place and then going straight up into the sky the same distance. You would have to make three more trips like this to complete the cube that is the new Jerusalem. Before God – as God the Father, designed planet Earth, He recorded in the Lamb’s book of life the names of every guy, gal and kid who are going to live with Him in the new Jerusalem.
The guys, gals and kids who God specially chose and elected to one day live in the new Jerusalem with Him as His adopted kids will find themselves in a place that will be brightly lit by God’s holy presence. The angel who took Apostle John in his spirit to the new Jerusalem used his measuring rod to measure the thickness of the walls of the new Jerusalem. The walls of the new Jerusalem are 144 cubits thick. A cubit is eighteen inches making the walls of the new Jerusalem 216 feet thick. The 216 feet thick walls of the new Jerusalem are made of jasper. The streets of the new Jerusalem are made of such pure gold that the gold will seem like glass. The new Jerusalem has three gates on each side – totaling twelve gates. Each gate is made out of one single pearl. The twelve Israelite people group’s tribal clans each has one of their names written on a gate. The new Jerusalem’s walls have twelve foundations. Each of the new Jerusalem foundation walls has the name of one of the Lamb’s twelve apostles – Jesus’ twelve disciples, written on them. The new Jerusalem’s foundations are made with precious stones – first jasper, then sapphire, then chalcedony, then emerald, then sardonyx, then carnelian, then chrysolite, then beryl, then topaz, then chrysoprase, then jacinth and then amethyst. There is no day or night in the new Jerusalem. Nothing impure can be found in the new Jerusalem. There are no unbelievers, cowards, villains, murderers, perverts, sorcerers, liars and worshippers of inanimate gods that are handmade from wood, stone and metal in the new Jerusalem. These guys and gals are sent to a place that God – as God the Father, has ready for them. This place is a second death for them. This place is like a fiery lake filled with burning sulfur. Verse 4 says this about the new Jerusalem, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”” The new Jerusalem cannot be compared to anyplace that has ever been built or that will ever be built on planet Earth. To live in the new Jerusalem is something that each Christ-follower guy, gal and kid can really look forward to doing.
Revelation 21 (475)