A traditional Jewish wedding ceremony takes place under a chuppah (wedding canopy), symbolizing the new home, usually taken about a year to prepare, built by the husband for his bride, whom he goes and gathers to himself when it’s time to be married. That’s what Jesus was talking about in John 14 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN and RECEIVE YOU to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)
What it going to be like AMY? “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a BUILDING FROM GOD, a house not made with hands, ETERNAL IN THE HEAVENS. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven…We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be PRESENT WITH THE LORD.” (2 Corin. 5:1-2, 8) What will our bodies be like then? “…we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will TRANSFORM our lowly body that it may be CONFORMED TO HIS GLORIOUS BODY, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” (Phil. 3:20-21) Describe the place Jesus is preparing! An angel “…showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God…The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles.” (Rev. 21:10, 15-16) That would be 1.96 million square miles on the ground level. It’s also 1,400 miles high if we allow 100 feet between floors, that would give us 274,400,000 square miles. The earths land mass is 196,935,000 square miles. Our new heavenly home will be 1.4 times larger that all the land mass on the current earth.
“Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.” (Rev. 22:1-2)
Your Personal Pastor -Bill Stockham