I’ve heard folks say… “I read the end of the book and…God wins!”

True enough, but there is some other stuff in the end of the book that is a little mind blowing. 

If you know me, you know I’m pretty jazzed about the fact that God takes up residnece in the believe’s life. 

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. – John 14:23 NASB

Yesterday, I wrote about the fact that Jesus, by His shed blood, breaks down our walls and fits us together as a dwelling place for the Father.

I pointed to Paul’s statment in 2 Corinthians, pulled forward from Jeremiah and Ezekiel that He would be our God and we would be His people.

Well guess what! That is were the book ends, and with a bang.

Check this out:

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. – Revelation 21:2

Wait—what? The bride of Christ is what? I thought I was the bride of Christ. I thought the Church was the bride of Christ. What am I missing here?

I want to show you something wonderful. God’s deepest desire for man, from the day He breathed the breath of life into Adam and made him a living soul, was to walk with man, to dwell with and in man.

The greatest picture of this is Jesus, the God-man. As man as man can be, and yet all the fullness of the Godhead dwelled within Him. All man. All God.

Jesus came as our Savior, God taking the punishment for sin upon Himself.

Jesus also came as a picture of God’s desire for man. Christ in you, the hope of Glory (or can I tweak it a tad and say, Christ in you, the fulfilment of Glory’s hope.)

So here it is, in the 2nd to last chapter of the whole book:

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, – Revelation 21:3

This is not the echo of those other word, they were a foreshadoing of this moment. The moment when God reveals the bride, the wife of the Lamb!

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, – Revelation 21:9-10

The bride is a city! Jerusalem, the city of the great King. Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God Himself.

This triggered something huge in my heart. Jerusalem, sometimes called Zion, represents the body of believes, the bride of Christ. Jesus perpared this dwelling place for the Father by His blood and through His body on the cross.

I promised I would change the way you read the Psalms, well, here it is.

Next time you run into a reference to Zion in the Psalms, plug yourself, and your local community of faith into the text and see what happens in your heart.

Here are a few examples to chew on.

“But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” – Psalm 2:6

Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores His captive people, Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad. – Psalm 14:7

Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion in the far north, The city of the great King. – Psalm 48:2

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone forth. – Psalm 50:2

His tabernacle is in Salem; His dwelling place also is in Zion. – Psalm 76:2

The LORD loves the gates of Zion More than all the other dwelling places of Jacob. – Psalm 87:2

Hope there’s a wow in your spirit as you ponder this.

I have to tell you, believers need community. You’re a building block, a part of the body. Don’t live your life like a lone leggo lying on the living room floor. God’s plan includes you, fitted in place.

To be clear–I don’t care if you sit in a pew or a coushined chair and “attend” a Sunday meeting. I don’t care if your community meets in a living room, a hotel conference ceter, or a diner. You simply need to live life with other believers. 

You need to “one-another” somebody.

We are the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem, Mt Zion, the Holy City, a dwelling place for the All Mighty!

Hallelujah!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Shine on!

Ben