The Joy of Glory

Revelation 21:1-8 (click here)
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. (Revelation 21:3)

Reflection
God with us.

Think about it… just as it was in creation so will it be in consummation… all because of Christ.

We were created to be God’s people… his community… with whom he dwelt. But, we broke fellowship. Through our sin, creation and community were corrupted.

Yet, the entire storyline of the Bible declares that our God has not abandoned creation or his community… no… he comes for us! He will redeem us, reconcile all things, and dwell with us again!

In the tabernacle, he came to dwell amongst his people.

In the temple, he came to dwell with his people.

In Christ, God dwelt with with his people as one of them.

In the Holy Spirit, God dwells in his people.

And the day of consummation is coming when God will complete our redemption through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and “He will dwell with [us], and [we] will be his people, and God himself will be with [us] as [our] God.”

Looking forward to that day is meant to provide us power  in the present! Power to be his people, sacrificing ourselves for one another and for the sake of his kingdom! We don’t have to make our lives all about building our own kingdom because we know that we are citizens of an everlasting kingdom that is coming! We can give our lives and sacrifice all for the sake of one another and the Gospel… we can be a cruciform community precisely because the community of the crucified Christ will be brought to consummation!

We must set this vision of community before us day after day… as we currently live amongst corruption we look and long for the day of consummation! We testify to it’s coming by living cruciform lives right now!

Oh Shades… let us be the cruciform community God has created us to be and called us to be! May he proved the power as we look forward to the consummated community of his kingdom!

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.