A New Heaven and a New Earth

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. (Rev 21:2)

In a past couple of days, I’ve been hearing and reading about this “New Jerusalem” A new heaven and a new earth. I am a pretty visual person so whenever I read a part in bible that’s described in detail, I picture the image in my head. It was actually pretty magnificent how it was described in the bible, city like a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. I bet more than anything that city is full of purity and holiness.

source : Google

It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. (Rev. 21:11-12)

The reason why this city is so marvelous is because it was shining with the glory of God. Of course there it was built with all these jewels that sparkle but the only way to make any jewel shine is with “light” without light, even a jewel becomes an invisible dull stone sitting in darkness.

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. (Rev. 21:23)

And this particular city did not even need the sunlight or the moonlight, but the light of the Lord was shining through, making all gold and jewel sparkle in it’s brilliance. I started to imagine the New Jerusalem not just as this future city to come, but as every one of us, after we’ve been born again and sanctified.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘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.” (Rev 21:3-4)

God’s dwelling place is now among us, he is living inside of every single one of us, and he becomes our God. My God, my father, my comforter, my Lord. We don’t have to look for New Jerusalem too far away because we are being sanctified into becoming his holy temple. His light will shine out of each of us, that we sparkle like the true gem. Pure, holy and transparent like glass. In his perfect glory, there will be no more pain. He will wipe every tear from our eyes, and it will be us going from glory to glory.

Yes, it is true that we live in this fallen flesh and body, but we also have holy spirit living inside us renewing us daily. Could it be possible that we get so close to God and empty ourselves daily to fill the space completely with God? Could we experience the New Jerusalem here on earth?

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. (Rev. 21:6)

He says it’s possible. Jesus has paid the price on the cross so that we may be victorious through him.

It is done.

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Do not be anxious about anything

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

I took 3 days off work due to the move, and this morning bright and early around 6am, signed back on to my work email. Lo and behold, there were over a hundred new messages and emails. Then two of my freelance clients emailed me about revisions and it was so difficult to understand what they meant. I had so many text messages I needed to reply to and calls to make. I had to sign off on so many tickets and get back to a ton of people who are constantly asking me questions. In addition to all this, I kept on getting kick off of VPN and my computer’s search engine kept on re-directing me to wrong sites due to Malware. Sheeeesh. Talk about Murphy’s Law.

I had non-stop back to back meetings and as the time progressed, I could feel the “angst”. It was creeping up on me. We have so much unpacking and re-organizing to do at the apartment. I sat on my sofa, and went on Instacart to start ordering RIDICULOUS amounts of snacks, 10 boxes of my favorite cereal, twinkies, brownies, cookies, etc. The stress was quite real.

Whenever I get stressed, my husband notices right away, he has this sixth sense that he can just smell my stress from a distance. lol

Do you ever feel so overwhelmed that you cannot function properly? Many people have crutches, things they fall back on, I would say mine is probably sugary snacks. But how many times do we actually fall back on God?

Be still and know that I’m God. (Psalm 46:10)

How many times have I paced back and forth restlessly and stuffed my face with snacks to calm my nerves? How many times did I feel like I wanted to avoid everything and just run away? Why run away? why not run towards my father in heaven instead?

It says in the bible, in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Have I done this in times when I felt anxious and stressed out? I’ve been depending on myself and my own strength to carry me through, and that’s why I had to struggle so much with stress. (And to be honest, I’m not a type of person who gets stressed so easily)

Lord, I am so thankful that I have a JOB! I have a job I LOVE and I get to make a living in the midst of Pandemic, where unemployment is everywhere. I am truly so grateful, and I don’t know why I’m even thinking that I’m stressed out, because all these things are just so petty! I have a roof over my head and enough to eat on my table daily. I have working limbs and I can see hear, and speak. Nothing hurts in my body and I feel great. I have a wonderful family who loves me so much and a husband that adores me day and night. In-Laws SO wonderful that I consider them as my own parents. Thank you for wonderful friends you’ve sent me who intercedes for me all the time and love on me.

To think of it, I have no other request except the one I constantly pray for. Lord, shape me to be more like you. Amen.

Things of this world

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15–16)

I got married recently and my husband and I moved into this new apartment in Orange County. We found this place as a last minute lease-takeover and never seen the apt in person until we actually moved here. (I’ve never done this before) but I was just BLOWN AWAY at how beautiful and luxurious this apt complex was! I was immediately planning all the ways I can decorate this place and invite couple of friends for a housewarming. I was like a little girl giddy and excited all day yesterday, with adult apartment that comes with a fridge that makes ice! (I’ve never had this before, and I LOVE ice, so it was such a treat) I called up 2 of my old friends from this area and scheduled a housewarming this weekend. After that husband and I did a little cheers! and ate some delicious noodle dishes to celebrate our new home. It was like everything seemed so lovely and peachy, I’m living THE LIFE.

This morning, I woke up and the first scripture verse I read was this. And it suddenly hit me like a brick,

What am I doing here?

God has blessed me with this beautiful place to call home for a while, but everything in this life is very temporary and finite. We are here on a mission, and not just to coast through life and have fun. When we talk about YOLO (You Only Live Once), we immediately think of the hedonistic lifestyle because why not enjoy all you can while you are on this earth?

But the YOLO in the bible is you are only on this earth for a short period of time. We have limited amount of time. And the days are evil. We are to become a light that shines throughout the darkest place on this land. We are NOT to be conformed to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. (Romans 12:2)

So what does that mean and what does that even look like? We have to be very intentional about how we spend our time, and what we do with our resources given from God. How are we stewarding them? I was blessed with a job where I can work remotely and still make a great living, but with that job, what am I doing to advance God’s kingdom? I realized how important it is to spend time in prayer and as for God’s wisdom and guidance in how we need to be living every single day, to truly make an impact to God’s kingdom.

It is so easy to just let a day go by without trying. It is so easy to be comfortable in our little Christian bubble with our Christian friends. But is that what we are called to?

Rise up, you women who are at ease,
And hear my voice;
Give ear to my word,
You complacent daughters. (Isaiah 32:9)

God does not want us to be complacent. He wants us to hear his voice and actually pay attention, and to obey. We are to be salt and light of this earth, and I think it is really time for us to truly run hard after God’s heart, which is people. Bringing people back to God.

The weekend plan quickly changed from a chill housewarming party to a potential start of a revival. I am going to share all the testimonies of what God’s been doing in my life to my 2 friends whom I haven’t seen in a long time. I got more excited than before, because I knew God is going to do something amazing through this hangout. With every hangout or gathering from now on, I want them to be focused on God, and sharing his love to others, encouraging others to run hard as well.

I’m ready to make the most of every opportunity given to me by God. Thank you Lord, for the opportunities, and all the people you’ve brought in to my life. Even in the midst of Coronavirus pandemic, I want to be a faithful steward in all the resources you’ve gifted me with. Use me, and also use my husband for your kingdom. Amen.

Yeast Yeast Yeast!

For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. (Exodus 12:15)

Yesterday I went to Wingstop to get some chicken wings, and my husband pointed out a picture on a wall of these yummy looking yeast rolls. “We must get this!” We ordered 2 of them, but for some reason the word “yeast” reminded me of unleavened bread in the bible. And today when I was reading through Exodus, I kept on seeing “yeast” EVERYWHERE! I was really surprised at how many times it was repeated in the scripture.

Why so many times? And why such significance?

Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. (Exodus 12:17)

God called this the Festival of Unleavened bread. I bet the main thing they ate was Lamb that was slaughtered, but why was the bread emphasized more? The fact that the bread was Unleavened seemed like the most important thing, but I couldn’t tell exactly why. As I kept meditating on the verse, something interesting hit me.

On the first day remove the yeast from your houses

It was not just about avoid eating the yeast, but also removing yeast from your house altogether! It almost sounded like ridding ourselves completely and cleansing ourselves from sin. Do not even let the trace of sin be found anywhere. Also eating the leavened bread resulted in being cut off from God, just like sin causes the separation between us and God.

or whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.

That’s a serious consequences for just eating some sort of bread, isn’t it? This all represents and symbolizes something more significant.

“A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” (Galatians 5:9)

It is quite true that even a slight trace of unrepentant sin can affect the whole body. It quickly spreads to the whole batch before you know it. I got curious about yeast, and started to research a bit more into it. Scientifically speaking how does yeast affect the dough and what’s the optimal state for it to work and make the whole dough rise?

That’s when I found something even MORE interesting.

The optimum temperature range for yeast fermentation is between 90˚F-95˚F (32˚C-35˚C). Every degree above this range depresses fermentation. While elevated temperature is problematic in all phases of ethanol production, it is specifically hazardous during the later stages of fermentation.

Basically yeast thrives and grow the fastest (just like how sin spreads fast) at a certain temperature. That’s between 90 and 95˚F, and you know what that is?

That’s a lukewarm temperature.

So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:16)

Sin thrives in lukewarmness. Lord, I repent for all the times I was lukewarm and complacent. I want to do a thorough search within myself to find if there is even a small trace of sin hidden, and get rid of it. With a pure and clean heart, I want to run after you with passion, Amen.