With Easter here at our door, I’ve also been reflecting on my Revelation study (hope to share more of this study soon!) and how these have connected the past week.

Our last lesson was over Revelation 21 and 22 which was rich with descriptions of what’s to come, for us who believe, in Heaven! This is only possible for us through the blood poured out by Jesus on the cross – a reminder of yesterday and an event that got us to tomorrow, the day He rose.

One question asked in our lesson was how have today’s passages and your study of Revelation influenced your thinking about God’s presence among His people in the past, present, and future?

While God’s truth and hope from the past and for the future help get us through the day to day, there’s also a parallel with all the instances in which how he dwells with his people. Over time, God’s presence in our lives (ours as in humankind) has evolved. “Evolve” may evoke a connection in minds to evolution but it’s important to remember that while the world and the way He approaches His people may change, He and His perfect and complete character does not change.

Up until recent years, I felt like the OT peeps had it good. Adam and Eve were in God’s presence, in the garden and messed it up. Then later, God’s presence was with the people by way of the ark of the covenant, moving as they moved. God’s presence was represented by a certain place among His people, though He is everywhere and not limited or confined. Even later than that, God dwelled in human form through His Son, Jesus. To be one of those disciples! To be a fisher of men! As a woman, I mean this in the wholesome form of bringing His people to Him. 🙂 haha

As Jesus died, rose and ascended, He left His Helper, the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.

Okay, Summer, where are you going?

Well, to me, it felt like God was getting further and further away for so long. Like we were with God (at the beginning) and then we were separated for so long and we wouldn’t be back with Him in His presence like that til Heaven. I slept on the Holy Spirit’s presence though, so He’s actually just as close as He’s ever been.

In my group discussion, someone pointed out that over time, since that initial separation from God, He’s slowly brought us closer to Himself as I’ve just explained. He dwelled in a building, then through Jesus’ very body and now He lives in us. In Heaven, we will once again be brought into His presence living in the holy city, the new Jerusalem!

Easter brings sadness and hope. Sadness that our sin brought Jesus to the cross to die, but hope that His death wasn’t final and God’s love for us conquered death. He put death to death itself. How marvelous that the end is already written and recorded and we don’t have to wonder if Satan will be defeated or if this is all life is.

I hope you have a great weekend in remembrance and filled with hope for the future. Draw near to Him as He draws near to you.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:25-26

“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭22‬-‭27‬