The Beautiful City Of God Built By Precious Stones

And the city lieth foresquare, and the length is 

as large the breadth: and he measured the city 

with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length 

and the breadth and the height of it are equal. 

And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred 

and forty and four cubits, according to the measure 

of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building 

of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was

 pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations

 of the wall of the city were garnished with all 

manner of precious stones. The first foundation 

was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, 

a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, 

sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh chrysolite; 

the eighth beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, 

a chrysoprasus; the eleventh a jacinth; the twelfth,

 an amethyst. And the twelve gates was of one pearl: 

and the street of the city was pure gold, 

as it were transparent glass.

Revelation 20:16-21

 

     I did not write the blog Monday and Tuesday as I was in the hospital having a surgical procedure using laser beams to break up kidney stones a necessary function needed before my major surgery in April. Life is full of trouble and far too often we forget that God does not necessarily take us out of our troubles, but He has promised to take us through them. Keeping our eyes on Him and on the truth of His promises makes going through these terrible times easier, not that we do not feel all the pain and struggle, we are human, but we do not forget that we have a home with God. And this is what I will write about in this blog.

     REMEMBER: You are the city of God! You and I have the foundation of the twelve apostles when God inspired them to record for us His words that leads us in this life to become even now a living manifestation of the great and wonderful city you and I have become due to the Great Builder God. Do not get caught up in attempting to determine all the measurements of this city, they are a symbol of you as you have become a beautiful gem and each of you have a part in the foundation of this beautiful city made up of others who are of this city, each of who has a part in this building of God. It is good to meditate and ponder the wonders of this city as describe for us by precious stones, and streets of Gold. In fact, this city is perfect in its measurements. 

     Throughout the times, especially at the end of the first great awakening, and the second great awakening tragedy struck Christianity. This tragedy was people began looking for experience(s) and this in all the wrong places. The shining of those precious stones began to become dim and dirty, and no longer shining the precious truth that they were and are. You see, people began looking at their works of the flesh and lost looking and seeking the fundamentals, those basic fundamentals of Authentic Christianity. What is needed so badly is for Christians to rediscover what is genuine worship of God. For Christians to become once again a shining precious stone of the city of God, there must be a reeducation to the fact that we share the oneness in Jesus Christ, and there must be a recommitment of ourselves to the witness by, not of, the power of the Holy Spirit. This story taken from the book Counterfeit Revivalby Hank Hanegraaff told by Paul Harvey helps to remind us of a fact:

     "One raw winter night the man heard an irregular thumping sound against the kitchen storm door. He went to a window and watched as tiny, shivering sparrows, attracted to the evident warmth inside, beat in vain against the glass.

     Touched, the farmer bundled up and trudged through fresh snow to pen the barn door for the struggling birds. He turned on the lights and tossed some hay into the  corner. but the sparrows, which had scattered in all directions when he emerged from the house, hid in the darkness, afraid.

     The man tried various tactics to get them into the barn. He laid down a trail of Saltine cracker crumbs to direct them. He tried circling behind the birds to drive them toward the barn. Nothing worked. He, a huge, alien creature, had terrified them; the birds couldn't comprehend that he actually desired to help.

     the farmer withdrew to his house and watched the doomed sparrows through the window. As he stared, a thought hit him like lightning from a clear blue sky: If only I could become a bird--one of them--just for a moment. Then I wouldn't frighten them so. I could show them the way to warmth and safety.

     At the same moment, another thought dawned on him. He had grasped the reason Jesus was born. (Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford, The Student Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992). "Insight" note at Mark 4:41, 892.

    While the farmer could not become a sparrow, God did become man. Quit looking for God in all the wrong places, you can experience Him through genuine worship, oneness, and witness. You can shine as what you are in the sight of God, a precious stone in His city: you!

Then they cry unto the LORD

   in their trouble, and He

bringeth them out of their

  distresses. He maketh the

storm a calm, so that the

   waves thereof are still.

Then are they glad because

  they be quiet; so He bringeth

them unto their desired haven.

                Psalm 107:28-30

Shine, shine, shine: You are a precious stone of God

Richard L. Crumb