Faith & Love: A One Year Bible Reading Plan - Part 12Sample

Our READING for today comes from Revelation 21:1-3 (ESV):

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

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”."

In these few phrases, both John 1:14 and Acts 2:39 actually find their fullest expression. Not only did The Word become flesh and dwell amongst us in the Person of Jesus Christ, but now, by His Spirit, God has made Man His permanent address.

First, with the birth of Christ, He revealed Himself to us as ‘Immanuel; God-WITH-us’. With the death of Christ, He brought to an end the understanding that God dwells in a temple made by human hands. With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, a whole new era began.

"… God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what He is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home." (Ephesians 1:19-22 MSG)