You are Invited to the Holy City

  My sister came over yesterday. She is teaching piano to my kids, my grandkids, and me. I used to play the piano, but then when I walked away from God, I walked away from the piano too. And then, when God restored my life, my marriage, and my family, I started to miss my piano. So, sister number 2 found me an awesome piano. There was no good place for it in our new house, so we put it in the basement, and when someone is playing the piano, the house is filled with joy. And since I had left it for so long, sister number 1 has been teaching me things and reminding me of things I forgot.

But yesterday, as she and I were practicing a duet, I felt overwhelmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit, and here is why. As we were playing, my daughter was casting the lyrics to the song we were playing on the television, and it collided with what I had read in Ezekiel just that morning. The Israelites were stubbornly persisting in their sins despite being warned repeatedly by the prophets to repent and be restored. God did not want to allow his people to be destroyed, but they chose to believe the lying prophets who said everything will be okay, and you can keep going on in your sins. So, Ezekiel has a vision of God’s glory leaving the temple. And it must have been devastating to lose God’s protection: ‘Then the cherubim lifted their wings and rose into the air with their wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them. Then the glory of the Lord went up from the city and stopped above the mountain to the east.’ (Ezekiel 11:22,23).

The song we are playing is called ‘The Holy City’ and it talks about the glory of Jerusalem in the beginning, and the effects of sin and the destruction of Jerusalem and the death of Jesus in Jerusalem which made a way for all who come to Him. And how one day there will be a New Jerusalem, a Holy City. This is a portion of the lyrics that brought tears to my eyes:

‘And once again the scene was changed, new earth there seemed to be,

I saw the Holy City, beside the tideless sea;

The light of God was on its streets, the gates were open wide,

And all who would might enter, and no one was denied.

No need of moon or stars by night or sun to shine by day,

It was the new Jerusalem that would not pass away.

Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Sing for the night is oer!

Hosanna in the highest, Hosanna forever more!’

 So, I was struck by this thought as I was playing how sad it must have been for God to leave His temple in Jerusalem, and yet He doesn’t leave us without hope of restoration.

This is what He said just before He left the temple in Jerusalem: ‘Therefore, tell the exiles, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Although I have scattered you in the countries of the world, I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile. I, the Sovereign Lord, will gather you back from the nations where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel once again. When the people return to their homeland, they will remove every trace of their vile images and detestable idols. And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender responsive heart so they will obey my decrees and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those who long for vile images and detestable idols, I will repay them full for their sins. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken! (Ezekiel 11:16-21).

So, I called this post ‘You are invited to the Holy City’ and here’s my thoughts about that from this passage:

-God forgives and restores the repentant sinner. He is longing to forgive us, and the thing that holds us back is the stubbornness of our deluded hearts and the blindness we carry when we persist in our sin. In my case, sin wasn’t making me ‘happy’ and I started to look for God. and guess what! I discovered that what He says is true, and that He is the source of peace and joy, and we can have it when we turn to Him.

-the Enemy wants to deceive us about the heart of God. People tend to bristle when God talks about ‘decrees and regulations’ but one day I noticed something. The first four commandments are about our relationship with Him. When I first returned to the Lord I noticed how incredibly ungrateful I was! But when I began to thank God for my life and the gifts He has given me, I started to love Him. And He puts this love in my heart more and more!  And the rest of the 10 commandments are about the ways we are treating each other. He’s not just talking about the way He wants me to treat you, but also the way He wants you to treat me! That was a paradigm shift for me, and I started to see the goodness in God’s heart! Once your eyes are opened to the kindness behind the decrees and regulations, then maybe your heart will soften like mine did. The stubbornness of our own self-centeredness only leads to ‘ever increasing wickedness’.  Maybe you could pray this prayer that I prayed once: ‘God, would you open my eyes?’ well, He did, and I am forever grateful for that day.

-don’t keep longing for a lie. God has given us a treasure, and that treasure is His word. The more you read it, the more you will believe it! That’s what happened to me: as I read, I am assured of the truth that I am reading, and He opens my eyes to more truth. I suddenly saw the lies I was believing for what they were, and I didn’t want the Enemy to run my life anymore. You might think you are trapped or that it’s too late, but that’s just another lie. Ask Him to open your eyes! Go on a search and find God and accept your invitation to eternal life in the Holy City.

We recently attended a Lauren Daigle concert, and she sang the song “Tremble’ about seeing God for who He is and afterward she talked about heaven. Her words were inviting us to see heaven with new eyes, and stop believing the lies of the enemy who tells us it will be boring: it won’t! It will be more incredible than anything we can imagine.