Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary Life
How Do You Describe?
The inside of our house needs painting. It needed painting when we
moved in a year and a half ago, and it is even more in need now. Something
"more important" always permits me to postpone the job. I've finally begun
the steps to start to prepare to paint. We're picking colors and I've decided
to get back after the prep work (which always takes far longer and is a lot
more work than painting itself).
We picked a color for the front entranceway, the stairwell and the
dining room. We don't use the dining room as a dining room, but rather as a
sort of sitting room called the "hidey-hole." It was originally to be the
place for Kathy to have a quiet place to study. It evolved into a family room
of sorts and Kathy moved her office up to the living room.
Off the front entrance is a bathroom which uses a lot of pink,
including a bright pink countertop which is the width of the room. Since we
don't want to go through the hassle of replacing the counter, the entrance
way need to complement the bathroom and flow up into the hidey-hole and not
clash with the furniture or window dressings.
I went to the paint store and was trying to explain the color. I needed
a grey, about the color of a fresh water pearl with just a hint of pink. Not
so pink as to be "pink" but enough to pick up the pink and not so grey as to
be "grey". I wanted a subtle, soft almost neutral color that had to have a
definitive character. A simple boring off white just won't do. I brought a
few samples home to work with.
Like my paint shade, some things, even when you have experienced them
simply defy description.
How do you convey the feelings you had the first time you fell in love?
How do you describe the conviction in your heart that tells you it's true
when you find Jesus? How do you describe the feeling of being filled with
Holy Spirit, or of knowing you heard the voice of God? How do you describe
being in the presence of a Holy God?
Some things you simply have to see and/or experience yourself. No
description or photograph will ever do them justice.
The Bible is full of descriptions of God or heaven that simply give us
a taste but really don't do justice to what is being described.
Then there came a voice from above the expanse
over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. Above the expanse over
their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on
the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared
to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and
that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded
him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was
the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the
glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of
one speaking. Ezekiel 1:25-28 NIV
If ten skilled artists drew a rendering of what Ezekiel saw, there
would be similarities, but you would see ten completely different pictures.
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls
full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you
the bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a
mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming
down out of heaven from God. 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. There were three gates on the east, three on the north,
three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve
foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the
city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long
as it was wide. He ! measured the city with the rod and found it to be
12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured
its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel
was using. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure
as glass.
The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of
precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the
third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth
carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the
tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The
twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The
great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. I did
not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
are its temple. 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 i'ts lamp. The nations
will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their
splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be
no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is
shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's
book of life.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as
crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of
the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of
life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And
the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will
there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city,
and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will
be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the
light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them
light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 21:9-22:5 NIV
Even the most skilled wordsmiths and artists will not be able to draw
these things as they actually are. God, heaven and the things of God could
described in every superlative there is and never comes close.
There are things in your Christian walk that will simply sound strange
or unbelievable to a non-Christian (sometimes even to other Christians who
have not had a similar experience). That's okay, perhaps it's even a
privilege of being a child of God, to know His presence fully enough to not
be able to explain it to someone who hasn't had that experience.
Simply be blessed by the experience and be patient if you can't
communicate it.
Until next time, may the presence of God be so strong in your life that
even the tiny snippet the world understands draws them towards Him.
Be blessed.
Hallelu Yah (Praise God)!
Kevin
YOU ARE
Once you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are
cared for.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7 NIV
Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant.
You have value in the eyes of God so great that it was worth dying for. You
are a blessing to the world.
Did you know God's forgiveness and unconditional love is available for
anyone who asks?
If you haven't made the decision to accept Christ as Lord
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HERE NOW)
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