Corona Devo 3281
Buc-ees (pronounced "buckeys") has highway billboards leading up to its establishments from miles (states!) away. Drivers (and passengers) are advised and advertised and alerted from great distances that a Buc-ees is approaching...or rather, that we (in our vehicles) are approaching it.
The Buc-ees-store doesn't move, but they advertise because they don't want us to miss it, or blow-by it as we motor down the freeway.
And--take it from someone who's been there: Buc-ees is worth the stop! Just about everything in their store is branded "Buc-ees", and somehow when you walk in, you want one of everything(!), whether that is a Buc-ees coffee or Buc-ees soda,
...a Buc-ees fuzzy one-piece beaver-pajama,
...a Buc-ees BBQ brisket sandwich, Buc-ees beaver nuggets ( addictive caramel-flavored corn puffs that melt in your mouth),
...and don't forget to fill-up on Buc-ees gasoline! Their fuel is the best deal around, and lastly, you simply must pay a visit to the Buc-ees bathrooms, touted as the cleanest you'll find on your travels.
Buc-ees advertises from miles (and miles) away, and my in-person visits have never disappointed. But I know of another advertised destination that will far surpass (even) the Buc-ees experience.
Whether we've been to a Buc-ees or not---let's make a pitstop in Revelation Chapter 21 in our Bible today, because here the Lord provides advisement and advertisement about a location and must-see destination that we do not want to miss: Heaven.
We may be many miles away from entering Heaven, or we may be getting off Heaven's exit today (only the Lord knows when we will breathe our last breath). But--will we know Heaven when we get there?
Yes, because God describes (advertises) it for us in beautiful detail in His Word.
Let's read the Lord's Biblical billboards that He has posted along the freeway of our life today.
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.” (10) 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.
(11) It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. (12) 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. (13) There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. (14) The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
(15) The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls.
(16) 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. (17) The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. (18) The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. (19) 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, (20) the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.
(21) The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass. ~Revelation 21:9-21
~~~
Heaven sounds glorious (and glory-filled), doesn't it?
These Scriptures are God's posting of His "highway billboards" leading up to His Heavenly establishment.
Whether we are eight-years old/or eighty-eight years old...new-in-Christ/or decades-old in our faith: the Lord provides His Word so that we can look forward to forever with Him in paradise, and we can anticipate how special and other-worldly Heaven will be, compared to this world.
We will want one of everything in Heaven, and we will have it, because in Heaven, God will be everything.
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. (23) 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 its lamp. ~Revelation 21:22-23
God uses the Bible to advise and advertise and alert us from great distances that eternity is approaching...or rather, that we are approaching it.
The Lord doesn't want us to miss forever in His (awesome!) presence. He doesn't want us to blow-by Heaven, the crescendo and purpose of our entire lives...as we motor down this earthly freeway.
It's easy to get off at the wrong-exits of sin and self (and we all do from time to time), but God has left the gate of Heaven wide-open for us...all of us, if we will just give our hearts to Him. And as long as we do/have (Accept Christ today if you have never before!), then we will walk through one of the twelve gates (each gate made of a single pearl), and then our name will be written in the Lamb's book of life.
On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. (26) The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. (27) 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. ~Revelation 21:9-27
But we will have to choose Him in order to enter those pearly gates, and to have our names written in the Lamb's book of life.
We'll just have to go, and one day we will just know.
And until then, we will just keep reading God's Bible and the billboards He places along our life-highways.
sarah
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