Jesus is Preparing a Place for Us

“ 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14: 2-3).

When Jesus went back to the Father after His resurrection

He went to prepare room for us 

In God’s dwelling place

Where

God the Father

Jesus the Son

The Holy Spirit 

Live together as the Triune God

In that perfect community

Like the Jewish families

When a son is getting married

He’d build an extension to his father’s house

The groom and the bride would live in that dwelling place

With the groom’s family

Jesus is the Groom and the Church is His Bride

The Church is everyone redeemed by Christ’s blood

We are the bride

We are Christ’s bride

Our Groom has gone before us 

Returned to His

Home

Dwelling place

To prepare room for us

That we might join Him 

In His dwelling place

Like an expectant groom

Excited in anticipation

For his bride to join him

To become one with his Intended to

Live

Dwell

Do life 

Together 

Christ is eagerly awaiting His Bride

The Church

You and me

To join Him

At that dwelling place

Where we get to 

Live

Enjoy

Daily 

Constant

Intimate

Relationship with our Groom

As He ushers us 

Into the Trinity

The Perfect Community

Prefect Family 

Of 

The Triune God

We will become

Family

Community

With 

Jesus our Groom

God Our Father

The Holy Spirit our Succor

God’s Triune Community

Expands 

To include us

The sweet and intimate Triune Community

Will be

Filled with us

God’s precious possession

God’s masterpiece

God’s beloved

For we

Are 

His 

Beloved

His

Intended

His 

Bride

The Triune God’s plan all along

Everlasting communion 

With us

We get to live 

For-ever 

In God’s presence

With all the redeemed

Living in perfect harmony

Everlasting peace

Everlasting joy

Forever 

AMEN

"One Day (When We All Get to Heaven" by Saddleback worship

"Hymn of Heaven" by Phil Wickham

"Jesus Promised Me a Home Over There" by Jennifer Hudson

Granting Us the Desires of Our Hearts

Jesus has promised us over and over

Whatever we ask for in His name He will grant

One might take this promise as a free for all offer

Whatever we ask for?

Sometimes we ask for

Being able to perform well at school or at work

Being able to be successful

The bank account we want

The relationship we crave

The respect we yearn

The status we covet

The house we wish

The job we desire

The car we like

Good marriage

Good health

No worries

Good kids

Visible blessings

Does a loving parent grant their children everything they ask for

It would be a very indulging parent

Who loses sight of the long term good for their children

Good parenting is a combination of

Nurturance and frustration tolerance

When we only give nurturance

Giving our kids whatever they ask for

Rushing to sooth every cry and discomfort

The child is not prepared for the realities of life

Where there are pain and frustrations

The child develops unrealistic expectations of life

And become entitled

Unable to cope with life

When the parent only provides restrictions and corrections

The child experiences 

Harshness

Scarcity

Rejection

Dejection

Joylessness

Hopelessness

Abandonment

When a loving parent pays

Attention to the needs of the child

Such that the child feels

Seen

Heard

Understood

Accepted

Loved

Coupled with

Sharing and enforcing 

Age appropriate and realistic expectations

Corrections

Limit setting

The child feels safe

Whatever they desire 

The responsibilities of life

Are not only on their shoulders

The child gets to be a kid

With adults around 

Who are responsible for them

The buck stops with the parent

Not with the child

The child can be free 

To ask for anything

Knowing the parent will grant 

Only what’s best for them

Since their parent knows and loves them

Knows what’s best for them

Will consider the request

In light of what’s best

Our Heavenly Father 

Knows us 

Thoroughly

Completely

Intimately

After all

He’s the One Who created us

He formed us in our mother’s womb

He saw our 

Every thought

Every day

Before one word was completed as a thought

Before one day came into being

He knew our every 

Inclination

Proclivity

Foible

And He still created us

He formed us after His own image

Called us His

Masterpiece

Precious children

Beautiful image-bearers

When we align our desires with God’s desires

Our hearts are molded into God’s heart

Our desires are no longer corporal but heavenly minded

When we seek first

God’s Kingdom

God’s Righteousness

God’s Will

God’s desires

When our hearts and lives are

Melded with God’s

Will and desires 

For the world

For others

For us

He will grant us 

The desires of our hearts

For these desires are no longer

Ours

Short-sighted

Temporary

Limited

But 

Broad

Wide

Expansive

Far-reaching

Beyond imagination

Desires

Of 

God

When we pray 

In accordance with the

Will of God

He will grant us

The desires of our heart

His heart

His desire

His good and perfect will

"Blessings" by Laura Story

"I Am Not My Own" by the Gettys

Come Buy and Eat Without Money and Without Cost

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Isaiah 55:1)

How does one buy something without money

How does one obtain something without cost

One cannot purchase something without money or cost

Especially when it comes to obtaining salvation

The forgiveness of our sins

Except

When Christ is that Commodity

Christ’s blood on the cross is 

The cost

The payment

For all of our sins

When Jesus gave up His last breath on the cross and declared:

IT IS FINISHED!

All the debts of our sins have been

Canceled

Forgiven

Wiped clean

Our sins of commission and sins of omission in the 

Past

Present

Future

Are all nullified

Christ our Deliverer

Christ our Savior

He has done it all

On the cruel cross

As The payment for our sins

Now He calls us to Himself

Come!

Come buy spiritual food

Come buy spiritual milk

Come buy spiritual sustenance

Come buy life

Abundant life

Come to the Source of all life

Come to the Source of eternal life

Come and take

Come and eat

Come and drink 

In 

the accomplished work of Christ on the cross

Come at no cost

Come freely

Come boldly

Come confidently

Let us

Go 

to the now vacated cross

to the empty tomb

Let us 

Run 

to the Resurrected Christ

Let us

Partake of His 

Love

Goodness

Salvation

Presence

Christ with us

Emmanuel

Christ in us

Abundant

Transformed

Life 

"All Who Are Thirsty" - Brenton Brown

All Glory Honor and Power

All glory honor and power

Belong to Jesus

Our Mediator

Our Sacrificial Lamb

Our Savior

Who is

God’s Only Son

The Firstborn 

First Fruit of all creation

One with the Triune God

God Himself

God Incarnate

The Firstborn from the dead

The Soon and Coming King

Who debased Himself and was born as a baby to

Experience what we experience

The joys

Sorrows

Hardships

Difficulties 

Unfairness

Frustrations

Temptations

Annoyances

Dashed hopes

Persecutions

Restrictions

Limitations

Rejections

Tiredness

Betrayals

Hunger

Mocking

Disappointments

Misunderstandings

So He could empathize with us

As our Great High Priest

Not a God who stands far off

To take pity on us humans

But a very present

God

Immanuel

He is fully with us

Present with us

In the thick of our struggles

Through the thick and thin

Christ the Redeemer

Christ the Messiah

Christ the Savior

Christ the Comforter

Christ the Constant Companion

Christ Who suffered for us

Christ Who willingly went to the cross for us

Because He

Loves and

Sees

Us

So much so that He

Stretched out His arms

To be nailed to the cross

For us

His

Beloved

He died and paid the price of our sins

So He might gain us as His

Siblings

Co-heirs

Friends

To have us be with Him

Forever

Only His blood has the power to save us

Only His shed blood can atone for us

Only His blood is efficacious

To pay for our sins

Only Christ

God’s Son

Can reconcile us with God

Only Jesus

Praise

Praise to the Messiah

Who paid the price for us

Who is now

Seated at the right hand of God

High and lifted up

Magnified 

Glorified

Exalted

All glory

All honor

All power

Belong to Him

And Him alone

We join the Four Living Creatures

We join the 24 Elders

We join all the Angels

We join all creation

In continual chorus of

HALLELUJAHS

Giving Him all the 

GLORY

HONOR

POWER

Due Him!

"Forever" by Kari Jobe

 Replacing Our Core Beliefs

Before we had words

Our unconscious recorded our experiences

We embraced our experiences as reality

Believing that our life will continue 

To be 

Just how we experienced it…

before we had words

For before we had words

We operated out of emotions

Once we have words

We become conscious of our

Emotions

Feelings

Experiences

We begin to make sense 

Of our experiences

Feelings

Emotions

Nonetheless 

What we experienced during our primal years

Have taken root

Deep in our unconscious

And have become our

Core Beliefs

Our unconscious continues to seek out

Experiences

Feelings

Emotions 

That feel familiar

Relentlessly we grab on to them

To reinforce our expectations toward life

Regardless of our present situation

Regardless of our new experiences

Regardless of our new realities

We are convinced

However we experienced life way back then

Will continue to prove to be true 

In the days and years to come

For the rest of our life

Our unconscious is like an industrial-sized magnet

Scanning for 

Any and every

Vestige of what would prove to us

That our Core Beliefs

Are true and real

In perpetuity

How do we overcome our Core Beliefs?

With much mourning and grieving 

Of our experiences

Putting into words our experiences

To make what is in our unconscious

Conscious

We begin to understand our Core Beliefs

What formed and shaped them

We then replace our Core Beliefs

With reality 

In the here and now

The new creation that we are

In Christ Jesus

Getting rid of the old wineskin

Shedding our past

Renewing our minds

With God’s truths

That we are 

Loved

Desired

Wanted

Cherished 

By God

Our Maker

The Author of our life

Who saw our unformed body

Before the foundation of the world was set

Who knit us together 

In our mother’s womb

He was with us from the beginning

Has been with us each and every day

He is with us in the here and now

And He will be with us 

In perpetuity

Christ the First Born of creation

Christ Who has gone before us

Christ Who suffered for us

Christ Who died for us

Christ Who resurrected from the dead

Christ Who is now at the right hand of God

Interceding for us

We have a new beginning

We are new creation

Our Core Beliefs be gone

Let us embrace 

Our new identity

Our new reality

Our new life

Our new wine skin

For all the old has passed away

Behold we are now made new

Embrace how God views us

Anticipate what He will unfold in our life

His good and perfect will for us

Our new life of

Love

Hope

Joy

Shalom

Purpose

 God Performs His Miracles…Through Us

Christ calls us to serve Him at all times

When we are filled with excitement

When we are filled with the Spirit 

When we are filled with energy

When we feel capable

When we feel useful

When we are exhausted

When we feel depleted

When we feel defeated

When we feel drained

When we feel empty

When we feel dry

When we have nothing left to give

When we desperately need a respite

Needing to stop

Needing to rest

The 12 disciples just returned from a short term mission

They were looking forward to getting away with Jesus to rest 

They were faced with the needs of the 5,000

There were only five loaves of bread and two fish

They were tapped out

They were exhausted

Depleted

Jesus performed the miracle of multiplying the bread and the fish

He had the disciples distribute His provisions

Together they fed the 5,000

Sometimes after a successful mission

We are in desperate need of rest

We are just plain tapped out

But people’s needs don’t end

They still come to us for help

Sometimes Christ calls us to give more

To stretch us even when we are exhausted

But then He shows up

He performs the miracle

He meets each need

We participate by distributing His provisions

We are His hands and feet 

The instruments

of His miracles

Yes we are tapped out

But He does the work

We don’t have to perform the miracle

We only get to distribute His provisions

Afterall It is all about Him 

He sees the needs

He meets the needs

Through us

Whether full of vigor

Or even when we are exhausted

Hallowed Be God’s Name

Jesus taught us to pray:

“Hallowed be Your Name”

Our lives are to demonstrate God’s Name as

Holy

Sacred

Revered

Honored

Whatever we do

Whether in word or deed

We are to do in the Name of Jesus

So that God’s Name is esteemed before others

When we act as God’s hands and feet

When we consider others above ourselves

When we lay our lives down for others

When we give generously to others

When we walk alongside others

When we rejoice with others

When we cry with others

When we listen to others

When we comfort others

When we encourage others

When we forgive one another

When we submit to one another

When we bear with one another in love

When we are reconciled to one another

When the life we live with others demonstrates God’s 

Joy

Love 

Heart

Holiness

Forgiveness

God’s Name is lifted up

God’s Name is glorified

God’s Name is revered

God’s Name is honored

God’s Name is Hallowed