Daily Journal: 23 May

Go to Jesus

Outside the City

Hebrews 13:12-16 (NLT)

So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore. For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come. Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God.

This scripture calls us to go to Jesus Christ, son of God, to where the He made the purest sacrifice. Displaced outside the city gates. We need to go to Him there and live from that place of humble purity.

This may not suit our desires for living in this world, but we need to understand why we live at all, and where our home really is. Our home is not here, but with Jesus. Our devotion to Him needs to come from an unwavering heart of love, or we won’t last.

The world has many pleasures that can draw us away from Him. We need to be continually training our hearts and remembering what Jesus Christ has done for us and what He continues to do for us, interceding for us, having sent the Holy Spirit to be our Counselor, Advocate, to have constant companionship with us.

When we choose to live with Him outside the city gates, we are being purified so that we can also be with Him in our eternal home where He has gone to prepare a place for us. We can't go with a mind that is in two places and a heart that is divided.

John 14:2 (NLT)

There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

It’s easy to forget the reality of eternity when we allow our desires to follow the world but Jesus calls us to live differently to the world. He prayed to the Father for us before He ascended to heaven. His prayer is recorded in John 17. It’s a beautiful prayer asking for our protection as we live in this world.

John 17:15-18 (NLT)

I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.

We represent another world, one where Jesus lives. Soon He will come to take us to be with Him forever and we will be changed to be like Him. He is the one who heals our hearts and renews our thoughts. He is the one who fills us with joy and with the promise of eternity that He has put in our hearts.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart

Revelations 21:4 (NLT)

He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

When we go to Jesus outside the city gates we find our true home.