By calling the New Earth Earth, God emphatically tells us it will be earthly, and thus familiar. Otherwise, why call it Earth?

In verse 9 it says God "exalted and gave" a name. The Greek tense is what is called an aorist, in the indicative mood, "past time, in a point of time". So this verse says God has already given and exalted with the name.

When I read Revelation 21-22, I am reading the "rest of the story." The beginning of the story is found in Genesis chpts. 1-3. Finally, all the wrongs in the first garden are being made right in the final garden.

In this 6-minute video, I share about Matthew 1:23, which tells us about Christmas. It says, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel—which means “God with us”.

I shared briefly on Facebook what happened a couple of days ago, but wanted to blog about it now and add quite a few other thoughts and links.    

The Morning Star was the name Venus went by in the ancient world. Jesus also calls himself the Morning Star, but that doesn't mean it can't have its usual meaning also in a different context. 

I’ve never been to Heaven, yet I miss it. Eden’s in my blood. The best things of life are souvenirs from Eden, appetizers of the New Earth. There are just enough of them to keep us going but never enough to make us satisfied with the world as it is or ourselves as we are.  

Without an eternal perspective, without understanding the reality that the best is yet to come, we assume that people who die young, who are handicapped, who aren’t healthy, who don’t get married, or who don’t _____ [fill in the blank] will inevitably miss out on the best life has to offer. 

Why do we love great stories? Because they are pictures of the greatest story. There hasn’t ever been a story yet with people living happily ever after, since people die. But one story will come out that way. It’s a true story, and you and I are part of it.