The Tree of Life: Are You Ready?

“¹Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” – Revelation 22:1-2 (ESV)

There is the living water again as Jesus spoke of to the Samaritan woman at the well. And also the forbidden tree of life from the Garden of Eden. Each of these are shown to be available in abundance in The New Jerusalem.

When we drink from the living water, we are accepting of the salvation provided by God. When we fully accept the salvation, we will be able to eat from the tree of life that was forbidden and taken away due to our sin.

Our Father in heaven has once again demonstrated His full love for us. He took away that which we were not ready for, the tree of life, and provided the path to for us to once again have access when we were ready, accepting of salvation.

Now in The New Jerusalem we have the living water everywhere just as the tree of life is everywhere as well. Our reward will be all around us. God is good and worthy to be praised.

Are you searching for eternal life? Would you like to enter The New Jerusalem? Are you ready for the tree of life?

“²⁷But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” – Revelation 21:27 (ESV)

What a statement here in Revelation that “nothing unclean will ever enter”. The New Jerusalem will be always and forever pure and undefiled.

As good intentioned as we are here in the world and in the areas of “utopia”, evil and the unclean will always show up. We may paint a rosy facade, and give the appearance that everything is great, but there will always be infighting and power struggles and greed and depravity and hiding. We are human and will always want more than we have, causing us to follow the temptations of Satan.

The New Jerusalem is different. With all of the gold and gems that are of and in the city, and all of the goodness there, only “glory and the honor of the nations”^a will be within the gates.

And how do we get there to experience this great New Jerusalem, by being written in the Lamb’s book of life. No, we cannot buy our way in, we cannot bribe someone, we cannot just move to the area. We have to have accepted the gift of salvation within our heart of hearts.

Did/do you believe you live a life of utopia? Have you seen the influx of evil and unclean into your life that you believed to be pure? Have you been written in the Lambs book of life so that you can enter The New Jerusalem?

^aRevelation 21:26 (ESV)

“⁷Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, ⁸and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” – Revelation 13:7-8 (ESV)

We are all set………to be persecuted. We will be beat down. We will be “conquered”. Satan was given authority to do his bidding.

But……….we were provided the way out. We were given the way to escape: enrollment in the Lambs Book of Life. Written in the Lambs Book of Life gives us protection against worshiping the conqueror and being cast into the lake of fire (ESV Commentary).

When we have eternal life, we may be conquered physically, but spiritually we are safe. We are able to worship and keep our eyes and heart on God regardless of the persecution we are experiencing.

Are you feeling persecuted? Do you feel as though you are being conquered? What is it that gives you the strength to get through it, Eternal Life provided by God?

“⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” – Revelation 2:7 (ESV)

As Christians we are at war, spiritual war. We only need to keep fighting each and every day by staying faithful and continuing our work for Christ. This perseverance will result in victory.

Let’s think about victory for a moment. When we have a victory we have an award for winning. On earth we are looking to the tangible and monetary items to demonstrate our victory. Just this weekend Bryson and I went skeet shooting with a group of men and how did we determine victory, by who hit the most clays. There was not trophy, but it was clear who the best were (not us by the way).

Now the spiritual war we are a part of may not be as instant and clearly defined in victory as a skeet shoot just due to the time factor involved, but we will know the winners. When we are fighting the fight for Christ, we as Christians are the winners and will be granted “to eat of the tree of life”, that was denied to Adam and Eve, “which is in the paradise of God”.

When you are in the world fighting the spiritual war, are you able to just put your head down and fight? Are you looking for the victory in the moment, or persevering for the ultimate win? Are you aware of the eternal life you receive with the victory that will be realized?

“¹¹And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” – 1 John 5:11-12 (ESV)

When we have accepted the Son of God, we have eternal life, and you probably recognize the verse below:

“¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave is only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16 (ESV)

We have the opportunity to have eternal life and the cost to us is minimal: accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. When we have accepted Him, we have eternal life.

What is your status in regard to the cost of eternal life? What are you missing? Will you have the Son to have eternal life?

“¹⁴We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. ¹⁵Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” – 1 John 3:14-15 (ESV)

These verses are very telling and in some respects are difficult to hear. Not loving leads to death. Not loving is the opposite of hating and if hating creates murderers then those that are not loving are indeed murderers.

“¹³Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.” – J John 3:13 (ESV)

We are hated by the world and that is evident by the persecution we endure each and every day.

But we have the answer, love. Love is the one thing that we are able to spread to combat the hate. When we love, we are able to exemplify the eternal life that we have been given.

Yes, you will still be hated, and in fact likely even more. Your love will shine a light on the darkness in others and evil does not like the light so therefore it will fight back more vigorously to remain in the dark. We must continue to shine our light provided to us by God in the form of eternal life.

Have you noticed the hatred for the love you show? Are you showing that love anyway? Are you living the eternal life even though the world hates you?

Knowledge is something that we all can seek. A depth of understanding, ability to recall and teach others, and application over time. These are true knowledge and not just having information about things.

Having eternal life with Christ is enhanced and demonstrated through our knowledge.

“³His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ⁵For this very reason, make every effort to supplement you faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 2 Peter 1:3-8 (ESV)

I know that is quite a few verses and makes for a bit of a read. When you take the time to read through it, I was able to understand the value of knowledge and how to achieve it.

Once we have accepted Christ, we are His and now have eternal life. We still have work to do as I have noted many times in my writings and believe that it is one of the places that we miss a lot of the time. I know that for the longest time I skated by as a Christian. Believing that there was not much more that I could do other than attending church, making sure my family was there, and not shying away from letting people know that I was a Christian. The verses above indicate how we get to work and what it takes to immerse ourselves in doing the work of Christ.

We are tasked with many things to be effective as Christians in this world, and right in the middle of it all is “knowledge” as noted in verses 5, 6, and 8. It is up to us to take advantage of the resources we have to gain that knowledge and utilize it in our walk to demonstrate the great and mighty love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When you walk through this world, are you skating by? Are you immersing yourself in God’s Word to know more? Are you expanding your knowledge to live the eternal life provided by your salvation?

“⁹Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. ¹⁰For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; ¹¹let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. ¹²for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” – 1 Peter 3:9-12 (ESV)

There is a lot going on in those verses, however I am interested in the drive to good.

We find ourselves in many situations. Some are easy and some test us. No matter the situation, we have a choice. We can be good, or we can repay with what is given.

I have encountered situations where I have to choose, and I will say, the road to repay what is given is much easier. When the situation is one where I am tested, it is really easy to “fight back”. I find it welling up inside and eventually spilling out. And how do I feel afterward, when I really think about it, I stew on it, maintain my feelings and frankly may even feel worse than before.

Now in those situations where I am able to stick with good and give love in return, I find myself walking away and the situation has passed completely. I have allowed God’s love to intervene and smooth everything over with the situation and my continued thoughts of that situation.

It is a choice for us to stick to good and love life.

Why would you choose to maintain a “fight back” mentality? What are you really getting when you choose to “repay” or “get revenge”? What if you were simply to act in love and soften your approach? What would be your benefit if you were to love life and stick to good?

Have you been tempted?

“¹²Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” – James 1:12 (ESV)

I am pretty sure that we all have been tempted. We have been run through the ringer of testing our faith. We have had the opportunity to turn away from Christ. Reading verse 12 reminds me that indeed we are tested.

But not by God. We are not tested by God, we are given the strength to endure. Our salvation has provided us the tools to stay firm in the faith. When we do, we “receive the crown of life, which God has promised”. We know that God does not break His promises and therefore we can fully trust Him.

When we are able to fully rely on God, we are granted the safety and security of His love. We are given strength to get through the trials and tests that come our way. We receive that which was promised. He loves us first, and in return we love Him.

Are you trying to do it all yourself? Are you able to stand firm through the trials and tests? Will you rely of the strength of God and receive eternal life?

“⁵Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ ⁶So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what can man do to me?’” – Hebrews 13:5-6 (ESV)

I know that sometimes I feel like there is more that I should be doing to gain more and be more satisfied, but is it really my job for all of that? The writer of Hebrews expresses how we should be approach life and that we are not in it alone.

I want to share a passage from page 154-155 of the book by Jeffrey Garton: Career Contentment.

• “You satisfaction depends on a need, want, obligation, effort, result, or expectation being fulfilled. You either have it or you don’t, and getting it depends of other people and material things that are not always within your control.”
• “Your contentment depends on how you reason to recognize the acceptable middle ground in any situation. It depends on how you think about your situation, which enables you to feel a certain way, rather than waiting for material things or other people to make you feel a certain way.”

When we are content, it is a mental state and we are able to continue moving forward. It seems as though we are continually seeking satisfaction and, as you can see in the first point above from Jeffrey Garton that means someone else has to give us something. Relying on man is not always fruitful for us. However, as God is true to his word, once we have accepted salvation, we can rely on Him for all, and therefore should exercise our contentment.

Are you placing your future on being satisfied by others? Are you able to rely on God to provide? Are you banking your life on your contentment?