Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.

📝 Reflection

The wall was made of jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass. The wall of the city was built on foundation stones inlaid with twelve precious stones: the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. '

The twelve gates were made of pearls—each gate from a single pearl! And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass. '

Ok, today might be a little longer than normal so hang with me. First I would love to invite you to read all of this chapter. There is a lot of imagery in this chapter of the vision that we commonly use and that give us our ‘picture’ of heaven. Gold, glass, jewels, and the pearly gates. Where there will be no more death, no more tears, no more pain, no sorrow. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. Everything will be new, no more temple, no more sun or moon because God will illuminate everything himself. He and the lamb are the temple. So much packed into this chapter as we are almost to the end of the book and the end of the Bible!!

I really do encourage you to read the whole chapter! I camped on the jewels and specifically the pearly gates. Jewels are made and forged deep in the earth. Through a process of pressure and time, but it is when they are dug up and go through the refining process that we value them. Pearls interestingly are the only biological jewel that are made from a living organism and that do not need further refining from humans.

Pearls begin to form when an irritant gets into the oyster. The oyster to protect itself begins to coat the irritant with the same material that it uses makes it’s shell; aragonite and conchiolin. I am simplifying the process, but will suffice for our discussion today. As I was thinking of why the gates of the holy city were made from pearls this process is relevant. Every word used in he bible has a purpose and points to deeper meaning. One must sit with it in the spirit in order to glean what that might be.

When you internalize the message of love and grace, of God and Jesus it is overwhelming. It is humbling in the best way. I personally refer to it as my humble crumble, or my Humpty Dumpty experience. I stumbled into it this year in my hubris to ‘rise and shine’ and read the Bible this year for the first time myself with no outside influence. Just me and God, I wanted to ‘own’ my faith. Be careful what you wish for you just might get it! Even though I did eliminate all other outside reading this year that was spiritual in nature or ‘christian’, I did come with the beliefs I already had about what the Bible would say, so it took quite a while for the crumbling to begin. I was holding onto beliefs while also earnestly seeking and praying for humility.

Once I get to proverbs the walls started to come down. The veil began to slowly lift or at lest get more transparent. But when I hit the book of Mark, the walls came tumbling down and God’s love and grace flooded in. I cried for days, like body wracking ugly crying. In the best way. The scales came off my spiritual eyes. What agape love is slowly allowing me to do it is to turn my own irritants into pearls. As I slowly start to coat them with God’s mixture of love and grace. It is a process, but one that I feel like I am definitely in. Because things that used to irritate the heck out of me. Even things I felt very ‘righteous’ about are starting to soften.

My own pharisaical and pious goodness as a ‘Christian’ came face to face with the real Jesus this year. Not just my pre-formed and performance based beliefs that I learned about in church. That box I had him in allowed me to be judgmental, good, and right. Help others see their need to be ‘saved’. The real Jesus and his amazing grace knocked me off of that high horse. The literal words that are often clung to in the Bible allowed me to take things out of their intended spirit and fed my irritation and caused it to grow.

Knowing the real Jesus and allowing God’s love and grace to humbly crumble you will create a new heaven and a new earth metaphorically. God’s home will be among his people, he will live with you, his home will be in you and with you.

As you learn to turn those irritants into pearls of joy and wisdom. He indeed does wipe tears from your eyes, his love begins to take the pain and sorrow away. As you do the inner work and allow him to move in and shift your identity away from the things of this world and over to your identity in Christ, you will experience things in a new way. You will still feel sadness, anger, betrayal but not in a way that will devastate and destroy you anymore. When we learn to detach, and not have our identity in people, relationships, titles, possessions etc.. we actually and paradoxically able to love and enjoy all of these things more fully.

Doesn’t that sound heavenly? As the word becomes alive in you and the spirit and the truth of Jesus’ testimony makes its way into your heart over time it will turn into something more precious than even jewels. The gates of your heart will be made of pearls of joy and wisdom. Provide more clarity than glass, more brilliance than gold, more light than the sun and the moon. There will be no more darkness. Light and love amplify and produces more of themselves. They are life giving sources of energy.

✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt

Rather than a journal question today I will put the full text of this chapter here for you to meditate on and internalize into your spirit:

'Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 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.”
And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.
“But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Then one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls containing the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come with me! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone—like jasper as clear as crystal. The city wall was broad and high, with twelve gates guarded by twelve angels. And the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were written on the gates. There were three gates on each side—east, north, south, and west. The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles. Then he measured the walls and found them to be 216 feet thick (according to the human standard used by the angel).
The wall was made of jasper, and the city was pure gold, as clear as glass. The wall of the city was built on foundation stones inlaid with twelve precious stones: the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.
The twelve gates were made of pearls—each gate from a single pearl! And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass. I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city. Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.'

📖Tomorrows Reading

Coaching Opportunity

My inaugural OWN IT! For Good! group & 1:1 coaching is well underway and it is amazing. The participants are absolutely loving it and experiencing major aha's, break throughs and life changing mindset shifts. Please let me know if you are interested in experiencing this as well, I am considering kicking off another group in January of 2023. Let's make 2023 the year of YOU by laying a solid foundational mind set! The world needs what only you have to offer! Give yourself the best gift ever, the best version of you is ready to rise & shine!

Book your free📞Wake Up Call today to learn if this is what you have been waiting for!

If you have stuck with me this far, then you are not reading this by accident, I believe God has a plan for you and is calling you forward!😉🤩

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Day 364- Pearls of Joy and Wisdom

🎥 Video

📝 Reflection

✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt

📖Tomorrows Reading

Coaching Opportunity

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