Month: March 2026

“If I forget you, Jerusalem,

 may my right hand forget its skill.”

Psalm 137:5 (NIV)

For a moment, forget about all the wars and violence in the Middle East,  past or present, in order to meditate on what Jerusalem has meant to all believers throughout the centuries. In other words, let’s recenter ourselves on our Jerusalem state of mind. 

“Yerushalayim,” as pronounced in Hebrew, means “Foundation of peace.”  It’s the physical place on earth, where the story of salvation all began. God connected with mankind in a way that He never did before, when Jesus became the incarnate, final sacrifice for our atonement, bringing true peace to all who believe in Him.

Jerusalem was known for the great temple built by King Solomon 967 years before Jesus came into the world. Solomon prayed, asking God to grant the prayer requests of all who prayed facing the temple in Jerusalem. (1 Kings 8:29-30)

To this day, people pray facing east, toward the site of the only remnant of that temple, still standing in Jerusalem today, called the Western wall. 

We no longer need to stand at the temple site or look toward the east when we pray, because the first step to a Jerusalem state of mind is knowing that we have someone greater than the temple, living within us. So we pray from wherever we are, asking everything in Jesus’ name, just as He told us to do.

Jerusalem is also the place where Jesus wept over those who were unwilling to be gathered to Him. A Jerusalem state of mind empathizes with God’s love and laments over those who reject Him. 

(Matthew 23:37-39)

On His way to Jerusalem, ten lepers approached Jesus, begging Him to heal their leprosy. Jesus healed all ten of the lepers, yet only one leper returned to Jesus, bowing down in worship, to thank Him. 

In a Jerusalem state of mind, we think like that one leper who returns to God in gratitude to worship and thank Him.

A person’s destiny can change for the better, in an instant, like the woman who had a twelve year hemorrhage, but was instantly healed with one touch of Jesus’ garment. Others lived in bondage for years, until Jesus rebuked their demons and set them free. A Jerusalem state of mind recalls every turning point in our lives when we were touched by Jesus, and set free from years of suffering or guilt. 

Jerusalem is a place of beginnings and endings, where Jesus ate the last supper, but talked about a new heaven and a new earth. It’s where we received the first installment of the hope and promise of our own bodily resurrection one day. A Jerusalem state of mind is the spiritual place where our faith and our choices today, determine the rewards of our eternal destiny.

When we try too hard to fit into this present world, Jerusalem reminds us that our true citizenship is in the heaven. (Philippians 3:20)

Until then, we center ourselves on a Jerusalem state of mind, which is as near to us as our right hand. 

We can never forget the lessons of Jerusalem or the words that Jesus spoke, saying, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” A Jerusalem state of mind is where we find our rest in Jesus. It’s where we express our gratitude for how He loves, heals and forgives us, recalling those turning points when He touched our life and set us free. Then, like that one leper, we keep returning to bow before Him, in thanksgiving and praise. 

Lord, as we center ourselves on our Jerusalem state of mind, help us to find our rest in you, filled with faith and gratitude, as we remember all the ways you have touched our life and set us free. Amen 

“Under His feet there appeared to be sapphire tilework, as clear as the sky itself.

Yet He did not lay a hand on these chosen Israelites. They saw God, and they ate and drank.”

Exodus 24:10-11 (NAB)

Moses wrote about an awesome mountain top experience he had around 1400 BC. After he chose seventy men, elders from all the tribes of Israel, along with his brother Aaron, and two nephews, Nadab and Abihu, they all went up the holy mountain of Sinai. Moses, his brother and nephews, being from the priestly tribe of Levi, offered the blood sacrifice on behalf of all the Israelite people. 

After they made the sacrifice, it says that as they ate and drank, they saw the feet of God on a magnificent floor of sapphire. As beautiful as the glistening blue sapphire floor sounds, I can’t help but be more fixated on the feet that were on it. God is a Spirit and He doesn’t have a body, so whose feet did they see? Scripture does say that Jesus is the “image of the invisible God.” 

(Colossians 1:15)

The feet they saw on the sapphire floor had to be the feet of Jesus, the second person of the divine Trinity. Though Jesus rarely appeared to people in the Old Testament, before His incarnation, it’s called a Theophany when He does. Were the feet seen on the sapphire floor, the feet of Jesus?

The elders beheld God as they ate and drank in His Presence. Who prepared the food they ate? Are there angels who serve as master chefs to prepare meals for special occasions? Was it a complete meal or only bread and wine, as a foreshadowing of the sacrament of communion that Jesus initiated later?

I certainly have more questions than answers, but one thing is clear, those men were given a limited glimpse of God, through a theophany of Jesus, and lived to tell about it.

So, there was a chosen group of men who ate and drank, dining in God’s Presence, on Mount Sinai after offering a sacrifice for sins. I’m beginning to see something strangely familiar about this whole scene. 

The twelve apostles were chosen men who also ate and drank in God’s Presence, at the last supper meal with Jesus. Moses and his men were on the mountain top and the twelve apostles were in an upper room. While there, Jesus spoke about His blood of the new covenant, that will be offered for forgiveness of sins, once and for all. 

The last supper seems like the fulfillment of the Mount Sinai event, except there was no sapphire floor in the upper room. It’s estimated that Jesus walked 1,968 feet, carrying a heavy cross up a hill, until being nailed to it, with Roman spikes driven through His hands and feet. 

These images are meant to reflect on as we participate in holy communion. We are privileged to eat and drink in the Presence of God, just as the chosen men on Mount Sinai and the apostles in the upper room did. Every time we receive communion, it becomes our upper room and mountain top moment, because if communion were only a meal, then the crucifixion was only an execution. It’s a sacred moment to worship and cherish Jesus, who is now seated at the right hand of God, the Father. 

Today, His nail scarred feet rest on that beautiful sapphire floor in Heaven, the same one that appeared to Moses and the elders. Though we cannot see Him now, we know how beautiful His feet are, because they brought us good news and paid the cost of our salvation. 

In Heaven, we will see everything clearly. We will see His face shining like the sun, a glorious throne, angels singing, gates of pearl, streets of gold, fragrant incense, and all who have ever believed, worshipping the Lamb of God who now lives to intercede for us. 

Until that day, His Spirit dwells in us, as His living Temples, which  may not have sapphire floors, but the more we surrender our hearts to Him, the more we beautify our Temple for Jesus to dwell in. 

Lord, thank you for the privilege to dine in your Presence through the new covenant made perfect by your precious blood. Help us keep our inward Temples beautiful for you to dwell in. Amen 

“Even now, declares the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.”

Joel 2:12-13 (NIV)

Since I started writing meditations over the past four years, there is a prevailing message within my spirit, which constantly emerges  through everything I write, and it’s that God keeps pursuing every human soul to reveal His love and mercy to them. Sometimes I say to myself, why am I writing the same theme again, but then I realize it’s not my decision, since  I’m being compelled by the Holy Spirit. 

Last week I was watching a show on the Christian TBN network, where a man was sharing his renewal of faith through a near death experience. I have read and heard many near death stories, but his especially drew my attention.

Marty always believed in Jesus as a child and a teenager, but as an adult, he drifted away from his faith. Through the stressors of his life, working as a County Sheriff, having two failed marriages, and in increasingly poor health, he was aware of his need to return to the Lord, but for some reason, he kept avoiding Him.

At the age of 51, Marty suffered a cardiac arrest, was hospitalized, intubated and lying comatose in intensive care. While unconscious and in a coma, he had either some type of lucid dream or near death experience. 

Marty found himself standing in the presence of Jesus. He felt the power of His love but he was so ashamed, he covered his face with his hands, expecting Jesus to point out all his faults and failures, but instead, Jesus spoke gently, “Son, come back to Me and do what I’ve called you to do.” 

“Return to God” is the message of all the prophets in the bible and it’s still the message today. Marty awoke from his lucid comatose dream conversation with Jesus, with a desire to return to the Lord he knew in his youth. He now lives with a strong sense of mission to remind people that Jesus loves us and is returning one day. The most prevailing truth that stayed with Marty is that Jesus never stops pursuing all people, driven by His pure love and mercy.

I‘ve never had a near death experience, and never heard the voice of Jesus talking to me, but the idea of God being in constant pursuit of every human heart, driven by His love, is a truth that has always propelled me to write. It sounds simple but as Augustine once said, every person needs to know that God loves them as if they were the only person in the world.

In his coma experience, Marty heard Jesus call him “son”, and like a father of a prodigal, He asked him to come back and do what He called him to do. I believe Jesus is saying that to everyone, from every background of faith.

Jesus will return someday, but He is still busy adding more members to His church. Whether He returns as a Father to a prodigal child, or a Bridegroom to a beloved bride, or a faithful Friend to the lonely, it’s His divine love that perpetually draws every human heart to Him. Jesus desires that all people return to Him, but He also desires that we long for His future return to us, as was the cry of John’s heart in the book of Revelation, “Come Lord Jesus!”

Whatever we know and believe about God, we all have hearts that are prone to wander and attention that easily drifts from God, but Jesus never stops pursuing us, inviting us to partake of His unconditional mercy and love. He’s in an endless pursuit to reveal His love to all people. His love is incomprehensible to our human minds, but it can be fully embraced with our hearts, as we yield ourselves to Him.

Lord, open our hearts to keep returning to you, listening to you and doing what you have called us to do, as we keep believing that you, Jesus, will come again. Amen