Today's reading is Revelation 22. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun, for the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever. Then the angel said to me, these words are faithful and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of prophecy in this book. And I am John, who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had shown me these things. But he said to me, do not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God. Then he told me, Do not seal up the words of the prophecy in this book, because the time is near. Let the unrighteous continue to be unrighteous, and the vile continue to be vile. Let the righteous continue to practice righteousness, and the holy continue to be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to give to each one according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the Tree of Life, and may enter the City by its gates. But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star. The spirit and the bride say, Come. Let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely. I testify to everyone who hears the words of prophecy in this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and the holy city, which are described in this book. He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon. Amen. Come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. This is God's Word. Well, we made it! If this is the first time in your life you've ever read through the New Testament in a year, way to go! And what a way to end the Bible with the promise of living with God for all eternity. As verses 3 and 4 put it, Those are the words of the NIV's translation. It is interesting, isn't it, that this chapter describes the tree of life on each side of the river according to verse 2. This fact recalls the Garden of Eden, as the NIV's section heading suggests. Although God is hidden from us now because of the curse, he has revealed himself in nature to our conscience. He's revealed himself in the Word and in Christ. But His intention has always been to live with humanity. God's will and His ultimate purpose is to live on earth with humanity. When this chapter is fulfilled, human life will finally exist as God originally intended. Until then, we who know God by faith should be waiting for Christ's coming, as verse 12 and verse 20 indicate. While we wait, we have the Word and the Spirit of God with us, and by faith, we should live before the face of God. The way we think, the way we live our lives, the choices we make, and the way we use our time should all be done as consciously as possible in the fact that God is with us and is watching us. And so I hope you have that on your mind today as you serve God wherever you go, whatever you do with your day, that God is watching us. Keep that in mind and seek to please him in the choices you make. And thanks for being part of this devotional. If you've been with me for the entire year, I hope this has been a blessing to you, and I hope you'll continue next year as we read the Old Testament. But if you're new to this, if you're finding this some other way than in your email, Join me in reading the Old Testament next year. Sign up by email by going to dailypbj.com slash subscribe. And every day, a copy of this devotional, a link to the scripture reading, and a link to this video and audio of this will show up in your email, and that will cue you to be in the Word every single day. Doing this takes time and it takes money. And so if you'd like to support me on a regular basis so I can keep going, please do that by going to dailypbj.com slash support. Please share this with others who might grow in their faith by it. And I'll see you next time. Hope you have a great day. May God bless you.