Heaven

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METAMORPHOSIS

(Revelation 21:1-3)Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

As I read this passage of scripture, I thought, what a beautiful picture of our future, and I noted that what remains of the old creation are the creator and his children.  We his children will be changed into our eternal existence, and be with our God.

God has given many examples in creation to teach his children.  I love the life of the butterfly as an example of change.  The butterfly starts out as a caterpillar, but a change is coming.  Through a process that God set in motion the caterpillar will become a very different creature.  The change called metamorphosis takes the lowly caterpillar and produces a beautiful butterfly.

God is always with us as we continue our caterpillar existence here on the earth, but remember a metamorphosis is coming.  We have a beautiful, eternal future.  God is always with us, and we have glimpses of his presence from time to time.  In the new heaven and earth he will set his dwelling place among us.  We’ll have the delight of his presence forever.  Take time to contemplate the words of this scripture.  No matter what you might be facing, a smile is likely to arise from deep within you.

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PEACE WITH GOD

(Romans 5:1) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Romans 5:10) For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

In war people are at odds with each other.  Their relationship is broken.  Hatred and distrust guide their interactions, and this causes them to fight with and kill each other.  When a peace treaty is finally signed, the opportunity to rebuild their relationship becomes possible.  With man, the hurts and attitudes that caused them to be at war, and the horrors that came about during the war, stand in the way of reconciliation.  There is great mistrust to overcome.  It often takes generations for forgiveness to slowly enter the hearts of the opponents.  This is the way of humans, but it is not the way of God.

When Jesus paid for our sins on the cross and ushered in new life for us through his resurrection, God was immediately ready for us to return to him.  God’s great love for us, welcomed us into reconciliation with him. Jesus made peace with God possible.

This is how we became God’s enemies.  In the beginning we rebelled against God.  He warned us of the consequences if we rebelled, but we chose to ignore the warning.  We ate from the forbidden tree, and death entered God’s creation. Our rebellion devastated his entire creation. This produced a great separation between us and God, and it made us his enemy.  In spite of our bad behavior, God, driven by his infinite love, worked out a way for us to return to him.

So, here we are facing the greatest peace treaty ever offered.  All we have to do is trust God and open ourselves to a renewed relationship with him.  What we will receive in return is eternal life in a recreated new world that is full of peace and love.  These terms sound like a great opportunity.  I’m accepting.  How about you?

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FAITH IN OUR GLORIOUS FUTURE

(Hebrews 11:13-16) All these people were still living by faith when they died.  They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on the earth.  People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were looking for a better country–a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Abel, Enoch. Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob are the people referred to in this Scripture.  They are the ones who admitted being foreigners and strangers on the earth.  Do you feel like a foreigner or stranger on the earth?  Maybe not, but think about the reality of our time here.  Our sojourn on the earth is a few short years compared to the eternal existence God has promised us.  In truth, we are simply preparing for the home that lies ahead.

Not to make light of our current lives.  The short period we are here is essential.  There are choices to be made and ministries to be carried out.  The most important choice is choosing Jesus as our savior and recognizing that his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead represent God’s provision for us. Through Jesus, we become sons and daughters of God’s promises.  As sons and daughters, we have an assigned purpose in God’s kingdom while here on the earth.  Like the faithful people of the past, we serve in God’s kingdom fulfilling what he has planned for us.

Looking ahead to what God has promised brings joy to us no matter what our circumstances.  Faith in our glorious future sustains us.  In hard times, we remember that this life is not going to last forever.  Our future lies in a country where there is no pain or sorrow.  Heaven will be filled with God’s love, and we will bask in his presence for eternity.

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  THE RETURN TO GOD’S PERFECT LOVE

(Genesis 2:25) Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

(Genesis 3:7) Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

From the last verse in Genesis chapter 2 to the 7th verse of chapter 3, a significant change came over Adam and Eve.  They began with no awareness of being naked; and then when their eyes were opened, they were ashamed and felt the need to cover themselves.  In the beginning, Adam and Eve only looked through eyes that saw good.  After the fall, their eyes were opened to also see evil.  The events of verses 1-6 in chapter 3 tell of their fall into sin.  With sin came self-awareness. 

Self-awareness has tainted the way we see each other and the way we love each other. Before sin came into the world, we were other focused.  We could love without thinking about ourselves.  Love in the pre-sin world was a pure love, a Godly love.  The kind of love God still gives to us, his perfect love.  But fallen man’s kind of love is infected by self-awareness. 

When we return to God through Jesus our Lord, he gives us his Spirit so we are empowered to fight against the sinful nature, yet it is a continual fight.  Selfishness, judgement, hatred, and unforgiveness get in the way.  We are born with a sinful nature into this world of tainted love.  We are trained by those around us to follow the selfish tainted ways of loving.  Yet there is hope for retuning to God’s perfect way of loving.

 We can trust in the hope of that day when Jesus will come and take us home to a place where perfect love again prevails.  The Apostle Paul speaks of this hope, (1Corinthians 13:8-10) “Love never fails.  But where there are prophesies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears”.

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LET US CELEBRATE

Romans 3:21-24 (The Message), But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift.

Verse 25, God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear.

We have new life in Christ Jesus. That new life begins the moment we believe, and it last forever. Our sins are forgiven and forgotten. We have entered the Kingdom of God. His will guides us and protects us. He is with us no matter what we encounter in our remaining years here on earth.

When we leave the earth we will live in righteousness. We will be together forever. I’d like to add we’ll all be nice, since the sinful nature will be gone. Jesus did all this for us. So let us celebrate what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. I’m looking forward to that time when we’re all together in Heaven. Imagine the celebration.

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CONCEPTION TO ETERNAL LIFE

When we die life as we know it is over.   Now think about this.  When we are born life as we know it is over.  In the womb we live in a dark fluid filled container.  This is the only environment we know.  It is our existence, and we have no idea of change.  Then one day the plug is pulled, so-to-speak, and our fluid world ceases to exist.  Our head is jammed into a tunnel at the end of which is a shocking never before experienced thing, light.

From the trauma of this transition we enter into a new world of existence.  This world now becomes our place to grow and explore.  There is good and evil in this world, and we experience varying amounts of both, but it becomes our home.  This is what we know.

Then we are faced with the change from this world to a new one.  We are faced with death.  The new world is vast and peaceful place where the struggle between good and evil no longer exists.  Most of us want to stay in this life though the new life is far superior to this one.  We want what we know to continue even though a better existence is ahead.

When we are conceived, birth is inevitable.  Once we are born death becomes inevitable.  Our time in the womb, as well as our time here on earth, is important for our growth, but we were never meant to stay in the womb, and we aren’t meant to stay in this life.  I think that this life is like another gestation period leading to the eternal life that God intends for us.

 

What does God intend for us?

 

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

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PRECIOUS LIFE

I have often made statements like, “I’m ready to go as soon as God calls me home,” or “I wish I could go to heaven right now.”  However, the result of a recent doctor visit brought home the reality that life as I know it could end.  The vague idea that life will end came crashing down on the certainty that life will end.  I saw the above statements as flippant and poorly thought out utterances. A new perspective has inundated my soul.  This life is precious and should be cherished.

God gave me life, and I have experienced the delights of his natural world.  Yes, there is both good and evil here, but I have never failed to explore and enjoy this world’s beauty.  My wife, children, extended family, and friends have afforded me a life full of joy and love.  Tragedies and losses have come my way, but they serve to round out the experience.  This world is all I know.  Everything that defines life to me has happened here in this temporal existence.

When I die, I will leave all of this and go to a new place that is beyond my experience. Someday, I will leave here to go to a new place – I can only imagine.  Life as I know it will be over.

Faith now comes to the foreground.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).  Even though I will be going to an unknown place, I can trust God with the unknown.

So I will not take this life for granted, or belie its importance, but I will cherish it as a precious gift from God himself.

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DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY

In his book Eldon Ladd points out that God’s kingdom is not a place, but is simply his right to rule, his divine sovereignty.  God’s kingdom exists right now.  We enter god’s kingdom when we surrender our will and except his will.  His will being foremost that we receive the gift of his son’s redeeming work.  Receiving God’s salvation births us into his kingdom.   We are new creation in Christ (2Corinthians 5:17) with an existence in God’s eternal kingdom.

Though we who have received salvation in Jesus are now part of his eternal kingdom, we also exist here in the temporal world.  How does our new status affect our physical presence here?  Eldon Ladd states the answer very nicely, “The kingdom of God is, then, the realization of God’s will and the enjoyment of the accompanying blessings” (*Ladd, page 24). 

In my personal experience of realizing God’s will in my life, I have found comfort, protection, maturity, physical and emotional strength, and an overall exciting challenging life.   The accompanying blessings are manifest in my family and friends and a meaningful existence.  God treats each of his children individually, according to who he created us to be, yet we all benefit from his will and the accompanying blessings.

If you have received Jesus as your savior, you have eternal life in God’s kingdom.  You now exist in the realm of God’s divine sovereignty.  We will someday leave our existence in the temporal world, but we will continue to live forever with God our Father.   

Next week let’s look further into our presence in this world as God’s children.

 

*The Gospel of the Kingdom of God, George Eldon Ladd, Martino Publishing 2011

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STRENGTH IN THE UNSEEN

When I am wading through the mire of day-to-day life, I tend to forget I serve a God who is Lord of heaven and earth.  At church, I sing about his power and majesty, yet through the week these truths seem to escape my thinking.  I know that all my hope is in him; my future is set by him.  In light of this, you’d think he’d be continuously in my daily thoughts.  Unfortunately, I get caught up in what is seen, and I forget about what is unseen.

The Apostle Paul exhorts us in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  I understand from these words that Paul is telling us to always remember the eternal as we trudge through the daily temporal.  He is encouraging us that the right now isn’t all of it.  The future that God has promised us is looming ahead.

So no matter how submerged I am in the responsibilities of today, I must remember that this will pass.  As I’m bent over laboring to accomplish what is currently set before me, I should pause and look up.  There before me is the bright light of the shining future.  How often should I look up?  I answer, “a lot!”

Even when I’m looking down concentrating on the task at hand, the light of my future is still there.  It illuminates my life making my burden lighter and giving me the strength to carry on.

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Controlling the Future

I like science fiction.  I don’t know what that says about me, but I do.  The idea of projecting where scientific discovery might take us fascinates me.  I like the adventure and the jolt to my imagination.  Fantasizing future worlds, even alien worlds, has occupies a fair portion of my personal time.

Yet the science fiction stories, where man goes back in time to reshape the future, point to the complexity of manipulating the intricate details of the progression of time.  Change one little occurrence and the entire future of man is impacted.  We can predict, but there are too many factors for us to have complete control over the outcome.

Now, imagine someone able to create a universe, create humans to live in this universe, and set the ball rolling toward a planned outcome.  To add to the complexity of the task, he gives the humans freedom of choice.  During the unfolding of his plan, he intervenes occasionally knowing exactly how this will affect the outcome.  Remember, his interventions usually involve humans who are continually deciding about their actions and reactions to their situation. 

The greatest intervention this creator makes is sending his son to live among humans with the plan to redeem them.  They need redemption because they have violated the prime directive to act in love and, within their freedom of choice, have chosen to injure their fellow humans. They have also turned their back to the creator and denied his very existence.  He accomplishes his redemption plan right on schedule and continues on to his planned outcome. 

The outcome he plans is for all those who receive his redemption to live forever in eternity with him.  Not all of his humans will accept the offer, but every one of them has the choice to receive redemption.  The only one who could put together such an elaborate and complex plan is the all-powerful, all-knowing, creator God.

Read: Genesis 1-3, Job 38 – 41, & Revelation 21 & 22