| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Heaven” Our Bible verse for today: “Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” Revelation 21:5 (CSB) Our thought for today: “Words have meaning” I want to emphasize again that words have meaning, and God chooses His words carefully, intentionally. The descriptive words and phrases He used in the Bible were chosen for a reason. They are intended by God to help us grasp a divine reality by relating it to something similar that we are already familiar with. That’s true with respect to helping us gain some understanding of what our eternal existence will be like. When God describes the new heaven and the new earth, He does so by comparing them to the old heaven and the old earth. The understanding is that the new heaven and the new earth will be similar to the old heaven and the old earth but different, similar but better. We see this all throughout the final chapters of the book of Revelation. In chapters twenty-one and twenty-two God used descriptive terms like walls, gates, cities, buildings, streets, dwellings, jewels, light, water, rivers, trees. In other places in both the Old and New Testaments we are given scenes of animals, such as lions and lambs existing peacefully. There are also descriptions of great feasts (a heavenly Hometown Buffet?), along with singing, dancing, and so much more. Those are all things we are already familiar with. Evidently the new heaven and the new earth will be similar but better. Why would God consistently paint pictures of eternity for us that look amazingly like this life that we already know and enjoy, unless it was like this life that we already know and enjoy? In a previous devotional I joked about the line in the song that “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now.” The reason that is true of us is because there is so much about this life that we enjoy, and we want to stay here as long as we can and continue enjoying it. But what if life in eternity is like life on earth, only perfect? Maybe it will be a return to Eden, but Eden as it would have been if sin had never entered the world to begin with. What if sin had never entered the world, and Adam and Eve had been able to procreate and develop the world in a perfect state of fellowship with God? What would that have looked like after thousands of years of perfect development? When sin is no more, and the effects of sin have all been washed away, and there is a new heaven and a new earth, will God’s highest form of creation (people) finally be back in Eden, or in an Eden-like eternity? I’m speculating here, of course, but words have meaning, and God chose His words carefully and intentionally. What might He be trying to tell us? We will think more about this tomorrow. God bless, Pastor Jim (If you like what you’re reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville |
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