(This blog post is the result of weeks of studying the Kingdom of God, and days of prayer. God put this on my heart to write and I can only hope and pray that He uses the words I wrote to bless someone else. The wisdom that He's given me in just the past few hours is incredible. I hope you find it as challenging and refreshing to read, as I did to write it. I also recommend that you listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=c-ayuRE5xd8 while you read it. Its rather fitting and it was the background music that I had replaying while I typed this all out.)
I don't dare watch the news anymore. I try to stay away from the political and obituary sections of the newspaper. If something depressing begs for my attention, I give it a swift kick out the door. The world is teeming with horrors. Death, starvation, disease, war, and hate are around every corner.
Would you believe me if I told you that its going to be ok in the end?
It really is.
Don't take MY word for it. (*He says like Levar Burton*)
There is a verse I came across this week. This verse is Psalm 24:1.
"The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." Psalm 24:1
I like to "hide" from the world. I love being outside under the stars. I love to feel the wind rush past my arm as I zoom down winding roads. I love to sit in a field and talk with a cute girl for hours and hours and hours. I bury my nose in books where the good guy always wins. I search the Bible every day to see what God wants to say to me. I have earbuds in my ears almost constantly, pumping notes of hope and goodness and innocence into my brain.
It often feels like I'm trying to get away from the "real world." Like somehow, by ignoring all the sin and death and hate around me, I'm escaping from reality.
My brain seems hard-wired to be in the clouds. I'm more prone to remember my entire mental conversation I had with an imaginary person three weeks ago, than I am to remember where in the mall parking lot I parked my car. It seems like a curse. I feel hopelessly inept when other people constantly have to direct me, or tell me if its Tuesday or Wednesday.
Maybe my unusual brain is a blessing. Maybe God made me this way because He wants to be my focus. What better way then to give me a brain that doesn't seem to have its roots on Earth?
I might be crazy. I might be infinitely insane. But I think that the "real world," isn't as close to reality as we would like to think.
Why do I say that? What could possibly possess me to claim that everything we see around us is a distortion of what it was intended and created to be?
"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." Romans 8:22
All of creation knows that something is wrong. It's diseased. We look and see beauty in mountains and trees and stars, but everything we see is a shadow of what it was before sin entered the scene.
Can you imagine what it must have been like to live before sin? There was no death, no guilt, and everything was pure. It was, as God described it, "good."
Nothing we have now remotely compares. Not the sight of the horizon stretching across the ocean, as if it were breaking up a fight between the water and the clouds. Not the smell of the breeze after a thunderstorm. Not even the sound of a dancing river.
I hate to think like that. I'd rather just pretend that there was nothing better than this. That's the real escapism. Let's be honest. We're pretty comfortable in our sin. I may not like the war and death around me, but I'm not such a great person either. I'm surrounded by sin. And, sadly, its as comfortable as a worn-out sweat shirt. I'm just so used to it, I don't even think about it usually.
I know, I know. How cheery of me! Isn't it wonderful to think of all the sin that muddles our thinking and blocks our view of God? (If you didn't sense the layers upon layers of sarcasm dripping through that last question, you should see a doctor and have your Sarcasm Sensor checked out.)
Thankfully, God isn't comfortable leaving us in our sin. As we're ignoring Him and corrupting His creation, He's working behind the scenes. God didn't merely send His Son to save a few from their sins and then leave them in a cursed world. He's coming back to replace the cursed world, too.
Look at the eagerness God has to come back and rescue His people.
"And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." Isaiah 65:24
Of course, God is talking about Israel here. His Second Return is centered around restoring Israel. He's so eager to rush back and save them that He's waiting for them to call out to Him. He can't force them to repent and love Him, but He's going to be ready when they finally do. Before they're even finished calling out to Him, He will answer.
That's just incredible!
Just to let the concept of God's Love sink in a little deeper, I'm going to show you a few more verses. This is what God is waiting to do. The moment Israel turns back to Him, He'll be running with open arms. Just like the father and the prodigal son. He'll restore them back to their original position and give them new hearts. He'll love them and treat them with immense gentleness and care.
"25Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:25-26
Then in Isaiah...
"10Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
11He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." Isaiah 40:10-11
That's the heart that God has. He's setting everything right. All the good things that we've corrupted will be renewed. For a thousand years, Israel will be in its rightful place of leadership among the nations. Believers will be a majority. And God will be literally ruling in the person of Jesus Christ. No war for a thousand years. Sin will be held in check by a perfect God. No longer will evil appear to be good.
It will be as near to perfection as a sin-cursed world populated by sinful people could possibly be.
But God won't leave us there. He won't stop at "near perfection." He's going to start over with a brand new Earth and a whole new Heaven. Everything will be pure, and everyone will be a believer. We will be living in bodies that we can't imagine. Earth will be filled with wonders and the beauty of God himself.
I think the best way to sum up that eternal period of perfection is by quoting Isaiah one last time.
"For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." Isaiah 65:17
That's the only reason I have to hope. God's plan for us will completely erase all the damage we've done. He is, after all, the Creator of everything. He spoke into existence Earth and "The fullness thereof." In His perfect time, He will restore it to its fullness. It will be complete again. And so will we.
So next time you're escaping from reality, think about this. When some spectacle steals away your breath and holds you in awe, remember this.
There will come a day when those who put their trust and faith in God will go to place that is so unimaginably better than this, that we'll forget all about this present Earth. We won't bother to think about the glorious sunrises that entrance us now. The sounds that we bask in will seem like nails on a chalkboard compared to the perfect sounds we'll hear then. And we have eternity to enjoy them.
I'm still not going to bother thinking about the sin and darkness that saturates this planet. But instead of escaping to the limited beauty of a cursed Earth, I think I'll day dream about the "fullness" that God has planned for me. I'll day dream until I can see it for myself.
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