Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it! Let the field exult and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest shout for joy before the Lord, for He comes, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness. (Verses 11-13)
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son....John 3:16
God had an idea in mind when He decided to create our world and the surrounding universe. He started with the heavens and the earth. But they were dark...a void without form. His Spirit hovered there in the inky blackness when God said, "Let there be light!" It was so good to see. To have the void lit. In His hands, God took the sphere and moved it around so that dry land appeared, separated from the waters that covered the earth. It was good. He loved it! Sprouts of vegetation appeared, trees, flowers, bushes and fruit bearing plants. The moon and the sun--evening and morning. One day separated from the next. Oh, the fun of creating the absolute wonders that are Earth's animals and insects. All the variety of living creatures, colorful, small and large, big-eared or tiny-lipped, leathery and fluffy, what joy our God felt in placing them on His earth. It was all so good! "Let Us now make man in Our image--our likeness," decreed the Godhead. And there was Adam. Man. Given dominion over the creatures of the earth and watchcare over the environment. Male and female, God gave Adam, Eve. He blessed them there in Eden and gave them the charge to take care of what He'd made. God was so pleased. It was very good. Loved it so much He walked upon it in order to be in its midst. To talk with man and woman in the cool of the day. For their joy to be as rich as His in this garden of delight He'd made for them. God's plan. To dwell among men and women. But there was a serpent...Hiss.
If we think our God destroyed His plans for His earth on that day, we are wrong. God sent Jesus, the Lamb of the Godhead, to redeem what we lost. Not just to redeem man and woman, but to redeem the world He made. He still loves it! It was very good. Our God is about redemption. Concerned with taking something broken and restoring it, like us, to its original image and purpose. The fall crushed the Father so deeply, He loved the world so purely, He sacrificed Himself for its reconciliation to Him. For God so loved the world... When we chose to listen to the serpent's smooth talk, the whole earth came under the curse of the enemy. This wasn't God's plan for how things should work. And, by His mighty will, that plan will still be accomplished! He's not done yet with the world He loves.
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. Romans 8. The smog of living has coated even the plants and animals with hopelessness and despair. They bloom and yearn for the day when evil is judged and cast into hell forever. For the day when God's original plan for eternal beauty and joy reigns on His earth--over the environment and every living creature. Sin has subjected this beauty to death. And death was not God's plan.
Eternal life in a similar but perfect Eden is what awaits God's precious creation. No, He's not forgotten. Quite the opposite. He's driving the events of Earth toward the precipice of His plan. For one day we will live on a redeemed planet. Walk with our God in the cool of the day. No more tears. No more sorrow. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God...And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be His people, and God Himself with be them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying, nor pain anymore, for former things have passed away." And He Who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
See why all creation so yearns for the day when God judges the earth and returns to it its rightful glory? Like the forest after a heavy rain when all the leaves and flowers are washed clean and sparkle in the rays of sunlight on a new morning, so will Earth be cleansed of evil and death. The bright crystalline waters of the river that runs through heaven, banked on either side by the enormous tree of life which yields fruit for God's children to eat, flows in its pounding from the very throne of God now accessible to the world He's made. Joy, joy, joy. Everything made new. Not starting over, but going back to the original plan of God for the world He loves. Remade, like we who have been redeemed from sinful hearts, to sing the praises of the Alpha and the Omega Whose light fills the new heaven and earth where there is no more darkness at all. And we shall see His face.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? 2 Peter 3
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son....John 3:16
God had an idea in mind when He decided to create our world and the surrounding universe. He started with the heavens and the earth. But they were dark...a void without form. His Spirit hovered there in the inky blackness when God said, "Let there be light!" It was so good to see. To have the void lit. In His hands, God took the sphere and moved it around so that dry land appeared, separated from the waters that covered the earth. It was good. He loved it! Sprouts of vegetation appeared, trees, flowers, bushes and fruit bearing plants. The moon and the sun--evening and morning. One day separated from the next. Oh, the fun of creating the absolute wonders that are Earth's animals and insects. All the variety of living creatures, colorful, small and large, big-eared or tiny-lipped, leathery and fluffy, what joy our God felt in placing them on His earth. It was all so good! "Let Us now make man in Our image--our likeness," decreed the Godhead. And there was Adam. Man. Given dominion over the creatures of the earth and watchcare over the environment. Male and female, God gave Adam, Eve. He blessed them there in Eden and gave them the charge to take care of what He'd made. God was so pleased. It was very good. Loved it so much He walked upon it in order to be in its midst. To talk with man and woman in the cool of the day. For their joy to be as rich as His in this garden of delight He'd made for them. God's plan. To dwell among men and women. But there was a serpent...Hiss.
If we think our God destroyed His plans for His earth on that day, we are wrong. God sent Jesus, the Lamb of the Godhead, to redeem what we lost. Not just to redeem man and woman, but to redeem the world He made. He still loves it! It was very good. Our God is about redemption. Concerned with taking something broken and restoring it, like us, to its original image and purpose. The fall crushed the Father so deeply, He loved the world so purely, He sacrificed Himself for its reconciliation to Him. For God so loved the world... When we chose to listen to the serpent's smooth talk, the whole earth came under the curse of the enemy. This wasn't God's plan for how things should work. And, by His mighty will, that plan will still be accomplished! He's not done yet with the world He loves.
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. Romans 8. The smog of living has coated even the plants and animals with hopelessness and despair. They bloom and yearn for the day when evil is judged and cast into hell forever. For the day when God's original plan for eternal beauty and joy reigns on His earth--over the environment and every living creature. Sin has subjected this beauty to death. And death was not God's plan.
Eternal life in a similar but perfect Eden is what awaits God's precious creation. No, He's not forgotten. Quite the opposite. He's driving the events of Earth toward the precipice of His plan. For one day we will live on a redeemed planet. Walk with our God in the cool of the day. No more tears. No more sorrow. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God...And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be His people, and God Himself with be them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying, nor pain anymore, for former things have passed away." And He Who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
See why all creation so yearns for the day when God judges the earth and returns to it its rightful glory? Like the forest after a heavy rain when all the leaves and flowers are washed clean and sparkle in the rays of sunlight on a new morning, so will Earth be cleansed of evil and death. The bright crystalline waters of the river that runs through heaven, banked on either side by the enormous tree of life which yields fruit for God's children to eat, flows in its pounding from the very throne of God now accessible to the world He's made. Joy, joy, joy. Everything made new. Not starting over, but going back to the original plan of God for the world He loves. Remade, like we who have been redeemed from sinful hearts, to sing the praises of the Alpha and the Omega Whose light fills the new heaven and earth where there is no more darkness at all. And we shall see His face.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? 2 Peter 3
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