Heaven on Earth
Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. - (Ephesians 1:11)
What does it mean when we say that God is sovereign? It means that God is ultimately in control. Nothing happens without His permission.
While it is true that God is sovereign, it is also true that God allows us to exercise our free will. God actually respects the free will of mankind. Some people think that mankind will solve all its problems. They are foolish enough to believe that a politician can fix things . . . or technology . . . or psychology . . . or a focus on ecology. But it isn’t politics or psychology or technology or ecology that will fix it. It is only theology, the study of God.
We need to turn to God. One day the Lord will right all the wrongs in our universe. He will take this sin-sick world and turn it right side up. Today it is upside down. Everything is topsy-turvy. What once was perceived as good is now viewed as bad. What was once thought of as bad is now being elevated to a position of good.
But one day it will be made right. God will right all of the wrongs. God won’t abandon His creation; He will restore it. Christ has not yet established His kingdom on this earth, but one day he will return to our planet and bring it back to its Eden-like state. Known as the Millennium, it will last for one thousand years.
In his book called Heaven, my friend Randy Alcorn writes, “We won’t go to heaven and leave earth behind. Rather, God will bring heaven and earth together into the same dimension, with no wall of separation, no armed angels to guard heaven’s perfection from sinful mankind.”
A new world is coming. One day, heaven will come to earth.
Copyright © 2013 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
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