Been thinking recently about Home...that is Eternity. I have to preface this with the fact that I'm just starting to really learn about what is coming ahead, but I have to say, It's amazing! When it's really a reality within us, I mean really! Think of the nicest place you've ever been to - by the beach, beautiful sun, beautiful ocean. In the Millenium, creation is going to be restored! You don't have to settle for the nice resorts, nice house, nice comfort now (although it is good and I'm not saying to despise it). What awaits you is way way way more incredible than these things. These things only help the imagination. But that's the mystery - it's like looking into the heavens at night and it's glorious, but we can't really fathom what is out there - I mean way out there, but it does provoke our imagination. Maybe this is what our desires do. We can look at the most beautiful, luxurious things of this earth and say we don't need them because our home is FAR more glorious! This is huge! And we will be there with ressurected bodies! This is not just some neat little side note to those following Jesus, IT IS OUR HOPE! When it is alive in us then it makes it much easier to say no to fleeting pleasures of this life. We were meant for pleasure, and eternity will be our endless pleasure. It puts meat to the idea that Abraham, Moses, etc. were "strangers" in this world and knew that their home was somewhere else. This is REALITY, it is not ethereal. The earth you walk on, the oxygen you breath will one day be reconciled to God fully and the supernatural realm of heaven and the natural realm of earth will meet - they will be what God inteded for them. This is His purpose. He will see it through WITHOUT violating our free will. And this is why His will in our lives is so huge! This is why we must seek out what His heart wants to accomplish, because it really does matter how we respond to Him because He chooses (always has, from history past, i.e. the Bible) to work His purposes through human beings who VOLUNTARILY love Him. Yes, He is sovreign, yet He wants to work through us! It's incredible! Do you know why He wants that? (this is what I think, and I'm on a journey to know it with all confidence) He wants it for OUR glory. He wants to serve us, to come under us so that we would know the infinite goodness of Himself. He wants us to partake in His kingdom and share it with Him. What glorious thing has He prepared for those who love Him, who love the Son! There is a tension right now in whether or not we fully commit to see those things come to pass - I'm beginning to really believe this I think. And He wants nothing more than reconciliation - for eternity - for all wickedness to end, and for His glory to fill the EARTH. I think it is always what He wanted.
Thoughts?