April 2, 2013
-
The Kingdom
I was talking to somebody recently about the Kingdom of God. He is a bit skeptical about an eternity of living for a number of reasons, but his main one was: What could we do with ourselves for all eternity?
I think, for someone who does not share the same hope that I do, this is a very legitimate question. One day, you are bound to see all there is to see and do all there is to do. What could you do with yourself for such a never ending period of time?
I explained to him that, first, I don’t know much, and second, it is the Christian’s joy to be with our creator. To us, there is nothing more pleasing that the world has to offer… But more importantly, we are promised a new Heaven and a new Earth. The old will pass away, and God will do what God does best;
Creating and recreating.
And we will do what we were created to do;
Respond to God’s creation.
With an eternal Creator comes eternal possibilities for creation: Color’s we’ve never seen… Fruit we’ve never tasted… Music we’ve never heard… Feelings we’ve never felt before… Flowers we’ve never smelled before… and it doesn’t stop there. It goes on for an eternity… and the God who never ceases to surprise us will never let us down because we are meant for this eternity with our Creator.
But here is the most important message of all… We don’t need to look into the future. We can help mend the brokenness of our creation now because we are just like God, our Creator. We recreate. This is why we have artists, doctors, scientists, pastors, mechanics, technicians, performers… The list can go on forever. Whatever it is you do, do it to the best of your ability not for the sake of money, not for the sake of boredom. Do it for the sake of the Kingdom of God… because God wants you for an eternal purpose.
Comments (9)
“We can help mend the brokenness of our creation now because we are just like God, our Creator. We recreate.”
i’m not sure if i understand this correctly, but do you mean that we can be less broken by recreate things?
True love is supposedly eternal but we face challenges constantly to break up an eternal love. In some ways we strive for G-dly perfection and our attempts at it often fall short.
Will our devotion to G-d be eternal? It is easy to say yes but in our hearts we know that our devotion can be divided towards other things.
What we do know is that it is not the same old thing. Heaven is not about inactivity, tedium or boredom.
What a beautiful picture of the Kingdom! I will have to share this with some people I know. Thank you for writing!
Eternity is beyond our limited understanding. We’re humans. We’re not supposed to understand every facet of heaven or God… For example: Where did God come from? He’s been here the whole time. No parents or anything?
See? That’s beyond our comprehension.
@maniacsicko - I kind of hold that view, yes. We are participants in recreating a better world. We aren’t satisfied with the way the world is now, but we can either add to the mess or try to help mend it a bit in our time here.
Also, even as a Christian I have a hard time with “forever.” It seems impossible to even focus on my life here, much less a forever beyond the grave. I try to do the best I can with the life I have on Earth because I’m not sure what comes after.
@maniacsicko - Ooglick answered that question to my satisfaction.
@PPhilip - A couple things come to mind… first, I believe in seeking perfection. It’s one of the core beliefs of a Methodist, like myself. But I don’t believe that we become perfected on our own, but by the guiding of the Holy Spirit… Like an “It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me” kind of thing. Secondly, I don’t see why our devotion wouldn’t be eternal. I think the very sight of God’s full glory would cause any person to fall to his or her knees, praising God’s name… I can’t imagine being distracted in that time…
@trunthepaige - Likewise, neither is the here and now!
@fruit_snacks_galore - Thank you
@Jack_Hawksmoor - That’s absolutely true… 100%… but to someone who struggles with these mysteries of God, it sounds like a cop-out… That’s what theology is for, I suppose… to try our best to find the answers to these mysteries… I just can’t wait until we are in God’s kingdom, and I get to find out everything that we were wrong about, concerning God…
@Ooglick - That sort of reminds me of John Wesley’s well known quote, “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
this reminded me of hope =] made me smile!
@jmallory - I like that quote!