From chapters 9 & 10, these few paragraphs caught my attention. I hope they make you think about where we will live for eternity and that you will want to know more about our lives in a place where the curse has been lifted off of us and we will no longer have sin in us.
"Upon creating the heavens and the earth, God called them 'very good'. Never once has he renounced his claim on what he made. He isn't going to abandon his creation. He's going to restore it. 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 (Genesis 3:24). God's perfect plan is 'to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ' (Ephesians 1:10)"
"Will the earth we know come to an end? Yes, TO a final end? No.
Rev. 21:1 says the old Earth will pass away. But when people pass away, they do not cease to exist. As we will be raised to be new people, so the earth will be raised to be a New Earth."
"Our interst in the end times usually extends to the period preceding and following the return of Christ. But God's plan culminates after the final judgment, when King Jesus says, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world' (Matthew 25:34). Where is the kingdom? Exactly where has it been from the beginning-----on Earth."
"God hasn't changed his mind; he hasn't fallen back to Plan B or abandoned what he originally intended for us at the creation of the world. When Christ says 'take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world' it's as if he's saying, 'This is what I wanted for you all along. This is what I went to the cross and defeated death to give you. Take it, rule it, exercise dominion, enjoy it; and in doing so, share my happiness.'"
"God doesn't throw away his handiwork and start from scratch--instead, he uses the same canvas to repair the make more beautiful the painting marred by the vandal. The vandal doesn't get the satisfaction of destorying his rival's masterpiece. On the contrary, God makes an even greater masterpiece out of what his enemy sought to destroy."
"Satan wants us to give up on God, on our purpose and calling, and on our planet. God remind us, 'The one who is in you is great than the one who is in the world' (1 John 4:4). Satan seeks to destroy the earth. God seeks to restore and renew the earth, rule it, and hand it back over to his children. God will win the battle for us and for the earth."
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