Christianity Oasis Forum

[cimi]

July 8
Tuesday

THE TIME
MACHINE

READ:
Revelation 21:1-4
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With the Lord one day
is a thousand years,
and a thousand years as
one day. __2 Peter 3:8
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In 1896, H. G. Wells published a book titled The Time Machine, an imaginative tale of a scientist who builds a machine that can transport someone through time. The time traveler is preoccupied with the future, not the past. Like many scientists, he believes "progress: will enable the human race to build a better world. Yet in Wells' book, this science-fiction story does not have a happy ending.

The protagonist travels millions of years into the future. There the world has grown cold and dark. As a bleak snow falls, he sees the last remnants of life awaiting extinction. Thoroughly sickened by the twilight of life on our planet, the scientist returns to the time of his origin to report his anguish.

The biblical view of the future is very different. It tells us that God is Lord over time itself: "With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years, as one day" (2 Peter 3:8). We can be optimistic about the future because God will replace our world with a new one. In that new heaven and new earth we will experience blessed fellowship with our Creator for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4). Even now, Jesus is preparing a place for those who love Him (John 14:1-3), a place where "there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying" (Rev. 21:4). __Dennis Fisher
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`````````````````If God has made this world so fair,```````````````
````````````````````Where sin an death abound,`````````````````
```````````````````How beautiful beyond compare````````````````
````````````````will paradise be found! __Montgomery`````````````
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Jesus is preparing a place for us
and preparing us for that place.

***************Today's Bible Reading __ Revelation 21:1-4**********

1 Now I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first
heaven and the first earth
had passed away. Also there
was no more sea. 2 Then I,
John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming
down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a loud voice
from heaven saying,
"Behold, the tabernacle of
God is with men, and He
will dwell with them, and
they shall be His people.
God Himself will be with
them and be their God.

4 And God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes;
there shall be no more
death, nor sorrow, nor
crying. There shall be no
more pain, for the former
things have passes away."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

John's description of our eternal home is magnificent__but his
focus goes beyond streets of gold and gates of pearl. He wants us
to understand that the quality of life in heaven is determined by the
presence of God in our midst. In the Old testament, God's presence
among His people was pictured by the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34-38).
In the New Testament, Jesus came and "tabernacled" among us
(tabernacle is the literal meaning of the word "dwelt" in John 1:14).
In heaven, however God Himself will dwell with us (Rev. 21:3),
tabernacling with His own forever! __Bill Crowder