Looking Forward to Something New
“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.” (Revelation 21:1 NKJV)
“Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”” (Revelation 21:5 NKJV)
Anticipation
Most of us look forward to new things. Maybe it’s a new car or a new house or a new vacation. It may even be a new job if the last one wasn’t everything it was cracked up to be. Most of us are looking forward to the new year 2021. I have heard some say that they are going to see the new year in this year so that they can make sure that the old one definitely goes out. 2020 is not a year that most of us will remember with joy and nostalgia. It isn’t going to be one of the “good old days” that we tell our grandchildren about. Pandemics, derechos, elections that won’t quit. . . no these are not the things that we will remember with joy. Sometimes I want to wake up and hope 2020 was just a bad dream.
I have been laid aside since the later part of May with a knee injury. I jumped off a platform that we were using for an outdoor Gospel meeting. I should have sat down and gotten off but all the rest were jumping so obviously I should too, right? Anyway I tore the quadriceps in my left knee which had to be surgically repaired. I went from having to have help with a shower and sleeping in a recliner to walking with a walker and then a cane and now just with a stiff knee. I have had physical therapy and have been given a crazy appliance to stretch the knee, but I may always have a knee that doesn’t want to bend like it used to. But at least it has kept me home so I haven’t been exposed to this crazy virus nor have I exposed others. The meetings I have held would have been virtual meetings even if the pandemic had not occurred since I could not drive until recently so I am glad for Zoom and products like it.
Nevertheless
I was reading this afternoon about the Lord making everything new and all I can say is I am ready. Most everything except fine wine (I am told) gets worse with age. Houses get old, cars get rusty, and our bodies get arthritic and our digestive systems tend to go on strike. I have never been able to logically reconcile evolutionary thought with what I see in the world. Darwin taught survival of the fittest so things should get better and better. But it seems to me that would mean that the homosexual community would have ceased to exist using that theory since it would be hard for the strongest of them to reproduce. One would expect that humans would all get stronger and more beautiful and more moral but in fact that does not seem to be the case. We now have better bombs, more hatred, more “evil men and seducers” than ever before. Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up to a sin free, pollution free environment where the sadness of death and disease are gone? The Lord says that day is coming. It will take a miracle the way humans like to destroy things, but that miracle is going to occur. There is going to be a new heaven and a new earth. Peter says, “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13 NKJV).” It is going to be in the far distant future if I understand the Bible right, but it is coming. It will be after the present world has been burned up by fire (and most astronomers agree that someday that will happen because the Sun will explode vaporizing the earth and the nearest planets.)
The New Birth
Unfortunately, those who will enjoy that new heavens and new earth will be ones who have enjoyed a new birth here on our present planet as it now exists. If a person is comfortable here in their sin and if they enjoy a decaying society and planet, then they will likely never repent and believe the Gospel. They will never be born again. They will never wake up from this bad dream to enjoy a paradise that is beyond our understanding.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of December 27, 2020