In With the New

Daily Reading: Revelation 21

Scripture Focus: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. (Revelation 21.1)

Devotional Thought: My friend, Fuad - manager and owner of Gold Star Chili in Bethel, OH - told me that his store is scheduled to be rebuilt in 2019. The process is simple: tear down the old one, build a new one.

Some things have to be torn down or taken away before new things can come to life...

The first heaven and earth will pass away. This world will not last forever. This is nothing new. Scientists have been telling us for generations that the universe is headed to oblivion. It will either keep expanding, until things are so spread out that it cannot sustain life. Or, it will expand to a certain point and then start contracting, until it draws completely into itself and 'dies' in the unimaginable pressure and temperature of its creation.

There will be a new heaven and earth. This will be different from the first heaven and earth. Will it be made using the same 'stuff' of today's world? That depends. Do you believe in evolution? Can God use existing ingredients to make something new? He can do what pleases him! But, as I said, it will be different. It will be eternal. We are coming to "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading" (1 Peter 1.4). It is a "city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God" (Hebrews 11.10b).

Prayer: Lord, I know that creation, as we know it, is on a timer. One day - however far in the future, only you know - this world will pass away. Help me to live my life so that I go to dwell in that new place with you forever and ever. Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 110.5-7

5 The Lord is at your right hand;

he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.

6 He will execute judgment among the nations,

filling them with corpses;

he will shatter chiefs

over the wide earth.

7 He will drink from the brook by the way;

therefore he will lift up his head.