What is Real?

Yesterday we began a conversation about the truth that the world simply is not what it was created to be. We saw how the Scripture teaches that, while God created a sinless and perfect world, man rebelled and introduced sin. Romans 5:12-14 says that sin came into the world through Adam. Romans 8:20-23 tells us that the result of sin's entry was that the creation, and everything in it, was warped and corrupted. Creation is not longer perfect.

We have to live in our broken world. We feel the effects of the fall everywhere. We are tempted to respond to these effects by fixing them. We want to make things better. We have a number of reasons to do this, ranging from our comfort to God's glory. We simply do not have the power to fix them. We cannot restore this fallen world. Praise God! He does not expect us to fix this world.

We are no longer citizens of this fallen world. Because we are redeemed we are citizens of heaven. Philippians 3:20 tells us we are no longer at home in this world. However, this does not free us to stop caring about the brokenness around us. We are not free to become so heavenly minded that we are no longer good for this world. We are agents of God's redemption here and now. We must care about what happens in this world. God cares.

In our class we talked about the urge to fix or flee. We wrestled with the calling we have instead to engage. While we can not fix the world, God is at work in this world and is accomplishing His redemptive purposes. He calls us to partner with Him in that redemptive work. His work is so much more than simply restoring this fallen world to its pre-fall state. He is accomplishing more than that. He is actually preparing for the manifestation of the new heavens and the new earth. Our future is more glorious than what Adam and Eve experienced prior to the fall. We are going to be the bride of the Lamb--the bride of Christ. We will experience an intimacy and union with Christ that Adam and Eve could not prior to the fall. God is doing more than restoring.

Part of the work God is doing now, is to build His kingdom through us. That requires us to know Him well and to come to Him for both the tasking and the empowerment to fulfill our tasking. We ended the class looking at the importance of listening to God. He has His plan for what He is doing. We cannot simply look at what is going on and know what He wants us to pray and do. We begin by studying the world around us and continue by asking Him what He is doing and what He wants us to do with Him in this fallen world.

This coming week we will look more at how God uses this world to shape us and then to use us as kingdom builders. One thing you can do in preparation is to think through Psalm 32:8-11. In these verses God calls us to be partners with Him. We are so much more than servants who wait for direction. We are family. We are His bride. We have been given the opportunity for intimacy with God that allows us to love and serve Him. Wow.