Through the centuries after Adam and Eve disobeyed and rebelled, God has kept a remnant of people. A people who once were enemies of God, but their hearts were softened and accepting of the Truth. A small remnant among the majority, saw Jesus as the Light of the World, the Light that penetrated the darkness of their hearts. A people who groped in darkness, with sin’s “sweet as honey” promises, turning sour. Lies and pain followed such rebellion. Such reality causes a small group to cry out, “How wretched are we! Who will save us from this path that leads to death and destruction. Who will save us from ourselves, and show us not just a better way , but the only Right Way?”
A people who once were not a people, but have seen a great Light in the darkness. This Light became the “ Bridge” the only One who could go between such a Holy God and plead on behalf of sinful hopeless creatures. Jesus Christ’ death, was the Only Hope for reconciliation with God after our rebellion. Jesus came in human flesh and dwelled among people. The rebellious subjects whom He created , now enemies of God.
So long ago, He could have doomed us all to an eternal fate of Hell with Satan and the fallen angels now called demons. We, who have been just as rebellious as other creations whom have been allowed to converse with our Creator. Jesus could have doomed us to the same sentence without the Hope of Redemption, let alone a Resurrection to come.
God with us , Jesus walked and experienced life as we do, our griefs, temptations, the need of food, and the desire for thirst to be quenched, all without any sin or rebellion against God. While we were still enemies of God , Christ died , taking the punishment we deserved.
Jesus was God with us and still on the night He was betrayed prayed with a joyful desire that those who accepted Him as Lord and Savior see His Glory and be with Him. God with us even as Jesus was preparing for His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, promised that the Holy Spirit would remain with each of His People. The indwelling Spirit who still is God with us. The One who convicts us that we are sinners and prompts our obedience, just like Jesus did when He told the adulterous woman, “Go and sin no more!”
He had come to His Own, the Jews and they did not recognize their Messiah was among them. The Holy Spirit came and both Jews and gentiles (non-Jews) became His People. Gentiles grafted in, at the mercy and grace of God. Such promises as knowing God as Father and calling out, “ABBA Father. Such promises of His continual presence with us to the end of the World, promises of provision of daily needs, an eternity with God. All promises to anyone who turns from rebellion and seeks to obey the Lordship of Christ, only because many of us were grafted into the promise. A promise extended to all nations, what a Hope!
We who had no Hope , no promise to hang onto, gets the Good News of the Gospel only because God has been Merciful and Patient, Long-suffering, despite our disobedience, willing that no one perish eternally.
We have so much because He implanted the seeds of what came from the Source which was Jesus Christ Himself .
•Joy comes because we experience His Joy.
•Mercy comes because we experience His Mercy.
•Forgiveness comes because He showed us Forgiveness.
•Grace comes because we experience His Grace.
•We know Peace because He’s the Prince of Peace.
The list could go on, but in the heart of one who has truly desired to obey and follow the Lordship of Jesus Christ, His desires become ours as we lay aside the sins that ensnare us.
The one who truly has fellowship with the Lord, doesn’t look forward to just the benefits of the Present Heaven , hoping He’s just in the corner being ignored. There is a desire for fellowship, to share a meal with, to worship and have a conversation face to face with God whom they have had two-way prayer and conversation with in their spirit while on earth. Eternity is a continuation of the learning that begin while one had breath on earth, unless it was a deathbed moment.
The Hope of the Believer isn’t just after death sitting on clouds being bored. There is a day coming when God with us will have full fulfillment. That’s not an ending on the clouds with a harp. It’s the moment when this earth passes away along with sin, rebellion , and death. When God creates a New Heaven and Earth for His People to dwell. A physical Kingdom which Jesus shall rule eternally. God with us! Oh, my we are so undeserving. Once enemies, but God gives us a place and name to dwell not away from His Presence and Glory, but a Home with Him, as His Child. That is the God with Us, we look forward to, in Hope, because our Promise Keeper has been Trustworthy throughout the generations and even before the duration of the earth!
God with us! Those who have died believing and trusting in the Lord are kept by His Word in His Presence, until all is fulfilled in the Father’s Timing. One day those who remain on His New Earth shall be only the ones who God calls His People, His Children. Are you a child of God, or just His Creation? Will you experience the full extent of God with us, in His Presence which shall dwell on the perfect Earth to come , because you accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, the God with us who saves you and all His People from their sins?
Colossians 1:9-23
For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, 11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, 13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, 14 in whom we have our redemption,† the forgiveness of our sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. 18 He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19 For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
21 You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, 22 yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him, 23 if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
Revelation 21:1-5
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. 2 I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. 3 I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people; and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.”
5 He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.”
*All Scripture is from the World English Bible
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