New everything?

The following is a recent post I made in "Now that's a good thought!" on my brother's message board. It follows somewhat from reading A.A. Hodge's comments on the Westminster Confession, chapter 32 and from Alan's sermon on this subject about a year ago.

Tonight I was reading a bit and contemplating the new heavens and new earth. It's strange, but it seems that for the most part, people talk about heaven, but they don't talk about the new earth.

Lewis imagined that this was the "shadow" lands, that everything we see here is only a shadow, an outline, black figure (and hard to see) of what is to come. This comes out beautifully in the Chronicles of Narnia, the Last Battle where the children see that this land where they are at is joined by many other lands, all more beautiful and more "real" than they had been while they were still "alive" (though I would argue they are more alive now than ever).

There is a very remarkable sense in which things will be familiar. We shall all be changed and shall be made perfect. The young girl whose face has been scarred by a fire will be made completely whole and beautiful, yet shall be completely recognizable. Somehow we shall know each other and Christ. I firmly believe that when I see other saints in heaven, I shall know who they are. I shall recognize my grandfather, my unborn sibling I never met, Paul, the servant of Christ, and so many more! There will be a familiarity that will make heaven "home." In the Scriptures, it also talks of the New Jerusalem in very endearing terms. Why is it called the New Jerusalem? Merely because it is the new center of God's worship? I think that is part of it, but I think it shall resemble the Old Jerusalem, or more properly, the Old Jerusalem resembled this new one! There shall be a familiarity.

Now back to the new heavens and new earth. I believe there is strong evidence that though this world shall pass away, yet it shall be remade anew.

Rom 8:19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
Rom 8:21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Rom 8:23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Why would creation eagerly wait for its destruction? It says that creation shall be set free from the bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. This freedom obviously can't mean freedom from suffering (as in annihilation), because that isn't the same as the freedom of the glory of the children of God, to which its freedom is compared. God's children shall be made anew, perfected, brought into that state which man was meant to inhabit, as God planned from the beginning. The creation is also awaiting a "new body" and shall be made anew.

2Pe 3:12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
2Pe 3:13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Yes, it will pass away, even as this body of ours "passes away" but as our body is made new, so the earth is made new. Completely new as in unrecognizable? I am inclined to think not! Again, the evidence seems to point to the fact that the creation will be redeemed, and re-created in glory, not merely destroyed never to be seen again.

To be honest, I have enjoyed exploring the creation God has made, and when I was young and inclined to climb rocks, trees, explore caves, and dig tunnels, it disturbed me to think that all we would have is one big city, all white and bland with gold streets and a river and a tree and that's about it. It sounded boring! Yet now of course I realize the real focus is Christ and being with Him for eternity, yet at the same time, I believe that if He has endowed us with the wonderful creation He has, and if it's only a shadow of what is to come, and if the earth itself will be renewed, then what we have to look forward to is a world BETTER than this one! Is it indeed possible that something like this passage from Isaiah, which has been figuratively fulfilled, might be literally fulfilled? :

Isa 11:6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.
Isa 11:7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
Isa 11:8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

I believe it is possible! If God has made wonderful creatures here on earth for our enjoyment, how much more will He do so for the Paradise He is going to create. If God's original creation was "good" and His second creation is "better" then can you imagine what we have to look forward to? Yes, I believe that you can expect to see animals in heaven, places that are familiar, places you've wanted to visit. The creation will be entirely given to us, but more than that, Christ Himself is our inheritance and everything else, as wonderful as it may seem, will pale in comparison. Marriage and the marriage relationship is the most intimate and loving that we have, the highest form of spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental bonding, yet the love that Christ has for us, His church is even greater than this, it's only a tiny taste of what is to come, the love we shall have for Him, and the love He shall have for us and the knowledge we shall have of each other in this paradise He is both preparing and will prepare.

The short of it?

So today I spent a bit of time reading. I finished a couple more chapters in A.A. Hodge's commentary on the Westminster Confession, read another chapter in Christ of the Covenants, and finished up Pilgrim's Progress in the 19th Century. The last one was fairly good for the most part, though the author certainly had an agenda. The first hundred and fifty pages encompassed some discussion about Thoughtful and how he started on his journey, some discussions between him and Feel-well and Love-Self and then they got to a town where they stayed and talked about revivals for 230 pages! The last 50 pages or so were devoted to their continuing, passing through the areas of Vanity Fair, where Demas was, Giant Despair (although now it was Giant Self-Confidence or something like that) and their going through the grounds of enchantment and finally reaching Beulah. So by far the bulk of the book, they stayed in one spot, talked with the same two people, and talked about one subject. It was good, just not really good in a literary way!

I sent out a few e-mails, finishing up some business that I'd been meaning to do. Then Jon came over with his futon in the back of Dan's truck, which he had borrowed, and I went over to his apartment and helped him move a small dresser over here as well. So now when my family comes to visit, they can use the futon :)

I listened to some music, played a little bit of the Zelda game, and barely started on day 2 of the Western Pilgrim's Progress. I've had two comments now, one from my mother. People must be busy! As I said before though, I really would like feedback, I've been kind of holding off on the subsequent parts because if I do have to re-do things, I don't want to have to re-do more than one and waste the time.

Some plans for this skit include (as suggested by JD and my mother)
* Western themed music, at least for the start-up, tentatively for mood music thoughout the play.
* Western costumes, bandannas and hats and boots and jeans would suffice generally.
* having kids from the audience "help out" each day. I plan for day 2 having one kind be "Mr Lazy" laying under the tree. All he or she would have to do is lie their with their eyes closed, snoring (and a big grin on his or her face no doubt). For day 2 I would also like to have a couple of kids acting like roaring lions that Christian has to cross through. That may take a little more planning (don't want them actually jumping on and eating poor Christian!).
* That is, if we /can/ get a person to play Christian!
* The daily lesson (which I'm also doing, to my knowledge) would be themed around the story, with questions asked like "why was Mr Lazy called Mr Lazy?" "Why did Christian want to get his burden off his back? Who could help him do that? Why did he have a burden?" etc., pulling off of names and themes I'm focusing on.
* Mr Worldly Wiseman (taking a literary license here) will appear, dapper as always, on a daily basis, always with a little more affected shine than before. There may be a final showdown between him and Sheriff Shepherd over the gospel and Christ.

So this evening I was puttering around the house, I'd washed dishes, etc. and just had to get out. Although it's not normally my custom to take a walk to spend time with myself. If I do go out by myself, it's usually to find a quiet spot to pray. I walked around in the park for a little while, singing Psalm 143 and 2 and then walked back, grabbed my frisbee and iPod and listened to the RP International conference (all the Psalm singing tracks since I listened to the sermons already) and practiced my long throws with the frisbee, for when we play Ultimate. Oddly, being by one's self during the school year is very different than being by one's self during the summer. In the former period, I guess I have more to think about, I certainly have plenty to do now as well, so I'm not sure what the difference is. But I did feel myself wishing that someone would show up, or send an e-mail or something! It's been rather quiet and isolated today...

But tomorrow is Sabbath and I'm very much looking forward to it and worshiping in the congregation once more. So good night all!

How interesting!

For those of you who don't know about it yet, my "western themed" Pilgrim's Progress thing for the first day of VBS is online. I would seriously like some comments because so far all I've had is one person say "cool" and that's all the feedback. I'm concerned that it's too boring to hold the attention of the children, that it's too long, that more western themed things could be brought in, that more changes could be made. The link is at:
http://www.box.net/shared/tixa6z5nfj

But what I really wanted to do is share some thoughts from Henry:

Regarding Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan that David asked for, found, and brought into his house to eat at his table, Henry states:

"Now because David was a type of Christ, his Lord and son, his root and offspring, let his kindness to Mephibosheth serve to illustrate the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards fallen man, which yet he was under no obligation to, as David was to Jonathan. Man was convicted of rebellion against God, and, like Saul's house, under a sentence of rejection from him, was not only brought low and impoverished, but lame and impotent, made so by the fall. The Son of God enquires after this degenerate race, that enquired not after him, comes to seek and save them. To those of them that humble themselves before him, and commit themselves to him, he restores the forfeited inheritance, he entitles them to a better paradise than that which Adam lost, and takes them into communion with himself, sets them with his children at his table, and feasts them with the dainties of heaven. Lord, what is man, that thou shouldst thus magnify him!"

I thought it was interesting to compare man's impotence due to the fall, to Mephibosheth's impotence due to his fall.

Another neat comment came from 2 Samuel 10. David had heard that the Ammonite king had died and since he had showed some kindness to David at one point, David sent men as ambassadors to comfort this king's son. The king listened to his advisors however and they cut off half of their beards and their cloaks and sent them away calling them spies. David then gathers his army and the king suddenly realizes that he doesn't have enough men. Henry states:

"Yet it seems, they had not considered how unable they were, with their thousands, to meet his; for now they found themselves an unequal match, and were forced to hire forces of other nations into their service. Thus sinners daringly provoke God, and expose themselves to his wrath and never consider that he is stronger than they, 1 Cor x.22."

That is all.

WHO LET THE BLOGS OUT!

*Takes of hat and cloak*

Phew! It's been a while!

Should call myself the musty traveler, or at least someone who hasn't been updating for a while :)

But things have been busy. For example, the last two days I've spent a total of 20 hours at work, Steve (my employer) wanted to get a few things done that evening, like order some PCBs (printed circuit boards) because that was the last day they were having a 20% discount from the company. I just wish I had known about that sooner so I could have concentrated on that earlier. And besides that, the money we saved from the discount probably wasn't worth the extra hours put into it. But it means that this past week I've filled in enough hours to have counted Monday (which I took off) as a work day, and four hours besides! So yes, I've put in quite a few hours this week it seems.

But I'm really enjoying my work and seem to be doing well at it. Rob does almost all of the programming of our boards. I replaced Matt who had been the hardware guy, then Ben was hired on additonally a go-between for Rob and myself and to get some more cross-pollonization between everything so it wasn't just one person that had all the knowledge for a specific part. Now however, I'm being told that they are switching gears a bit and I was called into a meeting today by Sajin and Vicke who are basically trying to organize everything and make it all "modular" and streamlined and "professional" and they wanted to know how the Bolus code works.

Bear in mind that I've never seen a line of this code, never worked on the Bolus at all. I had no clue. From their standpoint, everything has to be software development and the things they talk about all have to do with that. From my standpoint, I'm happy to let Rob do all the programming and I just go play with my hardware, now they're trying to drag me into the programming and told me to look over some of the code this next week and figure it out. I dislike programming and it's been over a year since I did my last bit of it, and I'm honestly not very good at it. Plus, this is in a language I've never worked with before, so suffice it to say that I'm not too happy about that! :)

I would much rather focus on what I have been doing, testing and developing hardware, I guess I wouldn't mind a working knowledge of the programming but not this way! I especially don't want to spend that much time just looking over code on the computer. Thursday I spent 11 hours straight at a computer, then went home and did another hour of tech support (on the computer) for Dan. Yikes! Let me out of here! I almost don't want to see any computers for a while :)

But it is going well overall and I'm really not complaining. I'd like to show some pictures of what I was working on, perhaps I'll upload those.

And I've been doing a bit of reading as well, but I'd like to move on to a couple of observations and things to share:

First, today as I was driving home and thinking about lightning (there was a thunderstorm) I started thinking a bit about light in general. More specifically, I started wondering about what would happen if the semi I was next to at a stoplight, were to be struck (since there were some near strikes) and if I would be blind for the rest of my life, and how to pull off to the side of the road to let other cars go by, but then realized that they would be blind too.....

But I started thinking that the nerve sensors in our eyes are rather sensitive, to be able to detect waves of energy and assimilate them into various forms of images that we see, they sense various colours etc., it's absolutely amazing! But give them too much and I'm sure they would be blinded permanantly, and damaged. This led me to consider how appropriate it is in Psa 36:9 to say "For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light." and even how the first words God spoke have to do with light. Light is used 272 times in the Bible, 25 times in the Psalms. Just like a lightning flash, or an atomic bomb flash which annihilates the sensitive nerves in one's eye, God's greatness would completely consume our poor spiritual beings, this body, this person would be completely consumed. It's only when God strengthens and brings one to Himself that we could stand it. His greatness is so excellent that He only reveals a tiny dim shadow of Himself to us on earth, and even that seems so bright at times! One day He will reveal Himself in all His glory, we shall know Him as He knows us, we shall /see/ Him face to face, we will be able to take in all of His majesty and have all eternity to enjoy it! A book I read recently talked about how marriage and the relationship enjoyed there is the highest form of friendship and intimacy that we know, to be loved and to love someone in return is amazing and something I can't quite fathom, yet it is only a tiny taste, a dull and bitter taste, a dim and faint shadow of what is to come. The love that Christ has upon us and the love that we will be enabled to have for Him are so amazing that I can't even begin to imagine, and I mean that in all seriousness and not as a cliche.

And then the light turned green and I drove off thinking it would be good blog material :)

I was also reading Pilgrim's Progress in the 19th Century this past week (again) which is still decently good. The author definitely had a motive, the last 200 pages have been spent in one town, talking with the same three persons about revivals. It's not bad, much of it is quite good, but the story hasn't been moving along in the slightest! I'd at least like it to mention that they started walking on the highway while talking, so I felt like I was going somewhere! But there was a good passage that I wanted to share, a good analogy. Lately I've been seeing so many analogies (like the one I just shared) that I've begun to suspect that God made the world the way He did so that everything could have an analogy. Like a tree's roots and growth make many good analogies! Blame it on Frodo. ;) Anyway, this one is talking about a sinner who thinks that he is saved because he submits to God, not that God saves him regardless:

"Attraction is to the world of matter, the same that disinterested love is to the moral world. It belongs to every little atom on the surface of the earth to remain in its place, and in connection with its kindred atoms, to revolve aroudn the sun, the centre of our material system, attracting and being attracted, according to its quantity of matter. But if a single atom were to take state to itself, and fly off from the surface of the earth high into the firmament of heaven, and claim to be the centre of the material system, and require suns and planets to revolve around it as the acknowledged centre of attraction, - this would resemble a rational creature who makes himself his supreme object and who wishes the Creator and all his creatures to make his good their centre of attraction. But because we deny to this atom the place of a common centre for the system, has it therefore no appropriate place? Certainly, it had its proper place. It was the place of an atom; and it behooved it to cleave to the surface of the earth, and in connection with its kindred atoms, to attract and be attracted; and in a steady and orderly manner to revolve round the real centre of the system. If this atom is not acting in character, when it seeks to make all other bodies revolve round it, so neither is any man or angel who sets himself up as the supreme object, and seeks to make all other beings subordinate to him."

And this, is my update. Adieu.