earth

The Seen Versus the Unseen

/ Clay D. / Leave a comment

As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Cor. 4:18

Have you ever paused to think that everything you see around you—including your home and all of your belongings, your car, the buildings in your city, and even all of nature—will one day cease to exist?

That’s right, just as the above verse says, everything we see is transient, or temporary. One day all the things we’ve worked for in our lives will be gone. 

It kind of makes you wonder if we really should be putting so much emphasis on things, doesn’t it?

We know everything on earth will one day disappear, as John tells us in Revelation 21:1:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 

In the following verse, we find that John then,

saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

Rev. 21:2

The new Jerusalem is where all believers in Christ will eventually live with God throughout eternity.

In fact, in that same verse in 2 Corinthians above, we read that it is the unseen things that are eternal. 

And guess what? We’re not taking any of our things with us to this new and beautiful city. All the stuff that we’ve become so attached to here on earth will be gone in an instant. It’s that temporary.

Nothing we see on earth now will last; however, God himself, the multitude of heavenly angels, and the new Heaven and earth will all last forever.

Think about it. There is a whole world that we can’t see right now, which will actually live on throughout eternity. 

And all the stuff we’ve worked to accumulate during our lifetimes will all vanish in the blink of an eye.

It kind of makes you want to rethink your priorities, doesn’t it?

However, we can actually send treasures on ahead to Heaven while we’re still here on earth. Jesus tells us,

Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Matt. 6:20

What exactly does He mean by treasures? Your Heavenly treasures are the good works you do here while spending your time on earth. 

Paul encourages us in the book of Ephesians,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Eph. 2:10

God has a plan for each of us, and while it doesn’t necessarily include stockpiling a bunch of “stuff,” it does include good works like loving and helping our neighbors and other people who touch our lives in one way or another.

These works can take a number of forms, but in the end it all boils down to showing the love of Jesus to those we come in contact with. 

This means helping them, encouraging them, and giving to them as God leads us.

That is the true treasure that we’re storing up in Heaven. And while we can’t see it, we know through faith that it is as real as anything we see on earth (actually more so). 

Better yet, we know this treasure will never deteriorate, fall apart, or pass away, unlike the latest gadget we just had to buy.

So, with that in mind, are you going to focus on the things that are seen, or on the eternal unseen things?

God in a Hazy Shade of Winter

/ Clay D. / Leave a comment

Recently, as I was sitting at a traffic light and staring up at billboard, the thought hit me that since God is eternal, and that since man has only been on the earth for a few thousand years (I know this point is debatable), the whole span of human existence is but a mere blip for God.

I wondered then, “What did God do for all the ages leading up to our existence?” Does He have a much bigger role that He is filling, rather than just “Creator of Humans”? There is a whole universe out there, after all. And the vast majority of it has to do with us tiny, weak humans.

I have always thought of humans and the earth as being God’s big success story, that His big accomplishment was us. However, we are really only a minute part of what God has done. It’s kind of like how a small child imagines that he is his parents’ whole life. He isn’t able to fathom them ever having a life before him — as though they were born parents.

One thing I have wondered about for years is what Satan was doing after He and his cohorts were kicked out of Heaven, but before God created man. Satan is called the “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4), but what was happening before there really was a world (earth) and people to tempt? Why did God even allow Satan to enter the Garden of Eden in the first place? I think I’m getting ahead of myself.

The more I’ve thought about all these questions, the more I realize that I’m asking the wrong questions, or maybe it’s just that I’m making inaccurate assumptions about God.

God isn’t constrained to time like we are. For example, we often think in terms of humans having been around for a specific length of time, say 6000 years (again, debatable). Furthermore, we understand that God existed before humans, and will, of course, exist for all eternity with His believers in the New Jerusalem, after earth as we know it is gone, and He has created a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1-2). Thinking about time in a linear fashion is the only way we know to do so.

I believe that God is also able to do the same thing — view time as a long line stretching to eternity in both directions, both past and future. However, I believe that for Him there really is no such thing as time. Everything past, present, future exists all at once for Him. He sees it all, all the time. He’s God. He’s big. He can do that.

Therefore, to ponder what God was doing before He created us, is really basing the question on faulty assumptions. In Exodus 3:14, God calls himself, “I AM”. God is, was, and will be. There has never been a time, nor will there ever be a time, when God does not exist.

In fact, even framing the last sentence the way I did is inaccurate. God came before time, not the other way around. It would be impossible for there ever to be a time when God did not exist, because He created time. God exists without time.

This brings me back to my original question then, “What did God do for all the ages leading up to our existence?”. I believe the only way to answer it is by concluding that for God humans have never not existed. We’re no less real and alive to Him today than say, a billion human years ago.