Title: God who recreates us
Contents
12/31/2011 (Songgu-Young-Sin Worship)
God who makes new
Text: Revelation 21:1~6a
2011 has passed, and the new year of 2012, the year of Imjin (Year of the Dragon) has dawned. At the end of the year and the beginning of a new year, I hope that God will bless the lives of the members who worship God first.
When you watch science fiction movies, you often take a time machine and go back in time to change your future. None of you may have ever dreamed of going back to the past. Imagine if we could go back to the past. What would you like to do back in the past? Most likely, you will want to correct the mistakes you made and make the wrong choices again. In this way, when you correct the mistakes of the past and return to reality, are you living the life you want? It won't be. Even in the movie, changing the past does not make reality better, but because of new problems, life becomes more complicated or difficult. So, we keep going back to the past, and each time a new problem arises in reality. In the end, living in “past and present” as if in a cycle, living in the middle, neither living in the past nor living in reality.
So is our life. If we get caught up in the “things of the past” such as our past lives, our past mistakes, our past choices, we cannot live our lives properly. So the Bible tells us: “Remember the former things, and do not consider the things of the past” (Isaiah 43:18).
God has given us the precious gift of “forgetting”. To not cling to the mistakes of the past is to “remember, not think, forget” By any chance, did a lot of bad things happen in 2011? Then, as God said, “Do not remember, do not think, and forget.”
After this, God promises to fill “the place where we have forgotten the bad” with new things. “I will do a new thing, and it will now be revealed (Isaiah 43:19).” Look at verses 1, 2, and 5 of today's text. “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea was no more” (verse 1), “the holy city, New Jerusalem, came down out of heaven from God” (verse 2), “all the first things” I guess it's gone... Behold, I am making all things new (verses 4b-5).”
God's promise is “to make us new.” No matter what I was before or what I was in the beginning, God will make us new. So, what does God want to create in us? What does “to be new” mean?
God has promised to be with those who do not lose hope of salvation. See verse 3. “The tabernacle of God is with men, and God will be with them, and they will be God’s people, and God Himself will be with them.” The phrase “we will be together” is repeated three times in one verse. In 2012, I hope to live a “life with God” rather than a life tied to the past. If so, where is God? In today's verse, it is written, "The tabernacle of God is with men." The tabernacle of God is where the ark of Moses was kept. It is the place where the Jews believed that God existed. After this, in the reign of King David, the ark was moved to the temple in Jerusalem. In other words, the tabernacle of God is the temple. This temple is always filled with “the glory of God.”
If so, where is this temple? This verse is found in 2 Corinthians 6:16. “How can the temple of God agree with idols? We are the temple of the living God.” Yes. “You are the temple of God.” Our life itself is the story of God's temple. It is a promise that God will always be with us no matter what we do or whatever situation we are in. This is the promise God gave you at the beginning of 2012. The God of Immanuel, “I will always be with you” will always renew us.
Dear saints, 2012 God wants to make us new. “Have hope in Jesus Christ who is coming again. And go on and never forget this wish. Then God will always be with us in our lives, the temple of God. Because God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of our lives.
However, our lives are still full of death and mourning, sorrow and suffering. However, God speaks. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more; there will be no more mourning or crying or pain, for the first things have passed away” (verse 4). Yes. In reality, there are still many things that are sad and painful, but for those who live with the hope of salvation that Jesus will return, these are no longer anything. Because we believe that when Jesus comes again, He will do all these things and give us a new heaven and a new earth. This is why we can live on this earth. When we live with the faith of salvation in the reality we live in, the “glory of God” will be revealed in our life as the temple of God.”
May 2012 be a year with the God of Immanuel, who always renews us, restores faith in the salvation of Jesus, where the lives of our members will come again, and the glory of God appears in our lives, the temple of God, in the name of the Lord. hope with