A Hope for a World in Despair: New Jerusalem

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."" Revelation 21:1-4

The order that rules today will pass away! All that makes us sad will cease to exist and what is the root of human seperation from God? It is sin. Sin is what causes the pain in the world but God has given us the chance to become united with Him; to one day live with Him eternally.

No longer will greed reign supreme over human compassion: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" I Timothy 6:10

God will heal the world as He promised.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." John 3:16-21

Only through the peace and joy that comes in believing in the Name of Jesus Christ can we even begin to do good works for God. Some people think that works and faith are equal; they are not. Faith comes first, works are then the extension of faith. We need to spread the message of God. It doesn't always need to be preaching and converting. We need to shower the love that God shows us onto other people. These are the people that we step over daily, these are battered women and children, these are the countless starving. We can no longer sit here in luxury and claim that all we have is a blessing from God. We cannot horde our gifts to ourselves. God gives to us and we must give to others without judging them. Whatever you do for the least of people, you do for the King: "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' " Matthew 25:40

It is time that we show the world what New Jerusalem looks like, we can do this by doing God's work on earth and loving every person. People who believe nobody loves them: God loves them. We can be instruments for God's love and convey that love to EVERYONE.

Let God use you as an instrument for his work: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" Ephesians 2:10

The world will be fully healed once Christ returns but let us fulfill our duty and give the world a taste of what New Jerusalem can be like. We CAN change the world through love and we can prepare the world for the time coming and we can all share in the glory of God as brothers and sisters no matter what divides us here on earth.

Let's become FUNDAMENTALISTS!

Really, let's get down to the fundamentals of Christianity. Some might have you think that being a Christian is quite rigourous, but really it isn't. Jesus himself attests to the TWO commandments that sum up all of the rest in the Old Testament. Let's see what he says:

Matthew 22:36-40
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Luke 6:27-31
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you."

Mark 12:29-31
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

John 13:34-35
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

This is what Jesus taught. He didn't teach pre-emptive war or tick-for-tack revenge. He taught that first you must love God and second you must love your neighbor as yourself. Your neighbor isn't always going to be Christian, your neighbor isn't always going to be someone you would normally like, but Jesus tells you to love them anyways. Love your enemies. The fundamentals of Christianity is simple: it all hinges on LOVE.

James, the brother of Jesus, notes this:
James 2:8 "If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right. "

This means, don't worry about every little law or even commandments. Just remember to love your neighbor as yourself and the rest of the law is fulfilled.

Christ came to free us of the yoke of slavery of law-keeping. The term fundamentalist has a bad connotation in a religious sense and many "fundamentalist Christians" give Christianity a false image. Many people I have spoken to actually think Christ promoted war and war was just if Christians were the ones starting it. This is the image we get from political leaders evoking the name of Christ to stir up religious support. This is dangerous to Christianity so I thought it would be good to get back to the basics, the fundamentals. The fundamentals are these: Love God and love your neighbor.