Say Yes to Jesus

Say Yes To Jesus – You aren’t on a dead-end street. Your journey doesn’t end with your final heartbeat. You are not here for possessions, power, or prestige. The story of Eden is not just the story about the first person but a picture of God’s plan for each person. What God did for Adam he did for you. He formed you. He breathed life into you. And he destined you to serve him in a perfect place. Can you hear him? “I see something great in you. Would you accept my destiny for your life?”

If you’ve never said yes to Jesus, take a moment and do so. It’s not complicated. Just say something to him like this: “Jesus, I am not perfect, for I have sinned. But I believe in you. Save me, change me, forgive me. I give you my life. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

Reigning with Christ

Reigning with Christ – God’s storyline concludes with you, me, all his children living, ruling, dining, and serving with him in a perfect world. In the Bible’s final book, these words are said to Jesus: “You were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9-10).

That’s you, my friend. The final stop in your heavenly itinerary involves not just Eden, but a position of authority in God’s garden. Pause and let that promise sink in: you will reign with Christ. God’s purpose and plan for you may begin in this life, but it won’t be fully realized until the life to come.

Where Are You

Where Are You – “When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God” (Genesis 3:8). They hid from God! We’ve been hiding ever since. We cover ourselves in work or status. God sought them out. “God called to the Man: ‘Where are you?’” (v. 9). This was not a question of geography. This was a question of the heart.

And God began sending message after message, miracle after miracle, mercy after mercy. In heaven’s finest act of love, God became human. When Jesus died on the cross, he died our death, he paid our price, he took our place. He, the sinless, became a sinner so that we, the sinners, could be regarded as sinless. As a result, God will walk with his children in the garden again.

Enter Jesus Christ

Enter Jesus Christ – After Adam and Eve rebelled, God set in motion a plan of redemption that includes promises, prophets, and miracles. He made a covenant with Abraham. He raised up Joseph in Egypt. He gave courage to David and strength to Esther. But still the people sinned. It would take a perfect man and a perfect sacrifice to overcome it.

Enter Jesus Christ.

Like Adam, Jesus had no earthly father. Like Adam, Jesus was given authority over creation. Like Adam, Jesus was tempted. But unlike Adam, Jesus never sinned. We can thank the apostle Paul for this concise summary found in Romans 5:18 “Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life!”

Sin Happened

Sin Happened – Hebrews 2:8 reads, “When God put Adam and Eve in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. We…don’t see everything under human jurisdiction.” Instead of ruling the world, we feel ruled by the world. We see creation in a state of corruption, eruption, and pollution. What’s more, we don’t see male and female behaving as partners, but often as rivals.

What happened? Sin happened. Rebellion happened. Satan happened. A villain entered the garden. He convinced the couple that the garden was inadequate. They wanted to be like God. And God, who knows what is best for creation, said, “No.” He temporarily suspended the Garden of Eden plan, but he did not cancel it. And he did not abandon it. And he certainly did not abandon us.

A Helper for Adam

A Helper for Adam – “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). God commissioned Adam to care for the creation. But alone? No companion? No partner? For the first time God used the phrase “It is not good.” Adam exercised his role as overseer and assigned a name to each creature. But the man could find “no helper just right for him” (Genesis 2:20).

Men, aren’t we glad? What if he’d chosen a warthog as a helper? But God had a special gift for Adam. God put Adam to sleep (thereby forever sanctifying the act of a good nap), extracted a rib from Adam’s side, and created the perfect partner. Eve, like the bone from which she was made, was created to remain closest to Adam’s heart. And life was good.

A Stunning Creation

A Stunning Creation – “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7). Out of the soil of the garden, God shaped Adam’s torso. He rounded the head and formed a nose. The same hand that flung stars in the heavens and scooped the floor for the ocean sculpted the first person.

Then, “He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person” (Genesis 2:7). God exhaled. And Adam inhaled. And Adam had life. But he had more than oxygen in him. He had God’s breath in him. What a sterling, stunning creation he must have been. Unsullied by greed. Uncorrupted by hate. Untainted by guilt. Unacquainted with fear.

That is how we were intended to be. And that is how we will be, when Christ comes again.

Made in the Image of God

Made in the Image of God – Want to know what’s coming next? Then consider what came first. God’s designs for you and me were unveiled in Scripture’s opening pages. Eschatology, the study of end things, begins with protology, the study of first things.

Our story begins like this: “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground’” (Genesis 1:26).

By this point God had created much. Stars sparkled at night. The air was sweet with the fragrance of flowers and the music of birds. Animals roamed the valley. But creation, albeit magnificent and mighty, was not made in the image of God. That privilege was reserved for the likes of you and me.

Good to Go

Good to Go – Five hundred years ago sailors feared the horizon. Sail too far and risk falling off the edge. The Spaniards held dominion over both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar. At its narrowest margin, where Africa can see Europe, they erected the Pillar of Hercules, a huge marker that bore in its stone “No More Beyond.”

But then came Columbus and the voyage of 1492. The discovery of the new world swung open the western doors of Spain. They took the Latin phrase “No More Beyond,” removed the first word, and impressed this slogan onto their coins: “More Beyond.”

You were made for “More Beyond.” You were made to explore what happens next. It’s all about hope. It’s all about him. So let’s make sure that we are good to go.

The Serengeti of Prophecy

The Serengeti of Prophecy – Prophecy is to the Bible what the Serengeti is to Africa—vast, expansive. If Bible prophecy is the Serengeti, some Christians are big game hunters. They find prophecy on every page, symbolism in every story, and clues in every verse.

Somewhere between these two positions is a healthy posture. Believers who avoid utter ignorance on one hand and total arrogance on the other. Who seek what God intends: a deep-seated confidence that our tomorrow is in our Lord’s hands.

The purpose of prophecy is to empower the saint with a sense of God’s sovereignty. As the apostle Paul wrote, “The one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them (1 Corinthians 14:3). Prophecy prepares us to face the future with faith.