What is God's purpose and God's "end game"? Scripture gives us a partial view of Heaven and Hell, Judgement and Rescue, and the nature of eternity with God. But it doesn't tell us everything about the future. Maybe this is a good time to remember that He is the Potter and we are just clay. He is the Owner; we are the Owned. He gets to do whatever He wants anytime He wants, and He never owes us an explanation. Many times He chooses to give us one, but many times He doesn't. It's His choice, always. But He had something wonderful in mind when He made us, because we were brought into existence for His pleasure and His purposes (Philippians 2:13).
I will say this: whatever He has in mind, it is ultimately inexorable, inescapable, set in stone, unbending, uncompromising, and inevitable. It is the very flow and plan of God. He has known all along what He was doing and what He was going to do. When completed, His plan will bring Him great delight. He will be deeply pleased with the results. But only those who choose to go forward with Him into eternity on nothing more and nothing less than His terms will be there.
Contrast that to the souls who reject being conformed to the image of Jesus. Anyone and anything that has a corrupted, contaminated essence cannot possibly be compatible with His pure, holy essence. The very existence of anything that is unholy, corrupted, and contaminated causes pain in His soul, bringing constant irritation. As Jesus said in His time on earth, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?" (Mathew 17:17).
Conversely, every person in Heaven will be -- must be -- conformed to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29). I don't know everything that means, but I do know it includes being free from corruption and contamination and everything that is unholy. It means that because His children have been totally transformed and have become pure and holy, they can be in His open presence without melting uncontrollably, without fleeing as darkness flees from light.
His children will be caught up in joy and loving fellowship with His soul for eternity. With His children, He will get to indulge Himself in love, roll around in love, satiate Himself in love, give in to love without restraint, and overdose on love, though to Him, it won't be an overdose. It will be love richer in texture and depth than anything we can even imagine here.
I believe that He is always looking for fresh outlets and for fresh expressions of agape love. As we love Him more and more with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, those fresh outlets just get better and better. So let us choose, with all of our hearts, to roll around in love with Him, to lose ourselves in that love.
I will say this: whatever He has in mind, it is ultimately inexorable, inescapable, set in stone, unbending, uncompromising, and inevitable. It is the very flow and plan of God. He has known all along what He was doing and what He was going to do. When completed, His plan will bring Him great delight. He will be deeply pleased with the results. But only those who choose to go forward with Him into eternity on nothing more and nothing less than His terms will be there.
Contrast that to the souls who reject being conformed to the image of Jesus. Anyone and anything that has a corrupted, contaminated essence cannot possibly be compatible with His pure, holy essence. The very existence of anything that is unholy, corrupted, and contaminated causes pain in His soul, bringing constant irritation. As Jesus said in His time on earth, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?" (Mathew 17:17).
Conversely, every person in Heaven will be -- must be -- conformed to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29). I don't know everything that means, but I do know it includes being free from corruption and contamination and everything that is unholy. It means that because His children have been totally transformed and have become pure and holy, they can be in His open presence without melting uncontrollably, without fleeing as darkness flees from light.
His children will be caught up in joy and loving fellowship with His soul for eternity. With His children, He will get to indulge Himself in love, roll around in love, satiate Himself in love, give in to love without restraint, and overdose on love, though to Him, it won't be an overdose. It will be love richer in texture and depth than anything we can even imagine here.
I believe that He is always looking for fresh outlets and for fresh expressions of agape love. As we love Him more and more with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, those fresh outlets just get better and better. So let us choose, with all of our hearts, to roll around in love with Him, to lose ourselves in that love.
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