Meaning and Purpose-Part 2
Living in the Kingdom - Introduction
GOD'S ORIGINAL PLAN- MAN WAS MADE FOR THE EARTH
In today's Christian culture it almost seems that the goal of life is to "get saved" so we can go to Heaven. But God made us to develop and rule over His creation. He made man for the earth.
The new birth reconciles us with God so that his Holy Spirit can indwell our own spirit. This enables us to get on with the reason and purpose for which God made us. While it's true that Heaven awaits us at the end of this life, we will not stay there. For God has plans for a new heaven and a new earth populated by his bride -- the church. It will be as God intended earth to be at the beginning where He would indwell our spirit with His own and live among us as we rule and reign over the earth. (See Revelations 21:1-3).
But that is in the future and you and I have a purpose NOW. We have been born again and are back on track as God's children in God's Kingdom to do his will on earth NOW. There is hope for mankind only as we reconnect to our Creator and his original concepts for life on planet earth. God's original concept for earth is "the Kingdom" and it is virtually unknown in the minds of western man.
In my study of the Bible I kept running into that phrase "the Kingdom of God" and didn't really know what that meant. Now, after years of digging and studying I'm excited to share what I have learned with you.
Jesus didn't come to improve Judaism or start a new religion. He came to earth to reestablish God's rule in the hearts of men and women so that we could fulfill God's plan to make earth a colony of Heaven -- a place of his innovation and glory. Have Christians in the west missed God's purposes because the government of God is not at all like a democracy that many of us have grown up in?
God's plan was for a kingdom government and until we understand what that means we may miss His ultimate plan for our life. Part 2 of this course deals with our living in the kingdom of God. Being born again is our entrance into the kingdom. We are back on track to take up our part in God's work.
But we need to study what a kingdom is and how we as citizens are meant to operate in it. We are not called to a religion but to citizenship in the Kingdom of God. I pray that the eyes of our hearts and understanding would be opened as we study what Jesus came to return to us -- the Kingdom of God.