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Issue link: http://magazine.kcm.org/i/1117381
They don’t mean it as a compliment. But that’s how I take it, because what they’re really saying is, we’re preaching the scriptural truth. According to the Bible, from the very beginning God created this earth to be a heaven-on-earth kind of place. He didn’t put any sickness or scarcity in it. He made everything “very good” (Genesis 1:31). He filled it with His blessings and commanded them to multiply so that His family could have plenty to enjoy. Talk about heaven on earth! That’s exactly what the Garden of Eden was. Adam had a perfect wife. Eve had a perfect husband. The food grew on trees. The temperature was perfect. Nothing was lacking and there was even plenty of gold. Best of all, Adam and Eve got to walk every day with God and they only had one command from Him to keep: “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” If they had kept that command, everything on earth could have remained heavenly—forever! But, as we all know, they didn’t. They doubted God’s Word, believed the lying devil, fell for his temptation, and threw their heaven-on-earth away. God allowed them to do it because He had created them with a free will. But it wasn’t His plan for them. He didn’t want them to open the door to the curse that came on the earth through sin. He didn’t want them to have to live by their own sweat and toil, and deal with scarcity, sickness and death. No, He still wanted them to be BLESSED. Josephus, the Jewish historian, noted in the book "Works of Josephus," that even when God was confronting Adam and Eve about their sin, He said to them: “I had before determined about you both, how you might lead a happy life without any affliction and care and vexation of soul, and that all things might contribute to your enjoyment and should grow up by My providence of their own accord without your own labor and painstaking.” That’s really the way God wanted things to be! But Adam and Eve, by rejecting His Word, rejected God’s will. They bowed their knee to the devil, and as a result conditions on earth changed. God didn’t change though. He never changes (Malachi 3:6). So, He put into effect a plan that would once again make it possible for His people to live in His perfect will. * * * * continues on p. 28 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Points to Get You There: 1) When God created the earth in the beginning, He intended for His people’s lives to be filled with His goodness. Gen. 1:31 2) Things changed on earth when Adam sinned, but God’s will for His people remained the same. Mal. 3:6 3) God told His people, even under the Old Covenant, that by putting Him and His Word first they could enjoy heavenly lives. Deut. 11:21 4) Jesus told us in the New Testament if we give ourselves 100% to God, we can enjoy heaven’s blessings on earth too. Matt. 6:33 5) Give yourself wholly to God, go after Him with all your heart and He will move in your life in ways that will amaze you. 2 Chr. 16:9 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BVOV : 27