Our Living Hope

Hello everyone!  Sorry this post is so late.  I had some issues but, like Dave said in his blog, no excuses...Please bare with me cuz this is the first time I've ever done this...^-^

Today's passage comes from 1 Peter 1:3 and it says that "In his great mercy God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."  

I think the author is trying to focus on the fact that the Gospel is our living hope and thru that living hope comes the promise of the resurrection of the body but this living hope also promises the "renewal of the universe" or a new heaven and new earth.  What this means is that God will not only purify our bodies but also the world that He created from the evils of the fallen world.   I never really thought about this because, like everyone in the world, I'm self-centered and only focus on the new body promise and never really thought about the cleansing of the world part.  The author even mentions that, "we Christians tend to think and talk too much of the ethereal heaven and too little about the new heaven and the new earth." But now that I think about it, it's like when we die or if Christ comes again, we will recieve our new bodies but where will we live with these bodies?  God takes care of that because, through his great mercy, He gives us a new and better heaven and earth where it is purge of all the sin and evils that it once was tainted by sin. 

This got me to thinking how we forget that this world is evil because it is full of sin.  We should remember that it's the people that make it evil too because of the evilness in their own hearts.  The world was created by God.  It's a gift.  But we tend to forget that and love the creation more than the Creator and try to horde it all for ourselves.  I'm also reminded of what Dulla smn once told me that the common world view is that people are born good and fight the evils of this world with that goodness but that's a wrong way of thinking.  In the Christian world view, it should be understood that people are born evil because they've inherited sin.  So throughout their Christian lives, they aren't fighting the evil/sin with their goodness but they recieve goodness from God so they can fight their own evilness with it.  And that goodness is the Gospel. 

Bottomline is the Gospel is good and our living hope. We shouldn't only focus on the promise of the renewel of the body but also to the new heaven and earth that God will give.  Sorry for rambling but that's it. Thanks for reading and see you Sunday!