Who Owns the Earth?

Posted on by korgrocker

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths.”
Psalm 24:1-2 NLT

We leave behind the gentle musings of Psalm 23 to move on to the next Psalm from David. He is in a reflective mood and asks some philosophical questions, one of which he answers right at the start of Psalm 24. “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it”. A sweeping statement but most of the inhabitants of Planet Earth would dispute it. An individual might point to his property deeds and claim they are “freehold” meaning that he has a claim to the ground on which the property is built. But then how far does that ownership extend? A nation might claim ownership to the land within territorial boundaries, but what about the whole earth? There is no person or entity who can claim to own it. We pilgrims turn to Genesis 1 and see the account of how God brought the earth into being, by a Word “Then God said …”. Over the first four days of creation God made the earth and the heavens, followed by two days populating the earth with animal and vegetable matter, including human beings. And at the end we read, “Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31). So to believers there is no doubt about how the earth came into being. Those who claim that the universe, including the earth, was a chance event, have no real answers to the question “Who made the earth?” let alone who owns it. But the earth is real. We are standing on it, and David wrote that it belongs to the Lord. At the other end of the Bible we read, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honour and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased” (Revelation 4:11). In the absence of clear ownership of the earth and its contents we can only look to God, who created it all in the first place. 

In Genesis 1:28 we read, “Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground””. That verse is often taken as setting out the responsibilities mankind has over the earth and its contents. The fact that human beings are trashing this world is a sad state of affairs. But having said that, we also read in 2 Peter 3:10-13, “But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness”. This theme continues in Revelation 21:1, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone”. Simply, the earth as we know it will disappear one day in a fire of cosmic proportions, and will be replaced by a new earth. The territorial claims made by human beings won’t be worth the paper they are written on. Anyway, the pieces of paper will be burnt up as well. Will there be souls arguing with God about ownership of a piece of ground on the new earth? I don’t think so.

David moves on to write, “The world and all its people belong to him”. That would be a very contentious statement to an unbeliever, who will claim ownership of themselves and their own little bit of the world, but in a sense their physical body and associated “stuff” ceases to belong to them after they die. But we pilgrims know differently. We read and apply Romans 12:1, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him“. One day these bodies of ours will be of no further use, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands”. So our souls will leave our earthly bodies and instead be domiciled in Heaven in a form God has already prepared for us. 

Paul starts off his Roman epistle with the verse, “This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News”. A slave is a person who is the property of someone else. They have no rights or claims of ownership themselves, and Paul voluntarily bonded himself to Jesus as a slave. He was an example for us pilgrims to follow, because we are slaves of Jesus as well. Yes, often our “old man” will rise up and try and reclaim ownership of self, but it is no good because we belong to God, and God alone. Before the hackles start to rise, however, we need to think what we have bought into. A slave of Jesus will have access to God’s resources; it is a privilege, especially when we remember that only Jesus is the Way to eternal life.

Father God. What else can we say other than we are sold out for You and Your Son Jesus. There is no other way possible, and we thank You for Your grace and favour. Amen.

The House of the Lord

Posted on by korgrocker

“You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honour me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever”.
Psalm 23:5-6 NLT

We draw our little journey into Psalm 23 to a close with some thoughts about the “house of the Lord”. We received a key to God’s front door when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, a door that opened into a very different world to what we were previously used to in our sinful lives. We now live in the Kingdom of God, as children of the Most High, and here a different economy, a different lifestyle and a different culture exist. But on Planet Earth we find ourselves in a strange dual existence, where we physically dwell in a secular world, dark, evil and sin-soaked, but with our spirits loftily positioned in the presence of God, and a constant tussle prevails, as Paul described in Romans 7:23-24, “But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” But David wasn’t thinking of this when he meditated on the “house of the Lord”, where he would find himself in God’s presence away from the physical constraints of human existence. What a place that will be, free from the worldly pressures and sinful pleasures, that have corrupted the souls of mankind.

In our earthly existences, we receive a glimpse of the Lord’s house, through our fellowship with other believers and our praise and worship of the One in whom we trust. It’s not about the church buildings, wonderful though some of them are. They are just there as meeting places, halls of convenience where our worship can take place. And it is there, in the presence of God, that our spirits connect with God Himself, who hears our shouts of praise and prayers of grateful worship. But I also find the “house of the Lord” in His created countryside, in the parks and woods around me, where my spirit joins the birdsong in reaching up to my Creator God. Those early morning walks where a roe deer accompanied me for a few steps, where an owl hooted and flew off, where wood pigeons and many small birds were singing their hearts out in God-ordained praise. A glimpse of the “house of the Lord” yet only a small hint of what was to come.

There will be a day when we cross the Great Divide, our bodies left behind, but our spirits and souls intact and looking forward in anticipation to examine more rooms in the “house of the Lord”. The same God will be there. Jesus will be there, because He said He would be. It was Spurgeon who said that in this life we live on the ground floor of the house, but in the life to come we can explore the floors above (my paraphrase).  John 14:1-3, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am”. The NIV records that the “place” will be “many rooms”. We don’t know what this place will be like, but one thing we can be sure of – it will be beyond our most extravagant and wildest dreams, because Jesus is preparing it. With God there are no half measures. No construction corners cut. No inferior white goods. Just a wonderful place where God will be. Another Psalmist wrote, “A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked” (Psalm 84:10). There’s a line in a Motown song from the 60’s that says “I’d rather live in his world than live without him in mine”. That’s what we pilgrims feel about being with Jesus, forever. Taking all things together, the “house of the Lord” will be quite a place!

There is insufficient space here to include all the things that will happen in the “house of the Lord”. We know that in His presence there will be amazing praise and worship, and not just from a few people in a small congregation. Revelation 19:1, “After this, I heard what sounded like a vast crowd in heaven shouting, “Praise the Lord! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God”. We will be there in that number, caught up in a crescendo, the likes of which has never been experienced here on earth. And as we read on in John’s Revelation, we find that our new home will be in the “house of the Lord” here on a new earth, and in a city called the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21:1-3, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them”. If we had thoughts about dying and spending eternity in a spiritual state in a place we call “Heaven” then we will be mistaken. Somewhere in between our physical dying in this world, and our new home we will acquire new bodies, firstly spiritual bodies (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, “It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies”), and then we will receive a resurrected body just like Jesus when He comes again, (1 Thessalonians 4:14, “For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died“).

As we read from Revelation 21, the “the house of the Lord” will ultimately be on the new Earth, and God will be living there with us. That will be amazing, and David knew that all those years ago. Who else will we find there? I don’t think we will care much, because Jesus will be there. That’s all that matters for me.

Dear Father God. Thank You for the new home You are preparing for us. Amen.

The Whole Earth

Posted on by korgrocker

“Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith.”
Romans 4:13 NLT

Paul said that God promised to give “the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants”. This is a statement that needs to be checked out. Is it true? In Genesis, God promised to give Abraham the “land” before him. We read in Genesis 15:7, “Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession””. But that wasn’t the “whole earth”. Before we get hung up in Paul’s extrapolation, we need to remember that, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him” (Psalm 24:1). And Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-19, “Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”. So Paul perhaps wasn’t wrong when he made the statement about giving the “whole earth” to Abraham, who has two types of descendant – those who can directly trace their natural lineage back to him, those in the “land”, and those spiritual descendants, like Abraham himself, who have been declared righteous before God because of their faith, those in the “whole earth”.

We are God’s representatives on Planet Earth, and He has given us a mission. In fact we call it a Great Commission. And that is to take the Gospel to every nation, to give those there the opportunity to become Abraham’s spiritual children. Too big a job? We will probably not see this happen in our lifetimes, although great strides are being made in that direction. I read a news report this morning of the activities of South Korean missionaries in spreading the Gospel and building churches in Nepal. They have been hugely successful with the Gospel message of God’s grace and love, even though converting people from one religion to another is illegal in Nepal. But there will come a day when God will draw a line under Jesus’ Commission and then the Revelation events will initiate a new Heaven and Earth, populated by people who are the spiritual descendants of Abraham.

We have a limited opportunity to reach our communities, our families, our friends, with the Gospel. We currently live in a season of God’s grace. We, like the Korean missionaries, mustn’t waste it.

Dear Father God. We take responsibly the fact that You have entrusted us pilgrims to share Your Gospel in the world in which we live. Please help us, and guide us, in spreading the message. In Jesus’ name. Amen,