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July 8, 2008

The Time Machine

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READ: Revelation 21:1-4

With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. —2 Peter 3:8

In 1896, H. G. Wells published a book titled The Time Machine, an imaginative tale of a scientist who builds a machine that can transport someone through time. The time traveler is preoccupied with the future, not the past. Like many scientists, he believes “progress” will enable the human race to build a better world. Yet in Wells’ book, this science-fiction story does not have a happy ending.

The protagonist travels millions of years into the future. There the world has grown cold and dark. As a bleak snow falls, he sees the last remnants of life awaiting extinction. Thoroughly sickened by the twilight of life on our planet, the scientist returns to the time of his origin to report his anguish.

The biblical view of the future is very different. It tells us that God is Lord over time itself: “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). We can be optimistic about the future because God will replace our world with a new one. In that new heaven and new earth we will experience blessed fellowship with our Creator for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4). Even now, Jesus is preparing a place for those who love Him (John 14:1-3), a place where “there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying” (Rev. 21:4).

If God has made this world so fair,
Where sin and death abound,
How beautiful beyond compare
Will paradise be found! —Montgomery

Jesus is preparing a place for us and preparing us for that place.

Bible in One Year: 2 Chronicles 28–30; Proverbs 3:11-26

Thank you Mr. Mayor, for the lovely devotional....I can never read the words “there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying” (Rev. 21:4) without misty eyes.

Good afternoon, Mayor.

Thank you for helping us start the day on the right foot.

We appreciate you and all you do.