“It’s not true to say there’s no time in eternity," says Jordan. "That would mean there’s no events. Time is the way you measure phenomena and the distance between events. If you don’t have time, there’s no movement. In eternity, in God’s presence, there is movement. So there has to be time in that sense.
“What there is is endless time in eternity. The Bible talks about the 'world without end.' Eons without end, that type of thing--ages to come.
“Here’s the part about that that thrills me: ‘That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.’ (Ephesians 2:7)
“There’s more than one age and in each age you’re going to show the exceeding riches of His grace. That means in this age, you’re going to show the riches of His grace, and in the next age, you’re going to EXCEED the demonstration from before. Every age will be more exceeding in the demonstration of His grace.
*****
“In the new heaven and new earth, there’s going to be that 12-month cycle, and the way I understand that is, each month one of those 12 sections, it will be their month for the fruit and so forth.
*****
“I use an illustration about Adam and Eve. Adam goes out and gets supper. He works in the Garden and comes home with a bushel of peaches and says, ‘Sugar, I think you’re going to like these. I ate one and they’re good.’ She says, ‘Man they are!’
When you look at life from the divine perspective, it’s what Paul writes in II Corinthians 4:17-18: [17] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; [18] While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.*****
“In the new heaven and new earth, there’s going to be that 12-month cycle, and the way I understand that is, each month one of those 12 sections, it will be their month for the fruit and so forth.
“Each one of those months, people in that section of the earth are transported to one of these new planets. You’ll have a new Adam and Eve out there. You and I, as members of the Body of Christ, will be there to be what the Lord Jesus Christ was for Adam and Eve in the Garden.
“You understand the Lord God that walked in the cool of the day with Adam was the second person of the godhead. The difference is there will never be any sin. All that’s been settled. He’s going to create a universe populated with people who honor and glorify Him.
“Since it’s clear that ‘the increase of his government there will be no end,’ there’s going to have to be some way to extricate people off the planet. If we can send people to the moon, the Lord can get up there.
“One thing knowing all that does is it helps us understand that what we’re going to be doing out there is a whole lot more than just floating on a cloud.*****
“I use an illustration about Adam and Eve. Adam goes out and gets supper. He works in the Garden and comes home with a bushel of peaches and says, ‘Sugar, I think you’re going to like these. I ate one and they’re good.’ She says, ‘Man they are!’
“So the next day she takes those peaches and says, ‘You know, I bet if I sliced these up and put a little sugar on them they’d be even better.’ Adam comes home and says, ‘Man, these peaches are better than the ones yesterday!’ This is just exceeding good. So the next day, Eve bakes them and makes a peach cobbler. That’s better than the sliced peaches. It’s sort of goes like that.
“We’re going to have this endless exceeding, and what’s going to happen is ‘in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ So you’re just going to learn more about Him and appreciate Him more, value Him more, and you’re going to think it couldn’t get any better, and in the next stage, it’s going to be even better. You’re never going to stop learning more about Him."
*****
“But if you don’t have verses 8 and 9, you’ll never get the other,” says Jordan. “Paul says, [8] We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
[9] Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
“If the pot doesn’t get cracked, the light doesn’t come out. As verse 7 says, ‘But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.’ What is it that you’re seeing when he says ‘we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen’?
“Well, the answer is back in verse 6: [6] For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
“Whatever the darkness, whatever the difficulty is, He commands the light to shine out of darkness by shining the glory of God in the face of His Son.
“So we sing a song: ‘O soul are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There's light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free:
No light in the darkness you see?
There's light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face;
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.’
Look full in His wonderful face;
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.’
“You know how you see the eternal—‘the things that are not seen’? Hebrews 11 has the answer: ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
[2] For by it the elders obtained a good report.
[3] Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.' "
(new article tomorrow)
[2] For by it the elders obtained a good report.
[3] Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.' "
(new article tomorrow)
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