Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

A Daily Devotional for the Family of God by Kenton Cheek

17 July 2024

Reading From Isaiah 23-27

“The earth dries up and withers,
    the world languishes and withers,
    the heavens languish with the earth.
The earth is defiled by its people;
    they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
    and broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
    its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,
    and very few are left.”

–Isaiah 24:4-6

     Sin the ensuing curse that came as its result has corrupted the once pristine Earth.  Life here is not how God intended it to be.  There is a night and day, life and death contrast between what God wanted for us and what we currently experience in this present reality. 

     People tend to blame a lot of misfortune on God, but we must be reminded that God, in His supreme sovereignty and infinite wisdom, created men and women with free moral agency.  We have the freedom to make thousands of decisions and choose which paths we will take.  The Earth has suffered along with us for our actions and the decisions made by the generations before us.

     Every generation inherits the world left to them by the generations that came before them, but that is not the end of the story.  Each human being has been made in the image of Almighty God and part of that spiritual image is the ability to make decisions.  There are many very difficult situations that humans find themselves in, not necessarily because of their own choices, but perhaps due to the location and socioeconomic status they were born in or the paths that their parents decided to take.  Yet even in these hard places, a human is able to decided how he or she will respond to adversity or handle prosperity. 

     When we make good decisions inspired by the love and wisdom of God, the world around us gets a little brighter and the Kingdom of Light advances upon the Earth.  When we decide to follow our own desires and do life on our terms with our own ideas apart from God, the darkness of corruption spreads, infecting our beings, our families and friends with ramifications that reach further than we are ever aware of.  What tremendous power we have been blessed with by God as stewards of the Earth!  The question is not whether or not you will rule and have dominion.  The question is what you are doing and will do in the future with the power and influence you have. 

When Jesus returns, He will cleanse with world with fire. Many are those who walk the path that leads to destruction, but few are those who travel the narrow way to eternal life. What kind of cleansing fire this will be, we do not know. But everything that is not of God will be burned up and the Lord will renew the Earth to its paradisiacal glory. Those who have chosen to follow Christ according to His Word will reign with Him as sons and daughters of the Most High God in the New Heaven and the New Earth. We will have glorious adventures in our New Eden! That is our destiny as children who walk in the light.

“Lord, You have given the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve more power than they realize.  I pray that You would open our spiritual eyes to see people and situations with Your insight, Your knowledge, and Your wisdom.  Bless us with the courage we need to do what is right and holy.  Help us to walk in step with Your Spirit as Your sons and daughters, adopted into Your eternal family.  Thank You for Your love and tender care.  Guide us as we share Your love and light with others and see that light overcome the darkness.  In the strong and mighty Name of Jesus, Amen.”

To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.”

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return.”

–Genesis 3:16-19

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned

–Romans 5:12

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

–Romans 8:22-25

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

–Romans 12:21