Life on Planet Earth on New Creation

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Lord of all creation, you make us into

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Lord of all creation, you make us into a new creation, your followers sing new songs of praise to you, and yet we so easily fall into routines as we worship you. Too often we offer you lip service wit...

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Adapted from 2 Corinthians 5:17-20

Author

Austin D. Hill

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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconci...

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Adapted from Isaiah 65:17-25

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 65:17-25

The Lord says, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; For b...

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Adapted from Lamentations 3:22-24 and Ephesians 2:11-22

Author

Scott B. Bullock

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Scripture

Lamentations 3:22-24, Ephesians 2:11-22

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is his faithfulness. ‘The Lord is our portion,’ says our souls, ‘therefore, we will hop...

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Author

Carroll Stuhlmueller

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Silently lost in adoration within the dust before God is preparation for the ultimate answer to all questions: one’s becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus.

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Author

N. T. Wright

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God's plan is not to abandon this world, the world which he said was "very good." Rather, he intends to remake it. And when he does he will raise all his people to new bodily life to liv...

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O God, our resurrection and life, the

Author

Linda Smallwood

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O God, our resurrection and life, the promise of Your new life in Christ is like a breath of fresh air in a dry and thirsty land. We have gathered as believers, and as those who are honestly seeking t...

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Author

Anthony Hoekema

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Because of man’s fall into sin, a curse was pronounced over the creation. God now sent His Son into this world to redeem that creation from the results of sin. The work of Christ, therefore, is not ju...

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Adapted from Revelation 21:1-4

Author

Dustin Ray

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Scripture

Revelation 21:1-4

Leader: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. All: And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of he...

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Author

C. S. Lewis

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God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.

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Author

Brennan Manning

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The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creation. Not to make people with better...

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A Life Re-Defined by The Spirit of God

Author

Mark Labberton

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 8:36-38, Acts 8:29-31, Acts 10:44-46, Acts 10:3-6, Acts 10:1-48, Acts 9:17-18, Acts 9:3-6

In his excellent book on worship, The Dangerous Act of Worship , pastor and president of Fuller Seminary Mark Labberton shares a story of the transformation of one of his former congregants: Ben ...

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Leader: Scripture teaches us that there

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Scripture

Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Genesis 1:27, Ephesians 2:10, Isaiah 60:1-3, 1 John 3:1

Leader: Scripture teaches us that there is one good and holy God; that we were created in God’s image, to commit ourselves to Him, to do good works, to reflect His glory, and to know Him as loving Fat...

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Author

N. T. Wright

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Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's...

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Author

Charles Colson

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God cares not only about redeeming souls but also about restoring his creation. He calls us to be agents not only of his saving grace but also of his common grace. Our job is not only to build up the ...

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God made it. God loves it. God cares for it.

Author

Emily Hunter McGowin

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:31, Psalm 104:24, Colossians 1:17, Isaiah 40:26, John 1:10, Romans 8:19, Hebrews 1:3

Julian of Norwich was a fourteenth-century mystic-theologian who maybe understood the belovedness of creation and new creation better than anyone. In the fifth chapter of her book Revelations of Divin...

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God of grace–generous Giver of all good

God of grace–generous Giver of all good gifts: You bless us abundantly every day—In Your Son our Savior who makes us new creations; in the smile of child, the greeting of a friend and the hug of a...

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You know all about us–our weakness, our

Author

Richard Herman

Scripture

Philippians 4:6-7, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 12:9, 1 Peter 5:7, Isaiah 40:29, Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 34:18

You know all about us–our weakness, our failing, our sin; and you still love us enough to give your Son to redeem us. Hear the cries of our hearts today. There’s someone for whom it was hard to get ou...

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Gracious God, we come before you today scared

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Gracious God, We come before you today scared. Scared for our health, scared for our jobs, scared for our loved ones. Help us Lord, not to dwell in our fears, but rather to turn to you, trusting that...

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Author

Emily Dickinson

Keywords

A little Madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King . . . Who ponders this tremendous scene— This whole Experiment of Green

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Finding the Right “Fit”: Clothing Ourselves with Christ-Like Behavior

Author

Gary Thomas

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:12

I am among the minority of people who are hardwired (genetic science now demonstrates this) to loathe cilantro. I can’t stand it. I call it the adolescent of herbs: notice me, notice me, NOTICE ME! To...

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For the Sake of the Medal

Author

Timothy Keller

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On a TV detective show some years ago I saw a story of an old man in his eighties, an ex-Marine, sadly broken down and accused of a crime. Two big, strapping military police and a snarling Navy lawyer...

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How Transformation Happens

Author

James Bryan Smith

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:11-14, Galatians 2:20, Romans 8:1-2, Colossians 3:3-4, John 8:34-36, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Ephesians 4:22-24, Romans 8:15-16

In The Good and Beautiful God , James Bryan Smith describes a new Christian he happened to know who came to him one day feeling dejected. He was so excited to be a follower of Jesus, but he just co...

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The Utopian Dream

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The myth of progress has deep roots in contemporary Western culture, and some of those roots are Christian…This utopian dream is in fact a parody of the Christian vision. The kingdom of God and the ki...

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Silence in Scripture

Author

Frederick Buechner

Keywords

Silence

Scripture

John 18:38

Somebody should write a book someday about the silences in Scripture. Maybe somebody already has. “For God alone my soul waits in silence,” the psalmist says (62:1), which is the silence of waiting. O...

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Leadership in the Forge

Author

Tod E. Bolsinger

Keywords

In 1992, my wife and I traveled to Prague, Czech Republic. One day, near the end of our trip, Beth and I walked through Staroměstské náměstí, a large central square. There in the middle of the square ...

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On Creation by Frederick Beuchner

Author

Frederick Buechner

Keywords

Creation

Scripture

Job 38:7, Genesis 1:, Lamentations 3:22-23, Psalm 104:30, Isaiah 43:19, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Psalm 19:1-2

To make suggests making something out of something else the way a carpenter makes wooden boxes out of wood. To create suggests making something out of nothing the way an artist makes paintings or poem...

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LORD, too often we live for ourselves

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:13, Micah 6:8, Ephesians 4:22-24, Isaiah 55:7, Psalm 51:10-12, Matthew 6:33, Romans 12:2

LORD, too often we live for ourselves instead of how You have called us. Please forgive us for the times when we don’t strive to bring about Your kingdom here and now. Forgive us for the lack of imagi...

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A Formless, Functionless World

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:2, Isaiah 45:18, Psalm 104:5, Jeremiah 4:23, John 1:3

Scholar John Walton points out that when Genesis 1 calls the world before creation tōhû, it is a modern cultural misunderstanding and mistranslation to think that it is describing the world as “formle...

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God’s Menagerie of Beautiful Creatures

Author

John Eldredge

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 96:11-12, Revelation 21:1, Romans 8:21, Isaiah 65:17, Psalm 148:7-10, Job 38:7, Genesis 1:31

We were in London watching the musical The Lion King. Surely you’ve seen the movie; the opening number is worth watching again this week to help your imagination seize the new earth with both hands. A...

life on planet earth on New Creation

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