It is hard to believe that another year is now in the books, and that we have begun the new year of 2018.  Regardless of what the old year has meant for each of us, we now have a whole new opportunity to correct any failures and make any necessary improvements in our lives and in our world.

We often hear people talk about how they would do certain things over again if they were able to do so.  The truth of the matter is that one day in the future the world as we know it will cease to exist, and in its place there will be a whole new world.  This is not something that is a part of someone’s wild imagination, but rather it is something that we read about in the Word of God, in the Book of Revelation.

In Revelation 21, the apostle John recorded for us what he saw in a vision given to him by God Himself.  In verse 1, he said, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away”.  The world that God originally created was a perfect paradise, but when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, they allowed sin to enter the world.  Sin has definitely had a catastrophic effect on the world in which we live, but one day everything will change for the better.

The Book of Genesis tells us the story of the Great Flood that destroyed the earth during the days of a man named Noah.  God instructed him to build an ark, which ended up sparing the lives of his family.  The flood destroyed everyone else, but it did not destroy sin, and in the course of time, sin once again ruined all that God had intended for good.  Of course, God had a plan to redeem the world from sin, and that plan involved His only Son Jesus dying on the Cross.  His death and subsequent resurrection paid the penalty for the sins of the world, and made it possible for people to be forgiven of their sins.

But the Bible tells us that there will be a day of reckoning, called the Day of the Lord.  II Peter 3 tells us that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, and in that day “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also and the works that are their sins shall be burned up.”  Peter concludes that since all these things shall be dissolved, people should behave themselves in a godly manner.  After the present earth is dissolved, God will then create new heavens and a new earth where righteousness will dwell instead of evil.  So the good news is that evil will end, and in its place there will be a new beginning.

Larry R. Steffee is pastor of the Center Hill Brethren In Christ Church on Miller Road in Smithville.  Everyone is welcome to attend.  For informa-tion, you may email lrsteffeetn@yahoo.com.