“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

All love, no wrath.
All grace, no judgment.
All accepting, no rejecting.
All mercy, no justice.
All heaven, no hell.

Wow! What a god!

This is the god of our imaginations. This is the god of our own creation. And, this is the god most Americans believe in. To hear most Americans, no one ever goes to hell. Every person turns into an angel who looks down upon their loved ones from heaven.

Where did we get such an understanding?

The problem with all this is that it’s all a figment of our imaginations. Such a god does not exist in the world.

How do I know that? Because such a god doesn’t exist in the Bible.

Because God is loving, God pours out his wrath on evil.
Because God is full of grace, judgment is paid by his sacrifice of the Son on the cross.
Because God is accepting and has made a pathway for all sinners, God must reject those who refuse the gift of eternal life through his Son.
Because God is merciful, God must punish evil.
Because God couldn’t imagine an eternity without you in it, God sent his Son to die for us so that we might rise with him. God did all this because it is not his will that any one should perish in hell.

Wow! What a God!

That is the God of the Bible. His name is Jesus. He is the Savior of the world. Do you know him? Have you received him as Lord and Savior?

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15).

Floating on a cloud…playing a harp…sitting around…

Who even plays a harp?

Some picture this is what spending eternity in heaven will be like. How boring! No wonder few of us truly long and yearn for heaven.

I don’t know what heaven will be like, but I can tell you this is not heaven.

One of the clues for what heaven will be like comes from the verse of the day. God created the heavens and the earth and created Adam. After creating Adam, God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, and this is where it gets interesting. God placed Adam in the Garden to work!

Work! Yup. Work.

Adam is in paradise. And the reason why Adam is in paradise is to work it and take care of it. You mean, Adam wasn’t in paradise just lounging around eating fruits? He was working?

Yup. Work.

You see, we are most fully alive and most fully who we are when we are doing what we were created for. You know why? That’s what we were created for!

You know the feeling you get after accomplishing something, making something, baking something.

Here’s the thing – you don’t have to wait until heaven to do what you were created for. You can start that right now. God created you with your particular gifts and passions so that God can use you to establish his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

So, get to work!

“Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

The verse of the day tells us the steps or the process for human beings to becoming fully alive.

There are three clauses to our verse:

1. Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground
2. And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
3. And the man became a living being.

Each of these three clauses begin with the Hebrew conjunction “and.” The Hebrew conjunction for “and” can mean “and,” “when,” and “then.”

So what James? What’s your point?

The point is that the conjunction “and” makes these conjunctions progressive. What I mean is that in order to get to being fully alive, the first two steps are necessary.

In God’s creation story, the man takes shape and form but is not fully alive until the breath of God is breathed into him. The breath of God is synonymous with the Spirit of God. It is only after the Spirit of God enters into the man that the man becomes fully alive.

There are too many people walking around having the form and the shape of human beings but who have no life. They are dead. They are the walking dead because the Spirit of God is not in them.

The only way we start living is when the Spirit of God enters us through the person of Jesus Christ. Only then can human beings understand their purpose and meaning in life.

Is the Spirit of God in you?

If so, do the people around you know the way to becoming fully alive? His name is Jesus. Tell them about him.