There come points in our development when God asks us to give back to Him one thing or another. Our willingness to surrender to God an object, or relationship, or circumstance, reveals the level of our freedom from idolatry.

God takes what we give Him and makes it new by filling it with Himself through Christ. Then He gives it back to us. The only things that God removes from us permanently are the objects, relationships, and circumstances that are unworthy of the Kingdom and harmful to us.

That which God returns to us is our possession for eternity. It has gained the qualities of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit that belong to the Kingdom of God. Now we have dominion over our possessions and God in Christ is reigning on the throne of our personality.

The concept of restoration, of what is received, lost, and regained through Spirit-directed effort, is the story of life. It is the story of my life and your life.

Thus the form and purpose of the universe are eternal. When the substance of the universe is filled with the Spirit of God it too becomes eternal (as in the case of the resurrection of our body from the grave). The Kingdom of God is the eternal union of the Life of God with the material creation.

Even though the Apostle John saw a new heaven and a new earth, it is a fact that the heaven and earth with which we are familiar are what will endure for eternity. The form and purpose are eternal and unchanging. Let us explain.

It is true that the present heaven and earth will disappear as Christ receives back into Himself the energy that brought them into existence. Then He will speak them back into existence, now wholly imbued with Himself. God has determined to make Christ the Center and Circumference of all creatures and things in Heaven and in the physical realm.

It is a new heaven. It is a new earth. They are new in every sense of the word, having been dissolved in fire and then breathed back into existence. The point is, it is a new heaven and earth—that with which we are familiar. It is not a different type of environment. God is making all things new. He is not making new or different things.

If a pianist goes to the store and purchases a new piano, he purchases a "piano." He does not purchase a "concept of entertainment," such as a record player or a television set.

He does not come home with a set of rubber bands, stretch them to different tensions to form a scale, and then attempt to play Bach on them. He buys a piano. It is a new piano but it is a piano.

The Scriptures do not teach that God will make a new kind of environment for mankind. They state God is bringing into existence a new heaven and a new earth—that is, things to which we have become accustomed.

To be continued.