HEAVEN: No Eye Has Seen, No Ear Has Heard…

Transformations
by Lisa Coleman

HGTV has created a successful business of sensationalizing home renovations.  There is a sense of instant gratification and wonder to see the broken down and shabby transformed into functional and beautiful.  It is especially nice to watch others do all the hard work!  We can see this same principle in personal makeovers, home/office organization, and even major life changes involving jobs and relocations.  Who doesn’t love a good do-over?

If we think about it, we can rewind back several centuries and ponder much grander transformations from inventors that yielded ideas and tools that continue to impact our lives even today.  Three of those innovations are the sewing machine, the Gutenberg Printing Press, and the automobile.  These innovations spawned hundreds upon hundreds of others.  Our lives were forever changed.

Of course, there are so many others that came before like the invention of the wheel and discovery of fire.  Don’t forget the compass. It may have been originally created for spiritual purposes but was later adapted for navigational purposes.  Most likely the earliest compasses were invented by the Chinese around 200BC.

Communication changed everything to be sure.  It’s still a crucial addition all we do, especially impacting our important personal relationships!

We have the steam engine, concrete, petrol, railways, airplanes, nails, lightbulbs, batteries,

Morse Code and the telegraph machine.  Noteworthy mentions include antibiotics, refrigeration, television, cameras, and computers.  I know you could add a long list of others.

Furthermore, our lives have been incredibly transformed by a single little chip.  We realized that when the chips were suddenly down.  Literally.  These small semiconductor chips have a broad impact on our everyday lives as they are used in consumer electronics such as mobile phones / smartphones, digital cameras, televisions, washing machines, refrigerators, and LED bulbs. They play a central role in bank ATM’s, trains, the internet, communications, and other parts of social infrastructure, such as the medical network used for the care of elderly, among other things. Semiconductors help us to live comfortable lives.

How often do we say, “It’s the best thing since sliced bread?”  Our lives are considerably different as a result of inventions to ease our way of living.  For a person born in the late 1800’s, the changes they experienced through the 1970’s were phenomenal in the industrial and food industries.  The latter 1900’s into the 2000’s saw changes in technology that the previous generations would find simply unbelievable.

Yet we are told in the Word that a transformation is coming that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined.  We are going to explore more about the New Heaven and New Earth this Sunday.  Come join us!

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Please feel free to click one of the links below to download Bible study materials from this session for your personal use:

PowerPoint Slides

PDF File

To watch the video recording of the in-class session, please click here.

More information about this Bible study series can be found at HEAVEN: Peace for Today, Hope for Tomorrow.  And lastly, Bible study materials for other series can be found at Bible Studies.

May God bless you and your study, as you seek to know Him more through the study of His Word.

Blessings,

Eric