Scripture Reading:    Genesis 1:1

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." With these majestic words the Lord not only states the origin of al things, He also gives us the key to understanding the Bible. For you see, the Bible is the record of God's two great plans: His earthly program for Israel and all the Gentiles saved in ages past, and His heavenly program for the Church, the Body of Christ.

In precious ages, the hope of the saints was to live on a renewed earth with God as their king. In the depths of his pain and suffering. Job was able to cry out, "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And through after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:25, 26). King David expressed the hope of Old Testament Israel in Psalm 37:11, "But the meek shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).

It is not until God interrupted His earthly program and raised up a new apostle for the Gentiles that we learn of a heavenly people. Paul writes to us, the members of the Body of Christ, For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven: from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20). Furthermore, he informs us that even now, God "hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:6).