Have you ever been in this situation:

You’re gathered around with family or friends, and you’ve
just set up a board game, but not everyone knows the rules yet.

So someone explains the rules, but there are interruptions,
and pointless questions, and people didn’t listen properly the first time, so
the rules are repeated again… and maybe again.

Until finally, everyone is on the same page, and agrees on
how the game should be played, according to the rules, and then the game can
begin.

And that’s when things finally get fun.

Until then, the players have been subject to frustration,
but now the game can actually be played according to the rules, which was the
whole point of gathering around in the first place.

God created the world, and created human beings.

He made life a certain way, according to certain rules.

Sin is breaking those rules, and wanting to redefine the
rules.

Redemption is when people are realigned with the rules of
the game of life.

When the heart actually longs to play the game of life the
way it was designed to be played.

That’s why the world is currently such a mess – people are
arguing over the rules, and making up their own games, and trying to use the
stuff that’s in the box to play the wrong game.

It’s like trying to play Monopoly with a game of Cluedo.

But that part of the games night where the players don’t yet
agree on the rules or which game to play is the most boring and tedious part of
the night.

That’s the part we’re currently seeing in the world.

But there’s only one game that will be played for all
eternity.

It’s the best game ever, because it’s the one that’s
actually in front of us.

Designed with care, designed for us, and we are designed for
it.

Eternal life is the name of the game.

One day this will be the game every player will be playing: no
more using the Risk cards to build houses, or stacking the Monopoly houses to make
pyramids…

But actually playing the greatest game there is.

And once you agree with the rules,

And you join in with God, and start playing it too,

that’s when it starts to get fun!