Best Books
What is the path for fulfilling our God-given purpose? My book Made for Eden: Promises and Provisions of the Life God Created You to Live describes God’s intention for mankind. I wrote it to show how God renews us to a life in and by His presence and power, through Jesus’ sacrifice, and to present the path to full restoration that He promises for His own upon His return. We have a vital role in His kingdom now, as children and ambassadors, and in the future, when He forms the new earth, and we receive an inheritance beyond our wildest hopes. “Our choice is to believe God is who He says He is, and therefore we are who He says we are: sons and daughters of His household.”
I write from the premise that we need to synthesize all that the Bible says about how God relates to His people, what it says about Him and about us, so we walk in the certainty of what we’ve been saved from and restored to. The sample size in the Bible of life without sin is small, for after Creation, Genesis so quickly details the Fall. But God’s design for us was not lost once sin happened. We must lean on God’s pronouncements about mankind before sin entered Eden to discern God’s original purpose. He says man is made in His image and is to be fruitful and multiply, ruling the earth.
God had given them all they needed to live in their purpose in Eden, and His presence walked with them. That purpose remains, so we must measure the fulfillment of our relationship with Him today by our Creator’s viewpoint. “Ultimately, the purpose we are made for can only be established by the One who made us. How well are we doing in the purpose in which our Creator says we should succeed? … We were created as a reflection of the Divine. God gave us a responsibility: to rule over creation! We were made to steward what belongs to God. We were made for Eden.”
The book explores what it means to be a new creation, why the life of Jesus was so powerful, and why the gospel is such good news. The book also offers perspective on suffering and evil in light of God’s promises for now and the future. I hope readers receive hope from the many demonstrations of God’s love.
-Dr. Bryan McIntosh
