In an effort to avoid the expense of buying a new vehicle, I once bought an older van and replaced the engine. In my mind, this would be the next best thing to having a new van. My plan was working like a charm until the transmission starting slipping. Shortly after I replaced my transmission, the drive shaft literally fell off while I was driving down the highway. The problems cascaded into a series of minor and not so minor issues until I finally couldn’t afford my van anymore. I sold it for a fraction of what I had put into it just to stop the bleeding. Sometimes things don’t turn out according to our plans. That’s because, being human, our best intentions are often flawed. 

We must be careful, however, not to superimpose this same limitation on God. Unlike us, God’s intentions are always perfect. So perfect that God Himself can’t even improve upon them. This is a very powerful principle. To observe just how powerful, take note of everything God has ever intended to do and you’ll discover a very significant pattern. When God intends to do something, one way or another, it always happens.

Take the subject matter at hand as an example. To discover what Heaven will be like, all we really have to do is take note of God’s original intentions. After God created the universe and everything in it, the Bible says, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). That means everything was exactly how God intended it to be. Man was granted dominion over a perfect world. There was no death, no sickness, no sin and no struggle—just as God intended.

So, what would have happened had Adam and Eve never eaten the forbidding fruit? Presumably, mankind would have lived forever in an earthly paradise. Fruit and vegetable bearing plants would have thrived instead of weeds. Man would have leisurely enjoyed exercising dominion over God’s creation. The animal kingdom would have lived in submission to man as its caretaker, enjoying peace and harmony within itself. But sadly, man sinned, and paradise was lost forever. Or was it?

“He is immutable, which means that He has never changed and can never change in any smallest measure.  To change he would need to go from better to worse or from worse to better.  He cannot do either, for being perfect He cannot become more perfect, and if He were to become less perfect, He would be less than God.”

The late Dr. A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) was well known in evangelical circles both for his long and fruitful editorship of the Alliance Witness as well as his pastorate of one of the largest Alliance churches in the Chicago area. He came to be known as the Prophet of Today because of his penetrating books on the deeper spiritual life.

On a conventional piston engine — which is found in virtually all modern passenger cars — the up-and-down motion of the pistons turn the crankshaft, and the crankshaft turns the camshaft, which opens the valves at the proper time. What typically connects the crankshaft to the camshaft is either a cogged timing belt riding on pulleys or a timing chain riding on sprockets. Both setups look somewhat like a bicycle’s chain and sprockets. 

If the timing belt or timing chain fails, the engine stops running immediately, potentially resulting in expensive internal engine damage.

Though it’s certainly a matter of opinion that’s based largely on your priorities, it’s generally felt that timing chains are better than timing belts. While most timing belts are supposed to be replaced every 60,000 to 120,000 miles, many timing chains end up lasting the life of the car. That can be significant because replacing a timing belt is a fairly complicated job that can easily cost $500 to $1,000.