Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Earth, wind and fire

Friday, March 18, 2011

Matthew 5:20-26
Jesus said to his disciples, "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.

"Whoever is angry with his brother ... whoever is contemptuous of his brother or sister ... whoever even calls his brother a fool will be in danger of the fire of hell (Gehenna)."

Want to start a firestorm of controversy? Write a book called Love Wins and don't use footnotes.

Author Rob Bell does not call himself a theologian. But he is a very effective communicator and pastor. The church he helped plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1999 has an attendance of about 10,000. Love Wins, his fourth book became available on March 15, and it is #3 on Amazon's current bestseller list. His first three books were published by Christian publisher Zondervan, but Harper-Collins is publishing this one. Reviews I've seen have mostly been thoughtful (not so much the tweets on Twitter) and appreciative, as well as strongly in agreement or disagreement.

Here's a quote from Love Wins: "Salvation is realizing you're already saved. We are all forgiven. We are all loved, equally and fully by God, who has made peace with everyone. That work is done. Now we are invited to believe that story and live in it" (p. 174).

Philip Yancey wrote in 1995:

For years I had thought of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) as a blueprint for human behavior that no one could possibly follow. Reading it again, I found that Jesus gave us these words not to encumber us, but to tell us what God is like ... He gave them to impart to us God's Ideal (what God is like) toward which we should never stop striving, but also to show that none of us will ever reach that ideal. Jesus' words force us to recognize the great distance between God and us, and any attempt to reduce that distance by somehow moderating its demands misses the point altogether ...

Having fallen from the absolute Ideal, we have nowhere to land but in the safety net of absolute grace. --- The Jesus I Never Knew, pp. 143-144

Both quotes remind me that the Bible is more a tool for understanding God than for defining right behavior. Perhaps this goal of discovering more of what God is like can inform my perspective on Biblical statements about earth, hell, heaven and eternity.

Gerry Beauchemin has written a more scholarly book on this subject (with footnotes galore). He writes, "We are blessed to have access to excellent Bible study tools enabling us to better understand God's Word. With a humble spirit and prayerful attitude, let us look intently into God's written revelation seeking to understand His character and purpose in His judgments" (p. 20).

That sounds good to me.

Beauchemin's book is free online as a searchable PDF file at:
www.hopebeyondhell.net.
After clicking the download button, save the document to wherever you want on your computer.

Lord, as far as I know, I've only lived on earth - not in heaven or hell - and I've only been there a short time, certainly not long enough to grasp much about eternity. For me, ideas about heaven and hell remain mostly just that: ideas. But I know I can live a hellish life or a heavenly one. What sounds a lot like heaven to me is just to sit with you and be patient while you show me whatever it is you want me to see. Thank you for saving me a seat.

Devotions Archive

Earth, wind and fire

Friday, March 18, 2011