Racism and Hell

This week I have been looking at verses from Jesus that correspond to hell and escaping it. We have looking at the fact our relationship inside the church with others and also what we do can and might send us to hell. Today I want to highlight an interesting verse when it comes to Jesus and hell.

Matthew 8:10-12

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This is a hard set of verses to unpack and understand. What Jesus is actually saying, or more importantly who Jesus is saying is going to hell? These verses come in the middle of a conversation between Jesus and a Roman centurion. Jesus commends this gentile for his faith and heals the centurion's servant who is ill because of the faith that the gentile had. Jesus commends his faith so much, that Jesus says that the gentile has more faith than anyone in all of Israel. Then Jesus gives these few verses about others who are not faithful and are going to go to hell. The subjects of the kingdom then, those going to hell, are the all inclusive Jews that think they are the only one's who are going to NOT go to hell. The Jews are being racist and excluding the gentiles from God and Jesus is showing them that this racist idea is not correct, that the kingdom of God is open to all, and the fact that racism will send one to hell. let me say that again, racism will send one to hell. 

We need to understand in the church, Jesus came to live and die for all and we the church should be reaching out to all of the lost; black, white, Asian, African, and everyone else who is not like we are. Jesus is simply stating the fact that if we are inclusive and only keep Jesus for ourselves or for others like us, we do not truly love Jesus and will end up in hell, because we are racist and do not understand what it means to love and know our Savior. 

Are you going to hell??

So this week we are looking at verses from either Jesus or one of His close followers concerning hell and whether or not we are going to hell. Last night we took a look at a verse from Jesus about one's relationship with others inside the church and how that could send us to hell. Tonight we will be looking at another line from Jesus, also in the Sermon on the Mount, from Matthew about how to escape hell.

Matthew 7:22-23

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

As a pastor this set of verses scare the pants off me. In this quote from Jesus, He is talking to people who think they deserve Heaven and an eternal life with Jesus because they did things FOR Him. How many times do we find ourselves doing things for Jesus. Let me give you a list that is short but I can name off the top of my head, of things that we do for Jesus; go to church, read our Bibles, pray, give money to church, give money to the poor, tell our co-workers about our churches, listen to Christian radio, watch a sermon on tv, give out Bibles, go on a mission trip, help our neighbors, and the list could go on. Those are things that we can do FOR Jesus and doing those things might get us sent to Hell. Let me say that again, doing things for Jesus like that list might get us sent to hell. We could go to hell but still attend church. We could go to hell and give money to our hurting neighbor. We could go to hell and read our Bible. That verse scares me to death. I could preach sermons every week, counsel ever church member, lead Bible studies; and still go to hell. 

So the question then is how can I do those things and not go to hell? Simply, check your motive. Are you doing those things listed because you love Jesus, delight in Jesus, enjoy Jesus and that is what motivates you? Because if that is the case you know Jesus and He knows you. And you will escape Hell. Doing good because it is the right thing to do will get you sent to hell. Doing good and loving Jesus and doing it because you love Jesus and that is your motivation is how we escape hell.

Are you going to hell?

This week I will be writing some thoughts on a few different verses from the New Testament that deal with hell. Hell is a topic that is talked about in extremes in Christianity. Some people are all fire and brimstone and stand on the street corner, crying out aloud to run from the wrath of God and the destiny of hell. Then others in response do not talk about hell and only talk about love, grace, and mercy. Jesus and His followers had a lot to say on hell but they also included mercy, grace, and love with it. Over this week we will explore what Jesus and His followers had to say.

Matthew 5:22
"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council: and whoever says 'you fool' will be liable to the hell of fire."

I find this sentence from Jesus about hell very interesting because He gives a small description of hell with fire but He gives us more importantly a fact of importance in order to stay out of hell. Loving Jesus is the first step and dedicating your life to Him and His service is the second step in escaping the fires of hell. But in this passage Jesus give us another step in escaping hell. Jesus is asking us, what is your relationship like with your brothers and sisters in Me? Simply put, our relationship with others inside the church is important for our spiritual state, and it is so important for our spiritual health that Jesus links it to escaping hell. I have always understood that being a faithful and unifying church member was important but I never realized how important it was for my eternal destiny. Our relationship or the unity we have in the church is that important. Let me say that again, getting along and not using our mouth to hurt others in the church is so important it effects our eternal destiny. What I think Jesus is saying, and this is the important thing to understand, if we truly love Jesus and can escape the fire of hell, we must love His church and love others in the church with the same kind of unity.

So the first question this week, are you going to hell? To answer that from this verse, we would need to check our love for others in the church.

Independence Day Prayer

Here is an Independence Day Prayer that has been flowing though my head all weekend.

Father, thank you for freedom.
Thank you for the freedom I have to worship and praise you
Thanks you for the freedom you have given this country of mine
Thanks for the freedom this country gives me to openly praise you.

Father, thank you for Your freedom
Thank you for being a free being who is not limited
Thanks you for your freedom not to be held down by human minds
Thank you for your freedom not to be limited to space or time
Thanks for your freedom not to be ruled by any being
I know your freedom is a gift to me because
Because your freedom is the reason I have grace and mercy
You having freedom to give me the grace I do not deserve
And the mercy to give me what I do deserve.
Father, thank you for being the most free being ever.

Father, thank you for the freedom I have to know this and so much more about You
thanks for the freedom to gather with my faith family publicly
thanks for the freedom to pray to you in public places
thanks for the freedom I have to carry Your Word
and thanks for the freedom I have to lead your flock as the church.

Father, thanks for the celebration of this free Independence day 
and all that it teaches me about you and other freedom
Lead me to never take it for granted 
and Father, help me never to take your freedom spiritual for granted
my spiritual freedom is the greatest gift you have ever given me Lord
help me on this Independence Day, to use my spiritual freedom
as a gift to tell other. 
Amen

Theological review of "X-Men: Days of Future Past

So it has been about a month now since I saw the new X-men movie. I enjoyed the movie very much, even though I missed my movie buddy Seth going with me, but I have been trying over the last month to come up with some good theological points the movie tries to make. To be honest there is not much theology taught by the movie and quiet simply it is just a simple action adventure comic book movie.

Movie Review
So the movie was very action filled but also very predictable with the story line being mapped out right away and not much suspense or uncertain moments. Michael Fassbender as Magneto and James McAvoy as Charles Xavier are excellent and I am excited to see them both again in the next X-Men movie in 2016. The cast was bloated with many characters both young and old so the acting is not a main point of focus but everyone plays their respect roles very well. The movie did not add any extra stuff or bad language just for the "fun" of it so it is a cleaner movie in Hollywood standards and the movie holds up very well to the Philippians 4:8 test. Overall I find this to be the second best X-Men movie behind last years Wolverine. There is good hope for the future since the last 2 in the X-Men franchise have been their best. But now on to a theological review.

Theological review
Like I said earlier there is not much theology preached or shown in the movie and it simply jumps from action scene to action scene. There is a little question asked during the movie when the young Charles has to decide between his powers or his legs but not having any mutant powers I am not sure there is much theology preaching in his decisions. But I would like to think and discuss for a few minutes the idea of time travel and the fact that this movie and many others with time travel present. The idea of time travel in this movie is the fact if we could just go back in time we could fix our mistakes or maybe never even make a mistake. Mistakes, or as I will call them sin from here on out, is part of our human nature after the fall. If Adam would have never let Eve be alone with the Serpent and sin never entered the picture we would not have to worry about sin or getting back in the past to fix it. But as the book of Romans points out sin is a part of us now and we could travel when and where ever we wanted and we would still sin. We could stop a sin but we would sin in a different way because sin is something we do a lot of every day. The good news in this whole equation is that we do not need time travel to fix our mistakes, it is called Jesus Christ death and an act of repentance in our own lives. When we make the mistake, which we will and sin, which time travel would never stop or change, we have Jesus who died for that sin and has forgiven us when we turn to Him after the sin. Then after the sin, instead of time travel, simple repent and turn to Jesus and turn the other direction and do not sin that way any longer. We do not need time travel to stop sin, we already have that power in Jesus and our act of repentance. Praise the Lord I do not have to rely on sending Wolverine back in time to fix my sin, I have Jesus.

"How To"

The Bible is the Word of God. That is probably not news to you if you know me or have read this blog at all. Even those people who not call themselves Christian or believe that Jesus is the Savior and only Hero of the world might know and agree that the Bible is the word of God. But think about that first line again. The Bible is the Word of God. You can also make it plural and the Bible is the words from God. Yes, the Bible is the story of Jesus and the rescue plan of God for human kind. But the Bible as the story of Jesus and the rescue plan is God talking to us. When you open the Bible and read Psalms 3 for example, it is a Psalm of David but really, truly, deeply, it is actually God talking to you. So when you read John 3:16, it is God telling you, I love you so much I sent my only Son to die on the cross for you so you can be with me and enjoy me forever. That is the words of God talking to you. But did you also know God in the Bible talks and tells you about everything else in life as it revolves around Him and Jesus. The Bible is the words of God telling "how to" live life and everything in it around Jesus. Just look at these "how to's" from God to you.

How to know God
How to know His Son Jesus
How to love Jesus
How to deal with sin
How to live life and not get lost in the world
How to pray to God when you are hurting
How to pray to God when when you joyful and thankful
How to love your spouse
How to handle His treasures (what you think of as your money and possessions)
How to raise children
How to evangelize
How to read your Bible
How to deal with crazy neighbors
How to leave a lasting legacy
How to serve in the church
How to love other children of God
How to enjoy life
How to have friends
How to know what movies, tv shows, and programs to watch
How to have intimacy with your spouse
How not to look like the world's culture
How to delight in Jesus
How to use the Holy Spirit's power
And the list can go on......

The Bible is God telling us how to do just about everything and that is amazing because as humans and especially as Christians living in this world, having God who is wiser and smarter, let alone can see outside time, tell us how to do anything and everything is truly a great blessing. And just think that list did not include any of the "why" questions that God answer for us with His words in the Bible. Remember when you are reading the Bible God is talking with you. Read it and read it some more, you can never read the Bible or read God talking to you enough. Amen and keep on reading and listening.

Do you Pray?

I have been thinking a lot about prayer and the fact when we do pray we are tapping into the great power that exist, God. A great preacher once stated, "We can do more than pray, after we have prayed, but not until". What does that say about the importance of prayer?

That says that we must pray first. How can we do something or say something without having first tapped into God. Why do we try and live our lives without first going to God on our knees? Prayer is where life must begin and be at continually. When life gets hard go to prayer and ask God for strength. When life is easy pray and praise God for the blessing. When life is frustrating go to God and ask for patience. When life is challenging go to God and ask for peace. When someone hurts us go to prayer and ask for love. When the day is young go to prayer and ask for guidance. When the day is done pray and be thankful we made it through. When our body hurts go to prayer and ask for healing. When someone we love hurts pray and ask for their comfort. When someone's soul is on the brink of hell pray and ask for courage.

Pray is the power cord into the outlet of Jesus. Pray first, pray last, pray continually, pray boldly, pray fearlessly, pray pray pray. We cannot do anything without pray.