Eternity Starts Now

            Years ago, our church ministered to a girl, who had a form of palsy. She walked in an uneasy gait—very unsteady. She moved to our town, when she was probably nine or ten.

            Her father was long gone (I think he was in prison.) She lived with her mother. She needed help from her mother to perform the tasks we consider routine—bathe, use the toilet, dress….

            In time, we could not help but notice this girl had terrible body odor. Little by little, the reality of this girl’s life took a tragic turn.

            Her mother had been neglecting her. Sometimes, she would not help her use the toilet. Sometimes, she would leave her in the bathtub. Sometimes, she would not help her bathe.

            The reasons varied. There were times the mother felt overwhelmed. Escape ranged from a TV program to entertaining male friends.

            In time, I, and others, became aware of the situation and called Child Protective Services to intervene.

            I think back often to that young girl’s situation. Had she been in a jail, the authorities would have been arrested for their treatment. In some ways, this girl’s circumstances were like that of an inhumane jail. The girl’s jailor just happened to be her mother.

            I believe in the eternal existence of a realm called hell. I believe that Satan exists and that he has many who join him in bringing as much hell as he can to this earth. The girl I just told you about experienced a little bit of Satan’s hell.

            But to most of us, those experiences I just described were clearly hellish.

            I used to think the world cheapened the word “hell” through over use. Now, I think I have gone to the other extreme. Satan is all about bringing hell to this earth; he wants people to experience as much of it as he can.

            I have thought a lot about what I would do, if I were a soldier of Satan. I really think these guys who are part of the Church of Satan, have it wrong. They are too heavy-handed. I remember hearing about what a missionary said to Satan worshipers, when he had a conversation with them, “Do you guys think you’re the only ones going to hell?

            If I were a worshiper of Satan, I think I would I would attempt to be subtler. You can win more people this way. More importantly, you can win more people in the churches. There they could spread the opposite of salt and light—darkness and “do-do” (see Luke 14:35.)

            If I were an advocate of Satan, here's how I would help people, especially Christians, experience a little bit of hell on earth:

            (1) Self-righteousness. Nothing distorts your life more than being self-righteous. It puts things out of whack. It helps you elevate your strengths and ignore your weaknesses. It energizes you to find the weaknesses of other people and focus on them. It is an excellent way to empower yourself on this earth. And, you can push people toward being just a little bit more damned.

            2) Gossip. Another great way of bringing a little bit of hell to this earth. You can distort the truth and make people believe things that can quickly morph into outright lies. Moreover, on a technicality, you can add telling the truth to the gossip column, if you tell it to an inappropriate audience—such as breaking a confidence. A prayer circle asking for prayer requests is a great forum for this. “Pray for Marge, she and her husband are thinking about getting a divorce…”

            Gossip is an excellent way to hurt people, without going to prison for it. Just one more way you can bring a little bit of hell to this earth.

            3) Greed. Greed is a fantastic way to bring a little bit of hell on earth. It can motivate you to pursue money or things at the expense of other people who are hurting. If you are good at deluding yourself, you can even convince yourself that the pursuit of the material is nothing more than God choosing you for incredible blessing. Meanwhile, those without continue live lives of disease, ruin, or even starvation.

            If you are serious about following Jesus, none of that is good, though, is it?

            What Jesus calls us to do over and over again, is to collaborate with him in bringing God's reign here to earth. For the past one hundred years, writers ranging from C. S. Lewis to N. T. Wright, from Philip Yancey to Rob Bell, have been reminding Christians: eternity doesn’t simply start at death. The New Testament affirms over and over again that eternity begins today.

            When Christians walk with Jesus, Christians invited Jesus to reign. When Jesus reigns, he is doing what God does in heaven. Any place on earth, where God is reigning, is a little bit of heaven on earth.

            I believe all I have written is summarized in one tiny verse—John 10:10, “A thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I came to give life—life in all its fullness.”NCV

            Eternity, whether it is oriented toward hell or heaven, starts now.

            Those of us in Christ, invite a little bit of heaven here. We allow-we encourage-God's will to be done here, like it is in heaven.

            We bring God’s rescue here on Earth. Christian workers serving children for CPS or serving the elderly in nursing homes can both rescue human beings from hellish situations and transport them to caring, dignified, and nourishing environments.

            God’s people can bring a little of heaven’s beauty here to earth. Every painting offered to the glory of God, every book written to honor God, every house painted to honor God, every tool manufactured to honor God, every act done to serve people, every move made to bring peace, joy, love, gentleness, forgiveness, healing, to a broken world, is bringing a little bit of heaven to earth.             This is the greatest call. It is compassionate service to those, who are hurting; it is food offered to a person who is hungry; it is parental care for orphan; these are some of the things a hellish world needs. When God begins through us, it holds the potential of lasting forever.

            This cause is noble. Why wait to experience heaven after death? Why ask people to delay experiencing heaven until the afterlife? I wonder, who wouldn’t want to join us in offering-and experiencing-a little bit of heaven today?

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. I finished the book, OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell, last week. It started out well. I was especially fascinated by the references to the 10,000-hour rule—talented people spend a minimum of 10,000 hours perfecting their craft. (For example, the Beatles played for 10,000 hours before they made it big.)  I was, however, disappointed in the conclusion of the book. The details were too mundane for my tastes.

2. If you are a fan of the NFL, you owe a debt to NFL Films. If you are not a fan of the NFL, your life has still been impacted by NFL Films. Steve Sabol, to me, the heart and soul of NFL Films, is battling a brain tumor—recently diagnosed. I pray for Steve Sabol.

3. A factoid that may only matter to me: I always try to have someone read my blogs before I post them. I find this reduces errors. Two weeks ago, I posted a weekly blog that was one of my most read. (It was the one reviewing Rob Bell’s new book—LOVE WINS.) Unfortunately, I discovered last week that somehow, the one I posted was not the edited version. If you noticed—sorry. I’ll edit it and post an updated version.

4. LEADERSHIP TRAINING FOR CHRIST is this weekend. This year will be the first year I’ll be able to stay over on Sunday. I’m looking forward to that.

5. Could it be the Mavericks have a chance this year?

Why Hell?

            I mentioned last week, I am doing a sermon series answering some of the questions I receive. This one definitely fits contemporary cultural conversations—why is there a hell? (Of course, for some in our culture, I’m sure the question is, “Is there a hell?”)

            I’m sure there are a lot of reasons. To be concise, let me summarize my answer in three:

1. God wants the devil and his angels to have an eternal dwelling place away from Himself and anyone associated with Him. Jesus, in Mt. 25:41, makes reference to this reality.

2. Justice must be served.

            Everyone yearns for justice; everyone wants Hitler, or the mass murderer, to face justice. Of course, our desire for justice ends when we are found guilty.             That’s why a lot of us redefine our standing before God. We compare ourselves to other people, who we think are worse than us. What this leads to is a distorted view of God’s holiness, and our own. The result is, we feel comfortable consigning Osama Bin Laden to hell, but not many more people. 

            The Bible is not a partner to this way of thinking. The God of Scripture does not think highly of our holiness. Our sin must be addressed.

            I don’t like saying this. It is not popular saying this. I hope I’m wrong saying this. Unless justice is served in this lifetime, there is a realm in eternity that will administrate justice in the life to come. The Bible calls this hell.

3. The high value God holds for freedom.

            Some have written that perhaps Jesus’ greatest miracle was offering humanity freedom—the freedom to choose or reject Him.

            Love cannot be purchased nor demanded. Only love freely given inspires great works. As Philip Yancey wrote in his book, THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW, the communists found this out in the old Soviet Union. You cannot mandate society’s behavior from the top down.

            The predominate attitude in scripture is of people rejecting God’s desire for relationship, in order to seek their own way. God, at last, gives them up.

            Here, let me channel something Tom Nelson preached in a sermon I heard years ago. These are his ideas (and, in some cases, I’m sure, his words). They have helped me, and I’m simply passing them on:

            A lot of people complain about hell and call God bad names; they say that God is mean. You know why there is hell?

            Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden, you have: a king, subjects, and willing obedience by those subjects. The subjects rebel, and they lose the Kingdom of God.

            God spares Man, but Man continues to rebel. His conduct reaches the point that God destroys the world except for one man and his family—Noah.

            After the flood, God says, “You are going to have a new kingdom. You are going to live under my rule.” What happened? The tower of Babel and Man’s failure.

            So, God says, “Let’s try again.” So God takes Abraham out of Mesopotamia and says, “Through you and your descendents, I am going to bless the world....”

            Then God rescues these descendents through a leader, Moses. He then gives these descendents land and Law. Now you have: a king and willing subjects—Israel.

            But Israel rebels and rejects God as King.

            So God gives Israel men to serve as kings.

            What happened? Israel rebelled. So God sent them the Assyrians to discipline them.

            Israel rebelled. So God sent them the Babylonians to discipline them.

            They rebelled. So God sent the Persians. He sent the Greeks. He sent the Romans

            Finally God said, “Since you have rebelled against me and everybody else, I’ll send my Son.”

            Jesus came and said, “The Kingdom is at hand!”

            What did the Jews (and Romans) do? They killed Jesus.

            So God took that Kingdom from the Jews and gave it to a bunch of Gentiles: Middle-Easterners, Romans, Greeks, Celts, French, Spaniards, Dutch, Anglos, Latinos, Africans, Chinese...

            But what has happened? Most people have rejected him.

            Someday, Jesus will come again. And when he does, he’s going to say, “I have done all I can do. I’m going to raise all of the dead, those who accepted me and those who have not. And I’m going to present all of them along with the living-those who have accepted me, and those who have not-to my Father.”

            And God is going to take the wicked and say, “I’ve done everything I can do. I gave you the creation, your conscience, the law, Israel, the prophets, my Son, the proclamation of the church, my written word. And you wouldn’t take it.”

            He’s going to start with Cain, and He’s going to go to the last rebellious person that is alive at the second coming. And he’s going to say, “There’s only one thing I can do with you. You go to hell, because I can do no more.

            “I’m going to put you in a place where I will never bother you again. You will never again be bothered by light or beauty or anything that calls your attention to me.

            “And through eternal judgment, I’m going to call attention to the sensation of what you have lived for all of your life—and that is you. And you will have nothing but the sensation of yourself forever.

            “Because that is your God and that is what I will give you. I will give you what you want: your freedom.”

            God gives hell as a monument to the freedom of man.

            These sentiments echo something that C. S. Lewis wrote in THE GREAT DIVORCE, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Your will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Your will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock, it will be opened.”

            I hope you will reflect over these thoughts this week. Next week, I want to come back with another thought, one I think will be more hopeful:

Eternity starts now.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Yeah Texas A & M! I always want Texas teams to win national games. I’m thrilled for the lady Aggies. And what about Gary Blair? This guy can coach.

2. The Texas Rangers are 9-1. I think if they win ninety percent of their games, they have a good chance of winning their division.

3. It’s income tax season and that is my yearly sign that I must be getting old and cranky. The older I get, the more I think the flat tax is a good idea.

            With several thousand pages of tax codes, even accountants cannot keep up with all of the laws; much less agree on how to interpret them. Even those within the IRS disagree with one another on some interpretations.

            Incidentally, I write as a preacher. I am blessed by the tax treatment I receive. I will continue to welcome these blessings as long as the law encourages this. However, there has got to be a better, simpler way.

4. Remember, when I say it, it is Christian principle. When you say it, it is politics. :)

5. Where did you go, James Dobson? I miss your wisdom on the family.