Today is survey day. I have three questions, and I want you to vote your opinion on each of these three questions. You can vote: yes, no, or I don’t know.
First question: Do you believe in ghosts? Do you believe there can be contact between the dead and the living? I want you to actually raise your hands. It’s OK. Nobody’s going to judge you one way or the other.
Everybody who believes that there are ghosts and/or contact between the dead and the living, raise your hand.
If you don’t believe in ghosts or any contact between the dead and the living, raise your hand.
If you don’t know, raise your hand.
OK, let’s go to our Old Testament Lesson: 1 Samuel 28:3-18.
3 Meanwhile, Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him. He was buried in Ramah, his hometown. And Saul had banned from the land of Israel all mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead.
4 The Philistines set up their camp at Shunem, and Saul gathered all the army of Israel and camped at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the vast Philistine army, he became frantic with fear. 6 He asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets. 7 Saul then said to his advisers, “Find a woman who is a medium, so I can go and ask her what to do.”
His advisers replied, “There is a medium at Endor.”
8 So Saul disguised himself by wearing ordinary clothing instead of his royal robes. Then he went to the woman’s home at night, accompanied by two of his men.
“I have to talk to a man who has died,” he said. “Will you call up his spirit for me?”
9 “Are you trying to get me killed?” the woman demanded. “You know that Saul has outlawed all the mediums and all who consult the spirits of the dead. Why are you setting a trap for me?”
10 But Saul took an oath in the name of the Lord and promised, “As surely as the Lord lives, nothing bad will happen to you for doing this.”
11 Finally, the woman said, “Well, whose spirit do you want me to call up?”
“Call up Samuel,” Saul replied.
12 When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed, “You’ve deceived me! You are Saul!”
13 “Don’t be afraid!” the king told her. “What do you see?”
“I see a god coming up out of the earth,” she said.
14 “What does he look like?” Saul asked.
“He is an old man wrapped in a robe,” she replied. Saul realized it was Samuel, and he fell to the ground before him.
15 “Why have you disturbed me by calling me back?” Samuel asked Saul.
“Because I am in deep trouble,” Saul replied. “The Philistines are at war with me, and God has left me and won’t reply by prophets or dreams. So I have called for you to tell me what to do.”
16 But Samuel replied, “Why ask me, since the Lord has left you and has become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done just as he said he would. He has torn the kingdom from you and given it to your rival, David.”18 The Lord has done this to you today because you refused to carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites.
So if you ask me, “Do you believe in ghosts?”, I have to say, “I guess so. The Bible seems to believe in ghosts.” In several places, God condemns mediums - people who consult with the spirits of the dead (Leviticus 19:31, 20:6, 20:27 and Deuteronomy 8:9-14). It seems that it is actually possible to consult the dead, but this practice drives people to trust in the dead spirits rather than to trust in God.
But at the same time, I would say that the existence of ghosts is not such an important question. In fact, it’s not even the main point of this story about Saul. If we look a the wider context here, we see that it fits with God’s main concern about mediums and ghosts. Saul was trusting in ghosts instead of trusting in God. The main point is to trust in God and to obey God, no matter what.
Second question: Do you believe in zombies? Do you believe in people who are dead becoming undead - returning to life or something like life again?
Let’s do a show of hands again. Everybody who believes in zombies, raise your hand.
Everybody who doesn’t believe zombies are possible, raise your hand.
If you don’t know, raise your hand.
OK, let’s turn to our Gospel Lesson. This is Matthew chapter 27, and our passage starts with Jesus’ last moments on the cross.
50 Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, 52 and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. 53 They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.
Didn’t know that was in the Bible, did you? To be honest with you, I really don’t know what this text is trying to say. I don’t think these are zombies like in the horror films. On the other hand, it doesn’t sound like these people were completely resurrected - at least not permanently. If we just focus on dead bodies walking around, that can take us to some very weird places. What happened? Were they actually alive? What were their bodies like? What would have happened if ...?
But if we focus on the larger context, this is actually a pretty amazing picture. Tom Noble, one of my theology professors, explained it like this. When Jesus - the Author of Life - died, that disrupted the barrier between life and death. It’s like in the sci-fi movies, when some huge event happens, the picture ripples and gets blurry. That big event sends out ripples that alter reality.
In other words, think of throwing a big rock into a puddle. It makes a splash and knocks some water out of the puddle. It seems like that’s kind of what happened when Jesus died. When Jesus - the Rock of Ages - went into the grave, into the place of the dead, it made such a big splash that some of the dead people kind of popped back up on earth - at least for a while. And then, we Jesus came back up out of the grave, it caused more ripples. Jesus is that big! Jesus really died, and Jesus was really raised, and this altered the reality of our world.
Third question: Do you believe in hell? Let me be more specific. Do you believe in a hell of eternal punishment from which there is no escape? Let’s do the show of hands again. By now, you might be thinking that I’m trying to trick you. I promise I’m not. I’m not going to come looking for you to talk about why you answered what you did. OK, let’s have it.
All who believe in an eternal hell with no escape, hands up.
If you don’t believe in an eternal hell with no escape, hands up.
If you don’t know, put your hands up.
OK, now it’s time for our Epistle Lesson: 1 Peter 3:13-22.
13 Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. 15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. 16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. 17 Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!
18 Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.
19 So he went and preached to the spirits in prison—20 those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. 21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
22 Now Christ has gone to heaven. He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority.
Another one of my professors, Roger Hahn, says that “Verse 19 is one of the most difficult verses to interpret in the New Testament.” Martin Luther, who had an opinion about just about everything said, “A wonderful text this is, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.” Great.
This verse has been the source of all kinds of controversies and it taps into the great debates about heaven and hell. Verse 19 is short: “So he went and preached to the spirits in prison.” But it leaves us with all kinds of questions. When did this happen? Where did Christ go? What did he preach? Who was he talking to? What is this prison?
In my research on 1 Peter, I’m using four different commentaries. Guess how many answers I got on this verse? Four.
1. One guy said this verse is actually talking about the “pre-existent Christ” who preached through the mouth of Noah in the time just before the flood. If so, Peter’s point would be that Christians should also tell people how to be saved, no matter how few people are listening. We should speak with boldness, with full confidence that God will save us, just as he saved Noah.
2. Another guy, William Barclay, is wonderful old school expert my pastors loved to quote when I was a kid. He gave a surprisingly liberal view. He says, “There is in this passage the solution of one of the most haunting questions raised by the Christian faith - what is to happen to those who lived before Jesus Christ and to those to whom the gospel never came?” Barclay quotes Justin Martyr, a Christian preacher from the 2nd century, and says Jesus actually went down into Hades or Hell and preached the Good News to people who have already died so that “there is no corner of the universe into which the grace of God has not reached.”
3. Then, the third guy said basically - Hold on a minute. That sounds great, but that is probably not what the text actually says. The word used for “spirit” here almost always refers to non-human beings like angels or demons. And the word for “preached” usually means to “announce” not to “give the good news.” If we put all of this together, what we see is that when Jesus died, he went to the spiritual “powers” and “authorities” of darkness and announced their defeat. They killed him and drug him down to death, but Jesus shouted out, “You can’t keep me dead. I’m busting out. I’m defeating death. We win. You loose.”
4. The fourth guy was very democratic about it. He listed all three of these views and said ... um ... yeah ... they could pretty much all be right. But then he said that we have to be careful here. We can get lost in the controversy of the difficult verses. When we have really hard verses, we need to do two things. First, “be humble about ... passages that are ‘clearly unclear.’” Second, we need to make sure we see the passage in its overall context.
So what is the wider context? The wider context is a community struggling to be faithful to Jesus in a difficult situation. This text has some really beautiful passages.
Peter says, “Who will want to harm you if you are passionate about the good?” Some people are aficionados of a baseball team, or cars, or cigars, or coffee. Peter says, “Be an aficionado - a passionate lover - of goodness in all its forms.” Then, you’ll probably be OK. But even if you’re not OK, even if you still suffer, don’t worry too much about it.
Then, there’s this beautiful line: “Don’t fear their fears.” Don’t be afraid of the same things as other people. Don’t let their fears take over your life. Instead, keep Christ first in your life.
Next, is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. “And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way.” Live with such incredible hope that you provoke questions. Live with such beautiful goodness that people ask why. Then, have your answer ready, “I live like this because God has changed my life through Jesus Christ.” And in the living and in the answering, do everything with gentleness and respect. Don’t disrespect the other person when you talk about Jesus. Every conversation is holy. Every conversation is an opportunity to live the gentle character and love of Jesus.
But even if we do everything right and live exactly like Jesus, we still might get treated exactly like Jesus. People might “speak against” us, and we might “suffer for doing good.” According to Peter, that’s not all bad.
Jesus suffered for us. Jesus was innocent, but he paid for our crimes. Jesus walked into suffering to walk us home to God. Jesus went all the way down to the grave, to the place of the dead, to the place of no return. Jesus experienced the absolute worst of human life and death. And God raised him out of it. He was completely dead, and God returned him to total and absolute life. He went all the way down, and God brought him all the way up.
Baptism is a picture of this U-shaped path. We go down with Jesus into the water - into the grave. We come up with Jesus into new life. We die with Christ and we are raised with Christ.
And where is Christ now? “Now Christ has gone to heaven. He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority” (3:22). Jesus has gone full-circle. He has completed the journey. He was in heaven, at God’s right hand, part of the Trinity. He left heaven and came to earth. He was obedient to death, going into the grave, the lowest parts of the earth. Then, God raised him from the dead to life on earth again. Then, God raised him up to heaven to rejoin the Father on the throne. Now, Jesus has conquered sin and death and every spiritual power that has rebelled against God. All powers bow before his throne and accept his final authority.
All the experts say that verses 19 and 20 are extremely difficult. In fact, these verses are so hard, that we can get lost in trying to figure out what they are supposed to mean. However, most of the experts also agree that the overall point of the passage is clear. Peter is saying something very simple and yet very profound. If you hold on to Jesus no matter what, you’ll be OK. If we just hold on to Jesus wherever that U-shaped journey takes us - even into suffering and death and hellish circumstances - if we hold on to Jesus and his gentleness, Jesus will push through that suffering and death and hell and pull us out with him into life and finally into heaven.
Don’t get lost in the controversy. Yeah, it’s OK to talk about heaven and hell. It’s OK to ask questions about ghosts and all the weird stuff in the Bible. But don’t miss the context of those passages. And don’t miss the overall point of the Bible.
God loves us. We have all rejected God’s love, but God loved us so much that he suffered and died for us. God endured hellish pain on the cross to bring us out of our personal hells into his Kingdom of Heaven. If we respond to this amazing love, God will transform our lives.
God doesn’t push or force his way. God’s love is like the gentle beating of the ocean upon our souls. I love you. I love you. I love you. You can push me away, and still I will love you. You can say bad things about me, and still I will love you. You can beat me, and still I will love you. You can even kill me, and still I will love you. You cannot get rid of me. I will always love you. Forever, I love you. I love you. I love you. God wears us down with his persistent, gentle, suffering love.
And God calls us to the same persistent, gentle, suffering path. I will do good no matter what. I will love Christ no matter what. I will love you no matter what. You can push me away, and still I will love you. You can say bad things about me, and still I will say good things about you. You can beat me, and still I will be gentle toward you. You can even kill me, and still I will love Christ and love you. You cannot really get rid of me because I live in the Spirit of Christ, and we will always love you. Forever, we love you. We love you. We love you. And this will completely change our world with God’s persistent, gentle, suffering love.
First question: Do you believe in ghosts? Do you believe there can be contact between the dead and the living? I want you to actually raise your hands. It’s OK. Nobody’s going to judge you one way or the other. Everybody who believes that there are ghosts and/or contact between the dead and the living, raise your hand.
If you don’t believe in ghosts or any contact between the dead and the living, raise your hand.
If you don’t know, raise your hand.
OK, let’s go to our Old Testament Lesson: 1 Samuel 28:3-18.
3 Meanwhile, Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him. He was buried in Ramah, his hometown. And Saul had banned from the land of Israel all mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead.
4 The Philistines set up their camp at Shunem, and Saul gathered all the army of Israel and camped at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the vast Philistine army, he became frantic with fear. 6 He asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets. 7 Saul then said to his advisers, “Find a woman who is a medium, so I can go and ask her what to do.”
His advisers replied, “There is a medium at Endor.”
8 So Saul disguised himself by wearing ordinary clothing instead of his royal robes. Then he went to the woman’s home at night, accompanied by two of his men.
“I have to talk to a man who has died,” he said. “Will you call up his spirit for me?”
9 “Are you trying to get me killed?” the woman demanded. “You know that Saul has outlawed all the mediums and all who consult the spirits of the dead. Why are you setting a trap for me?”
10 But Saul took an oath in the name of the Lord and promised, “As surely as the Lord lives, nothing bad will happen to you for doing this.”
11 Finally, the woman said, “Well, whose spirit do you want me to call up?”
“Call up Samuel,” Saul replied.
12 When the woman saw Samuel, she screamed, “You’ve deceived me! You are Saul!”
13 “Don’t be afraid!” the king told her. “What do you see?”
“I see a god coming up out of the earth,” she said.
14 “What does he look like?” Saul asked.
“He is an old man wrapped in a robe,” she replied. Saul realized it was Samuel, and he fell to the ground before him.
15 “Why have you disturbed me by calling me back?” Samuel asked Saul.
“Because I am in deep trouble,” Saul replied. “The Philistines are at war with me, and God has left me and won’t reply by prophets or dreams. So I have called for you to tell me what to do.”
16 But Samuel replied, “Why ask me, since the Lord has left you and has become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done just as he said he would. He has torn the kingdom from you and given it to your rival, David.”18 The Lord has done this to you today because you refused to carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites.
So if you ask me, “Do you believe in ghosts?”, I have to say, “I guess so. The Bible seems to believe in ghosts.” In several places, God condemns mediums - people who consult with the spirits of the dead (Leviticus 19:31, 20:6, 20:27 and Deuteronomy 8:9-14). It seems that it is actually possible to consult the dead, but this practice drives people to trust in the dead spirits rather than to trust in God.
But at the same time, I would say that the existence of ghosts is not such an important question. In fact, it’s not even the main point of this story about Saul. If we look a the wider context here, we see that it fits with God’s main concern about mediums and ghosts. Saul was trusting in ghosts instead of trusting in God. The main point is to trust in God and to obey God, no matter what.
Second question: Do you believe in zombies? Do you believe in people who are dead becoming undead - returning to life or something like life again?
Let’s do a show of hands again. Everybody who believes in zombies, raise your hand.
Everybody who doesn’t believe zombies are possible, raise your hand.
If you don’t know, raise your hand.
OK, let’s turn to our Gospel Lesson. This is Matthew chapter 27, and our passage starts with Jesus’ last moments on the cross.
50 Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, 52 and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. 53 They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.
Didn’t know that was in the Bible, did you? To be honest with you, I really don’t know what this text is trying to say. I don’t think these are zombies like in the horror films. On the other hand, it doesn’t sound like these people were completely resurrected - at least not permanently. If we just focus on dead bodies walking around, that can take us to some very weird places. What happened? Were they actually alive? What were their bodies like? What would have happened if ...?
But if we focus on the larger context, this is actually a pretty amazing picture. Tom Noble, one of my theology professors, explained it like this. When Jesus - the Author of Life - died, that disrupted the barrier between life and death. It’s like in the sci-fi movies, when some huge event happens, the picture ripples and gets blurry. That big event sends out ripples that alter reality.
In other words, think of throwing a big rock into a puddle. It makes a splash and knocks some water out of the puddle. It seems like that’s kind of what happened when Jesus died. When Jesus - the Rock of Ages - went into the grave, into the place of the dead, it made such a big splash that some of the dead people kind of popped back up on earth - at least for a while. And then, we Jesus came back up out of the grave, it caused more ripples. Jesus is that big! Jesus really died, and Jesus was really raised, and this altered the reality of our world.
Third question: Do you believe in hell? Let me be more specific. Do you believe in a hell of eternal punishment from which there is no escape? Let’s do the show of hands again. By now, you might be thinking that I’m trying to trick you. I promise I’m not. I’m not going to come looking for you to talk about why you answered what you did. OK, let’s have it.
All who believe in an eternal hell with no escape, hands up.
If you don’t believe in an eternal hell with no escape, hands up.
If you don’t know, put your hands up.
OK, now it’s time for our Epistle Lesson: 1 Peter 3:13-22.
13 Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. 15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. 16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. 17 Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!
18 Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.
19 So he went and preached to the spirits in prison—20 those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. 21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
22 Now Christ has gone to heaven. He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority.
Another one of my professors, Roger Hahn, says that “Verse 19 is one of the most difficult verses to interpret in the New Testament.” Martin Luther, who had an opinion about just about everything said, “A wonderful text this is, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.” Great.
This verse has been the source of all kinds of controversies and it taps into the great debates about heaven and hell. Verse 19 is short: “So he went and preached to the spirits in prison.” But it leaves us with all kinds of questions. When did this happen? Where did Christ go? What did he preach? Who was he talking to? What is this prison?
In my research on 1 Peter, I’m using four different commentaries. Guess how many answers I got on this verse? Four.
1. One guy said this verse is actually talking about the “pre-existent Christ” who preached through the mouth of Noah in the time just before the flood. If so, Peter’s point would be that Christians should also tell people how to be saved, no matter how few people are listening. We should speak with boldness, with full confidence that God will save us, just as he saved Noah.
2. Another guy, William Barclay, is wonderful old school expert my pastors loved to quote when I was a kid. He gave a surprisingly liberal view. He says, “There is in this passage the solution of one of the most haunting questions raised by the Christian faith - what is to happen to those who lived before Jesus Christ and to those to whom the gospel never came?” Barclay quotes Justin Martyr, a Christian preacher from the 2nd century, and says Jesus actually went down into Hades or Hell and preached the Good News to people who have already died so that “there is no corner of the universe into which the grace of God has not reached.”
3. Then, the third guy said basically - Hold on a minute. That sounds great, but that is probably not what the text actually says. The word used for “spirit” here almost always refers to non-human beings like angels or demons. And the word for “preached” usually means to “announce” not to “give the good news.” If we put all of this together, what we see is that when Jesus died, he went to the spiritual “powers” and “authorities” of darkness and announced their defeat. They killed him and drug him down to death, but Jesus shouted out, “You can’t keep me dead. I’m busting out. I’m defeating death. We win. You loose.”
4. The fourth guy was very democratic about it. He listed all three of these views and said ... um ... yeah ... they could pretty much all be right. But then he said that we have to be careful here. We can get lost in the controversy of the difficult verses. When we have really hard verses, we need to do two things. First, “be humble about ... passages that are ‘clearly unclear.’” Second, we need to make sure we see the passage in its overall context.
So what is the wider context? The wider context is a community struggling to be faithful to Jesus in a difficult situation. This text has some really beautiful passages.
Peter says, “Who will want to harm you if you are passionate about the good?” Some people are aficionados of a baseball team, or cars, or cigars, or coffee. Peter says, “Be an aficionado - a passionate lover - of goodness in all its forms.” Then, you’ll probably be OK. But even if you’re not OK, even if you still suffer, don’t worry too much about it.
Then, there’s this beautiful line: “Don’t fear their fears.” Don’t be afraid of the same things as other people. Don’t let their fears take over your life. Instead, keep Christ first in your life.
Next, is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. “And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way.” Live with such incredible hope that you provoke questions. Live with such beautiful goodness that people ask why. Then, have your answer ready, “I live like this because God has changed my life through Jesus Christ.” And in the living and in the answering, do everything with gentleness and respect. Don’t disrespect the other person when you talk about Jesus. Every conversation is holy. Every conversation is an opportunity to live the gentle character and love of Jesus.
But even if we do everything right and live exactly like Jesus, we still might get treated exactly like Jesus. People might “speak against” us, and we might “suffer for doing good.” According to Peter, that’s not all bad.
Jesus suffered for us. Jesus was innocent, but he paid for our crimes. Jesus walked into suffering to walk us home to God. Jesus went all the way down to the grave, to the place of the dead, to the place of no return. Jesus experienced the absolute worst of human life and death. And God raised him out of it. He was completely dead, and God returned him to total and absolute life. He went all the way down, and God brought him all the way up.
Baptism is a picture of this U-shaped path. We go down with Jesus into the water - into the grave. We come up with Jesus into new life. We die with Christ and we are raised with Christ.
And where is Christ now? “Now Christ has gone to heaven. He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority” (3:22). Jesus has gone full-circle. He has completed the journey. He was in heaven, at God’s right hand, part of the Trinity. He left heaven and came to earth. He was obedient to death, going into the grave, the lowest parts of the earth. Then, God raised him from the dead to life on earth again. Then, God raised him up to heaven to rejoin the Father on the throne. Now, Jesus has conquered sin and death and every spiritual power that has rebelled against God. All powers bow before his throne and accept his final authority.
All the experts say that verses 19 and 20 are extremely difficult. In fact, these verses are so hard, that we can get lost in trying to figure out what they are supposed to mean. However, most of the experts also agree that the overall point of the passage is clear. Peter is saying something very simple and yet very profound. If you hold on to Jesus no matter what, you’ll be OK. If we just hold on to Jesus wherever that U-shaped journey takes us - even into suffering and death and hellish circumstances - if we hold on to Jesus and his gentleness, Jesus will push through that suffering and death and hell and pull us out with him into life and finally into heaven.
Don’t get lost in the controversy. Yeah, it’s OK to talk about heaven and hell. It’s OK to ask questions about ghosts and all the weird stuff in the Bible. But don’t miss the context of those passages. And don’t miss the overall point of the Bible.
God loves us. We have all rejected God’s love, but God loved us so much that he suffered and died for us. God endured hellish pain on the cross to bring us out of our personal hells into his Kingdom of Heaven. If we respond to this amazing love, God will transform our lives.
God doesn’t push or force his way. God’s love is like the gentle beating of the ocean upon our souls. I love you. I love you. I love you. You can push me away, and still I will love you. You can say bad things about me, and still I will love you. You can beat me, and still I will love you. You can even kill me, and still I will love you. You cannot get rid of me. I will always love you. Forever, I love you. I love you. I love you. God wears us down with his persistent, gentle, suffering love.
And God calls us to the same persistent, gentle, suffering path. I will do good no matter what. I will love Christ no matter what. I will love you no matter what. You can push me away, and still I will love you. You can say bad things about me, and still I will say good things about you. You can beat me, and still I will be gentle toward you. You can even kill me, and still I will love Christ and love you. You cannot really get rid of me because I live in the Spirit of Christ, and we will always love you. Forever, we love you. We love you. We love you. And this will completely change our world with God’s persistent, gentle, suffering love.
1 comment:
wow! i love the last paragraph. powerful!
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