Present Determines Eternity

The decisions we make in this present life determines our future destination for all eternity, be it in the presence of the Lord with rewards in heaven, or banishment from His presence and eternal punishment in hell. However, we should not scare people with hell into heaven. I believe many "Christians" or church-goers received salvation merely as a ticket to heaven but have remained at that stage of infancy and have not pursued intimacy with the Lord.

Heaven is not just about the eternal future but how we relate with God and one another here on earth in the present. I would like to view this in a personal way. What matters most here on earth is man's love relationship with God, how truly we love Him, adore Him, worship Him and commune with Him. We will worship Him in eternity with all the saints and heavenly beings. It's not what we do, but who we are in Him. We need to live our lives abiding in Him as Jesus spoke in John 15, He is the Vine and we are the branches. He has called us to bear much fruit as we remain in Him and He in us. He has called us friends, no longer servants who do not know the master's business, but in friendship with Him, He makes known to us the things of God. Christ chose us that we should go and bear fruit, implies that the purpose of Christ's choosing people is not merely that their sins be forgiven and they have eternal life but also that their lives be fruitful and productive in fulfilling God's purposes.

We are God's elect. (Rom 9; Eph 1) God chose us to be His friends. And Jesus said, "This is my command: Love each other." (Jn 15:17) Jesus' Great Commission in Matt 28:19-20 is to go and make disciples of all nations, and in 2 Pet 3:9 tells us that the Lord does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Peter advised us to make every effort to add to our faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love to be effective and productive in our knowledge of the Lord. (2 Pet 1:5-7) He said, "Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Pet 1:10-11)

Our assurance of salvation and eternity in heaven should be lived out here in the present while we look forward in great expectation of His second coming.

They Say "Jesus is Coming Soon"

Recently, someone posted the below video in a facebook group I was a part of. The accompanying message was the following:

Hi. This video was made to let people know that the number of people
who will be saved is very few on the last day like the days of Noah.
It can be verified in Matthew24:35~39,Lk17:29 and Lk18:8.
It doesn't mean that any specific church will be saved or only 30 people will be saved.
But,we made this video to the facts just as she had experienced.

On to of that, the post said that a new theory (Korean) was that a solar storm will hit the earth and scorch it of its existence. They had scientific facts from NASA about the sun's strange behaviors recently. Read more here.

The thing is this. This kind of video is not new. Many people have had the privilege of visions and experiences. Many people have had insights and scientific data about what's happening in the earth and atmosphere *flashbacks to scenes from 2013* 

We can probably rationalize it away, but should we rationalize it ALL away?

How reliable are they? They may quote a lot of Scriptures but are they biblical? How should we take or perceive such information? What are they trying to say? What should be our reaction and response? What is God trying to say? 

Hell

Bible described that hell is a place of eternal outer darkness, with fire that never goes out, burning perpetually, a place of pain and torment, a prison. Hell is a place that separates us with God. The torment in hell is forever and ever, it is eternal. It is horrible place as described in the bible, but they are only symbols. The actual hell is much more worst than we could ever imagine. The fire that burn in hell is worst than the material fire on earth. people in hell will experience the pain of lose. The lost of hope, the lost of God, the lost of joy.


God is love, but why he creates hell? Such a horrible place. If someone ask this question how would we answer them? Matthew 25:41 tells us that hell is prepared for devil and his angel, God's intention to create hell is not for human being. He does not take pleasure seeing people suffer an eternity in hell, and that is the reason why he sent Jesus.

We must also know that God will not force anyone to go Heaven. Jesus came to save us so that we will not perish, If a person refuses to repent, refuses to believe that Jesus came and sacrificed himself for the sins of the world, refuses to turn to God, God has no alternative. I agree with Mei Fong in her post about "Talk About Hell" that God is not just a God of Grace, but He is also God of just. Just like every governing authority in the world will impose the maximum penalty for the worst crime. God has his standard too.

One of the worst thing a person can do is to reject God, reject his grace, his love, and his plan of salvation.  Justice demands that those who disregard and reject God's loving offer of pardon will pay the penalty for their own sins forever in hell.

Will the horrible hell motivate us to preach the gospel? I believe now is the time to be concerned but not when one gets into hell. Once people is in hell, he will learn too late that God really means what He said, without Christ, he will ended up in hell. Let us make sure that we tried our best to stop people from going to hell.

 

 

Talk About Hell

We all know that heaven is real and much emphasis have been given about this place called "heaven" in our witnessing. People love to hear good news and heaven is definitely a great news!

But I was thinking to myself whether we have been focusing too much on one side of the story but neglect in informing people about the reality of hell as well? The free entry to heaven through Jesus Christ is a message of God's grace. That is just one side of the story. How about the other part of the story about the punishment of our sins? God is a God of grace but also a God of justice. Some would argue about the tension between the love of God, a cardinal characteristic of God's nature, and His judgment. But personally, it is no tension at all. How can someone fully know the extend of God's love and grace without knowing the punishment of his own wickedness? Telling people about hell is not a message of condemnation but it is a warning. It is definitely a place where we do not even want our worst enemy to end up in!

The Kingdom of God

I've recently found a liking for this subject - Ever since I learnt about it in Parables class and Pastoral Epistle class. I realised that the perspective of the Kingdom of God makes a difference in how we live our lives today. 

If we the kingdom of God were just a future place and not here today, we would live like it didn't matter and God's reign isn't in our world today. We would be careless with our lives and find ways to escape our miserable situations because it was our prison and nothing spiritual. 

But if we understand the kingdom of God has God's reign and rule over the sphere of our influence, we would live our lives purposefully, intentionally and learn to extend God's love and grace to our 'captors' in our prison of misery because God still reigns there. And He reigns as far as we would allow Him in our lives. 

The Kingdom of God is now and not yet. It has begun although it is not seen. It is felt although it cannot be touched. But the kingdom grows because of you and me who allow God's reign and rule over areas of our lives when we submit to Him. When we love the unlovable, forgive and hold nothing against those who wrong us, extend grace even if they didn't deserve it,  feed the poor and provide shelter for the homeless, respect our bosses, mentor a young delinquent. When we allow God to take over our lives, He takes control and reigns over it. His kingdom extends in us and through us. And when we act in faith, we extend his kingdom to those spheres of our influence and introduces it into the lives of those we contact or touch. I don't know about you, but I'm getting very excited about it. 

And yes, it is also 'not yet'. It has not yet come to completion yet and it is not yet fully revealed. But one day it will - in all its glory and in its fullness. Yes, that day will come. And it will be an awesome time.

Ecumenical Movement - Unite or Not Unite?

Over the years, I've been contemplating about Jesus' prayer for unity, that we may be one, in John 17:20-23, and all the so-called divisions in the church with so many denominations, and much differences, and disagreements, in comparison to the image of the church as the bride of Christ. If the church is not united as one, but each institution claims to be the bride of Christ in their own right of ways, when Christ returns for His Bride, He is only coming back for One Bride, not so many brides! Another image is the church as the body of Christ. Well, Christ is the Head of the church and that's for only One body of course, definitely not one head with many bodies.

We know the very heart of God is the unity of His Church that we will all be one. Paul has said it very clearly in Ephesians 4 that the believers 'make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace' (v. 3) and the fundamentals of unity involves i..one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and the Father of all. The church needs to have unity of Spirit. Paul urges the church to be 'one in spirit and purpose' (Phil 2:2).

What then would bring unity? Is it ideological acceptance? Implementation on a  practical level? Is it organizational alliance of a council? Is it the Ecumenical Movement?

Ecumenical Movement came from the Greek word 'oikoumene' meaning 'this inhabited world'. Though ecumenism began as early as 1517, but the modern ecumenical movement began in 1910 after the revivals that swept Europe and North America, from the outgrowth of the missionary movement among denominations for world evangelism. In 1948, the World Council of Churches assembled in Amsterdam, with the primary concern on the relationship of churches to one another. There are presently the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the National Council of Churches (NCC), aiming to bring churches of all denominations towards 'one world one church'.

The Ecumenical Movement is a huge controversial in the Christian world, especially the disagreements from the Evangelicals. The issues concerned certain basic truths, beliefs and doctrines. They question the doctrinal standards, that the ecumenical movement has often settled for the lowest common denominator. Besides theological issues, the evangelicals also disagree with the church issue, what structure of church government, form and function of the ministry be? Questions concerning the sacraments also causes severe tensions because that was what the reformists fought for in the 16th century. One teleological issue is the ultimate goal of this movement, is it an organic merger of all denominations into one superchurch?

We should always remember what Erickson advices, "Where Christians do disagree, whether as individuals, churches, or denominations, it is essential that they do so in a spirit of love, seeking to correct others and persuade them of the truth, rather than refute them or expose them to ridicule. Truth will ever be linked to love."

So, will the Ecumenical Movement unite the church in the world?