“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.’ This is the Lord’s declaration.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
This is a bumper sticker verse. What I mean is that this is a verse that is commonly used as a stand-alone slogan. You can find decorative pieces at Hobby Lobby or other places that cater to a Christian audience with this verse on them. The thing about verses like this presented like that is they can mean just about whatever you want for them to mean. Lifted out of their original context, they become a kind of blank slate on which we can write our own story. This kind of thing feels really good, but it’s a terrible way to treat the Scriptures.
Yesterday was Mother’s Day and if you have a mom in your life, I hope you celebrate her with gusto. She deserves it. We celebrated moms in our own way here at First Baptist Oakboro including this conversation about how we can structure our families in such a way as to make the passing on of the faith from one generation to the next a safer bet than it sometimes is. Keep reading to find out how.
Passing the Torch
One of the national highlights when
a particular country gets to host the Olympic Games is the Olympic Torch. Each Olympics, the climax of the opening
ceremonies is the lighting of the Olympic Torch. The main flame is always lit by a smaller
torch that has usually been on a journey across the host nation. It has been passed from runner-to-runner,
hand-to-hand, until it arrives at the Opening Ceremony and accomplishes its
intended aim. The journey the torch
takes, though, is not one that any single runner could accomplish as a solo
venture. It must be handed off or it
will eventually fall to the ground. Our
lives are a little like that. We can
only carry ourselves and the things that are important to us so far before they
have to be passed on to someone else. If
we don’t, everything we count as dear will eventually fall to the ground and be
left there where it will eventually be trampled and forgotten. Now, just because we have designs on passing
what’s important to us on to the generation that follows doesn’t guarantee a
smooth or easy passing, but making no such plans guarantees that nothing will
happen.
“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
One of my favorite worldview teachers, John Stonestreet, likes to ask this question when talking about culture: Why shouldn’t you ask a fish about water? When asking that question to an audience of teenagers once someone shouted back, “Because fish can’t talk!” True though that may be, you shouldn’t ask a fish about water because it doesn’t know what that is. In the same way, culture is the water in which we swim each day. If we’re not intentional and careful, it is easy to just be wet and not know it. Paul here calls us to another way.
“And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
This morning we started wrestling through what we are supposed to do with a passage like this one and its disturbing images of the final fate of those who reject God as Lord. We started with the basics: The doctrine of Hell is hard, but it’s also necessary. With those two truths in place, let’s deal with the emotional hard of the idea of Hell being a place of eternal death and fiery torment. Are those both true pictures of Hell? Because, if we’re honest, those are the ideas that drive so many away from the doctrine.
“And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
Preachers of old were famous for their sermons filled with “hellfire and brimstone.” Some, like George Whitfield, were famous (infamous?) for offering their audiences graphic descriptions of Hell that were so compelling people would give their lives to Christ then and there on the spot just to avoid even the remotest possibility of such a fate. Today, however, the idea of a fiery Hell waiting for all those who refuse to have faith in Christ not only isn’t very popular, for many it is an active impediment to their accepting the existence of God in the first place. So then, what do we do with verses like this one?
The Nexus 