Be careful what you pray for ! I pray for illumination for myself and us all. So in that spirit I posted below on hell as we'd had two Breathe readings on it and I was keen to explore what Jesus and His first century audience would have meant and understood by hell, i.e. from their end of the telescope. Especially in the light of our understanding that they understood Ge-Hinnom, the Valley of Hinnom, Gehenna to be the city dump. It was easy for me from that assumption to explore that regardless of the ultimate dread possibility of reprobation, of eternal damnation, hell is what we get for not living Kingdom lives now; that we may be better motivated to repent of pursuing our desires, not just from fear of ultimate damnation but also by realising that our lives and the lives of those we are complicit with in our desires can be redeemed now.
Showing posts with label hell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hell. Show all posts
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Monday, 26 March 2012
Who needs hell ?
On March 7th we had Matthew 5:27-29(-30) and today, the 26th, Matthew 18:8-9.
Getting prayerfully closer to Jesus in trying to imagine being in His Jewish audience on the Mount, with their extremely limited afterlife beliefs, I imagined hearing Him say, 'If you don't deny your lusts you might as well throw yourself down there.' indicating the Valley of Hinnom. Jerusalem City Dump. Ge-Hinnom. Gehenna. Denying our lusts may cramp our style, our view, our reach in this life but will also enable us to live in eternal life. Now. To experience purity, peace, recapture redeemed innocence, healing, a quiet life, relationships full of friendship, service, compassion. Whereas pursuing the objects of our fleshy desire without restraint ALWAYS leads to hell. To trashing your life and others'. Now. Immediately. Do you know a happy adulterer ? A happy betrayer ? Being trapped in sex addiction - 'just' porn let alone serial affairs - is heavenly ? It's hell. Better a quiet, one-eyed, one-armed life than seizing a hollow fantasy with both hands and broken hearts and minds and bodies (STDs ? Abortions ? ) and lives.
Who needs hell when you can have heaven ? Now. Never mind the afterlife. That'll take care of itself.
Getting prayerfully closer to Jesus in trying to imagine being in His Jewish audience on the Mount, with their extremely limited afterlife beliefs, I imagined hearing Him say, 'If you don't deny your lusts you might as well throw yourself down there.' indicating the Valley of Hinnom. Jerusalem City Dump. Ge-Hinnom. Gehenna. Denying our lusts may cramp our style, our view, our reach in this life but will also enable us to live in eternal life. Now. To experience purity, peace, recapture redeemed innocence, healing, a quiet life, relationships full of friendship, service, compassion. Whereas pursuing the objects of our fleshy desire without restraint ALWAYS leads to hell. To trashing your life and others'. Now. Immediately. Do you know a happy adulterer ? A happy betrayer ? Being trapped in sex addiction - 'just' porn let alone serial affairs - is heavenly ? It's hell. Better a quiet, one-eyed, one-armed life than seizing a hollow fantasy with both hands and broken hearts and minds and bodies (STDs ? Abortions ? ) and lives.
Who needs hell when you can have heaven ? Now. Never mind the afterlife. That'll take care of itself.
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