Why did Jesus want to come to Earth and become human? Didn't Jesus know what he was going to have to go through? Why would anyone want to come down to Earth instead of sitting in luxury in Heaven? These are some of the questions that we tried to answer today.
One of our members started us off with a story about a homeless man who regularly attended a church. Once a week, the church held a meal for the homeless people in the community, and not once did anyone see this man eat a "meal" at any other time during the week. One day, a teenage boy showed up for the homeless meal, but he was too late and there was no food left. The homeless man who probably ate a meal only on that day of the week got up and gave his food to the boy, then left, apparently in a joyous mood.
Another of our members told a similar story afterwards. The point that the stories make in relation to our questions about Jesus is that Jesus wanted to experience the misery of humans for himself. It is much easier to show sympathy for a person, or a race, if you have personally felt what they feel. Jesus wanted to show that he was with us, as he still is, and that he is not so high above us that we are unable to reach him. Yes, God is all-powerful, but that does not mean that he is going to push us away because we are unclean and sinful; Jesus' trials on Earth are tributes to God to show that there is still hope for us as humans.
After our stories were told and discussed, we read the passage about the rich young man seeking eternal life. In the passage, the man claims to have followed all the commandments, but Jesus tells him that to truly inherit eternal life, he must sell all he owns and give it to the poor. There are many lessons to be learned from each passage in the Bible, including this one, but we are going to focus on only one today.
You can follow all of the commandments for all of your life, but that won't get you into Heaven. Everything you do has to be to glorify God, as the Bible indicates when it tells us to pray without ceasing. Collecting riches and using time for your interests and relaxation doesn't do anything to help the needy or proclaim the good news and the word of God, which is what God expects and wants us to do.
Here in the US, we live well and have opportunity. With God on our side, we can do anything! In places like Haiti, however, this view is turned more into "with God on our side, we can survive anything." Poverty and poor government structure can cause many people to lose the chance to do what they want and send them into hard times. Jesus came down to Earth to show that he was and is willing to help us, even in our darkest times. In Haiti, for example, many children become domestic servants with less than 2% of all children graduating secondary school. To those people, the only way to accomplish or survive anything is with God on their side.
Reaffirming what we have constantly written throughout our posts, it is our duty as Christians to spread the word and show the world that things can improve if they believe in God and his greatness, which he showed to the world by sending Jesus into the world.
Our discussion went full circle and turned back towards what we do with our money, which we discussed after the parable about the rich young man. In our culture nowadays, we are constantly tempted to buy more than we need; one of our members commented that Americans are the most wasteful people in the world, which is probably true. Our member further told us one of her quotes, which we thought was a good little saying: "Stop being Americans!" In other words, stop wasting what you don't need.
The next nearly fourty days are Lent, so this is a very good time to give up something. This is the time to give up something that distracts you from doing God's work and to remember him and his mercy. Jesus is never too far away to help you!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Life after Death, but Where?
We apologize for our prolonged absence; the weather and snow has affected our normal pattern of Sunday school and services.
Our main passage for today was a story about a woman who had a horrible childhood, eventually became a single mother with five kids, one of whom drowned to death, and in the end turned towards Christ before dying of a stroke. After the passage was read, we were asked where we believed this woman, Sally, would go after death.
There are many passages in the Bible that relate to how we are all judged by the law, but there are also many more which relate to God's mercy in salvation. The broad range of passages make it difficult for Christians to fully answer the question of where a person will go after death.
The discussion of the question turned to how we, as Christians, are supposed to go out and preach the word to people like Sally so that there is no question; sometimes a person need only hear the word once to repent and be saved. The ultimate question in this regard is the definition of repentance and how far one must go to fully repent and turn to Christ. Once again, this question is difficult to answer, but God's mercy does make it very much possible to repent, regardless of how long or how much you must repent to be saved.
Next, our discussion turned to how we are saved; are we saved by faith or works or all of the above? It was unanimous that we are saved by faith and that good works are simply the fruits of our faith. If we were saved in any way by good works, then some people might do good deeds for the wrong reason; one cannot be thinking of their own salvation when preaching or showing the word to others without becoming a hypocrite.
Moving on, a member of our group told us a dual-meaning parable about how a child always told their parent about an event at the last minute and the parent always complained and told the child to tell them ahead of time, but the child never grasped what their parent was saying for a very, very long time; when the child did listen, however, it made all the difference in the world.
The first meaning of the parable is that we don't always listen or want to listen to God's word, but when we do, it makes all the difference in the world. If we listen to God's word and grasp it, even if it's only once, it could change our lives forever for the better.
The second meaning of the parable is actually more of a question; can we be saved at the last minute? Can we hear the word and repent within a short period of time, as if the child was moving away shortly after finally hearing the word? This is a long debated topic, and it all comes down to repentance. Time is really of no interest to God, and as long as a person truly believes, repents, and is filled with faith, then they can be saved through Jesus and God's mercy. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to come to a final conclusion on this question.
The final answer that comes from the question of where a person, like Sally, is going to go after death is that we have no authority. Jesus himself specifically tells us that we are not supposed to judge others, and it is a very good assumption that this can be applied to judging ourselves as well. In the end, only God can make the final call, and only he should make the final call or any other accusations and judgments.
Even with our final answer determined, we decided to continue the debate. We next debated the fate of atheists, although we really just debated how and why there were atheists and what they believed. One of our group actually admitted that there was a time in his life when he did not believe in God, but he has since made a dramatic turn to God. He brought up a good point about how atheists typically can remember when they turned away from God, thus implying that there was and is a part of them that wants to or does believe in God and Christ. As Christians, we have to bring that part of everyone in the world out; it is our mission and our duty to spread the word.
Nobody can say who can be saved unless they are spreading the word to everyone, and even then it is not their judgement which decides. Non-believers and those with little to no faith are and can only be saved by those with great faith and those who show their faith to the world. Love your neighbor and go spread the word; wake up and do something for the glory of God.
Our main passage for today was a story about a woman who had a horrible childhood, eventually became a single mother with five kids, one of whom drowned to death, and in the end turned towards Christ before dying of a stroke. After the passage was read, we were asked where we believed this woman, Sally, would go after death.
There are many passages in the Bible that relate to how we are all judged by the law, but there are also many more which relate to God's mercy in salvation. The broad range of passages make it difficult for Christians to fully answer the question of where a person will go after death.
The discussion of the question turned to how we, as Christians, are supposed to go out and preach the word to people like Sally so that there is no question; sometimes a person need only hear the word once to repent and be saved. The ultimate question in this regard is the definition of repentance and how far one must go to fully repent and turn to Christ. Once again, this question is difficult to answer, but God's mercy does make it very much possible to repent, regardless of how long or how much you must repent to be saved.
Next, our discussion turned to how we are saved; are we saved by faith or works or all of the above? It was unanimous that we are saved by faith and that good works are simply the fruits of our faith. If we were saved in any way by good works, then some people might do good deeds for the wrong reason; one cannot be thinking of their own salvation when preaching or showing the word to others without becoming a hypocrite.
Moving on, a member of our group told us a dual-meaning parable about how a child always told their parent about an event at the last minute and the parent always complained and told the child to tell them ahead of time, but the child never grasped what their parent was saying for a very, very long time; when the child did listen, however, it made all the difference in the world.
The first meaning of the parable is that we don't always listen or want to listen to God's word, but when we do, it makes all the difference in the world. If we listen to God's word and grasp it, even if it's only once, it could change our lives forever for the better.
The second meaning of the parable is actually more of a question; can we be saved at the last minute? Can we hear the word and repent within a short period of time, as if the child was moving away shortly after finally hearing the word? This is a long debated topic, and it all comes down to repentance. Time is really of no interest to God, and as long as a person truly believes, repents, and is filled with faith, then they can be saved through Jesus and God's mercy. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to come to a final conclusion on this question.
The final answer that comes from the question of where a person, like Sally, is going to go after death is that we have no authority. Jesus himself specifically tells us that we are not supposed to judge others, and it is a very good assumption that this can be applied to judging ourselves as well. In the end, only God can make the final call, and only he should make the final call or any other accusations and judgments.
Even with our final answer determined, we decided to continue the debate. We next debated the fate of atheists, although we really just debated how and why there were atheists and what they believed. One of our group actually admitted that there was a time in his life when he did not believe in God, but he has since made a dramatic turn to God. He brought up a good point about how atheists typically can remember when they turned away from God, thus implying that there was and is a part of them that wants to or does believe in God and Christ. As Christians, we have to bring that part of everyone in the world out; it is our mission and our duty to spread the word.
Nobody can say who can be saved unless they are spreading the word to everyone, and even then it is not their judgement which decides. Non-believers and those with little to no faith are and can only be saved by those with great faith and those who show their faith to the world. Love your neighbor and go spread the word; wake up and do something for the glory of God.
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