isnt she beautiful 3.0

so after a great night of rest, we were back at it at 9am this morning. and the topic… salvation, heaven, hell, etc… oh yeah. so so great. here we go….

we began the morning by asking the question “how do you get saved?” we began to scour the scriptures for a couple of hours on how this happens. here are a couple of glimpses:

is it something you say?
Luke 7 – roman soldier understands authority and has faith
Luke 18 – God have mercy on me, a sinner
Luke 23 – the revolutionary at the cross, God remember me in paradise

is it something you have to be?
John 3 – born again
Luke 20:35 – must be considered worthy

is it something you do?
Matt 6:14 – forgiveness
Matt 7:21 – do the will of my Father
Matt 10:22 – stand firm
Luke 7:36 – pouring perfume on Jesus and washing his feet with her tears (she doesnt say anything, her conversion comes from her actions of love)
Luke 15:18 – son’s confession

is it something someone else does?
Matt 9 – paralyzed man gets healed because of his friends belief
Mark 2 – man lowered down through the roof and the paralyzed man is saved

is it believing?
Luke 4:34 – even demons know who Jesus is and believe he is what he says he is (are they saved)
James 2:19 – demons belief again

so if you ask this question about salvation and you only have the Bible as your source – then you would have tons of answers. people come to Jesus in all sorts of ways. it was crazy to scour the scriptures and see all these different ways people are ’saved’. it presents a very holistic view of salvation – that Jesus died for all. beautiful.

after a small break we dove back in to some thoughts on heaven and hell. we looked at four passages where the language that is used is ‘in this age, and the age to come’. (see Matt 12:32, Matt 13:39, Matt 13:49, and Matt 24:3). in jewish thought there was no idea of forever. it would be arrogant for me to think that i have forever figured out. only God knows that. all i can know is in this age and the age to come. the jewish words for ‘the age to come’ is known as olam haba – also translated eternal life (Luke 18:30). this olam haba is also known as harmony with God. so when we see these passages asking ‘how do i attain eternal life / olam haba?’ the real question is ‘how do i attain harmony with God?’ eternal life is a quailty of life. heaven here, now. eternal life – harmony with God, now.

man – trying to understand this is heavy and needs to be worked out. but as i think about this – it begins to make more sense – i dont believe in some escapist theology where one day i’ll fly away – i believe we are to be about bring heaven here on earth. i want to live in a way so that heaven comes crashing into earth. God help me to live this way.

there was so much more. and there is so much more – but now i am kaput. tired. i will post more later as i dialogue and work this out with fear and trembling. also, some thoughts from our breakout session as well. hope this helps.

peace be with you…

~ by jda on January 24, 2007.