Intelligence and knowledge increases from one generation to the next. What you and I know, our parents didn’t. And what our parents knew, their parents and grandparents didn’t.
The same applies to relationships and the nature of relationships, I suppose.
Some people today have a personal relationship with God and His Son Jesus. They are not just characters in a book, or in the Bible. They are living Beings with whom we communicate and who communicate with us, help us, guide us, and protect us throughout our lives in preparation for the next.
These are no glib words; but a true reality for some people today.
Others, however, believe in God alright, but He is a little distant. Sitting somewhere up there in the clouds, on His throne, looking at us, and ready to help us when we ask Him. They go to church alright, but to them at least, their relationship with their maker is not a close one. Full of reverence, of course, and perhaps tinged with a modicum of fear.
Our grandparents' sermons were full of God’s wrath, fire and brimstone, and the dread of eternal damnation in hell.
But today, a sermon like that would not go down too well – would it? It would probably not be taken too seriously by church attendants, never mind those who don’t go to church.
So how do we communicate God, Jesus, Heaven and hell in today’s sophisticated modern world full of cynicism, bitterness and bile?
Some describe hell as being in the complete absence of God for eternity. But then, there are those in this state right now, in this very lifetime; so how can they see or understand the concept of hell, never mind fear it?
Perhaps one way is to accentuate the positive in a personal and close relationship with God. Not then … in Heaven … sometime in the future.
But here and now, today, and every day.
Through the Holy Spirit. The third person in the Holy Trinity. The gift. As described by St Hilary of Poitiers, (Bishop in the 3rd Century AD). Sent to us by Jesus after He was raised to Heaven.
Not much is said about the Holy Spirit in church these days.
Yet He is here, living, loving, and ready to guide us in this life, in preparation for an eternity with God, in the next.
If we let Him.
And these are no glib words either ... but meant quite literally.
IF ...
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I think thats the problem with today's modern Church. The gospel they preach is to watered down. All people here about is the goodness of god, the joy of God, and other great things about God. Which is fine, but not the whole part of the story. Jesus said He came not for the righteous, but sinners. So people need to know that they are sinners, and headed on the path for destruction if they don't repent and trust in Jesus Christ. It's all about a personal intimate relationship with the creator of the universe. It's amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe church has a new Gospel today called the 'prosperity gospel'. It's a real 'ear tickler'... It goes along the lines of the following: "Sow a seed and reap a harvest of loads of money..."
ReplyDeleteThe Bible teaches us that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil - there's a deep root of the love of this 'god' in the church today sadly...
Thanx Dan and Wendy for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI feel the churches are somehow not reaching the people these days.