From the Blog

By Drew Kuehl

I think we all have a different picture in our minds of what heaven is going to be like. There are a few passages in the Bible that give us some idea of what it’s like, but a lot is still left to our imagination. A couple years ago, when my daughter Kara was 2 or 3, my wife, Amy, was putting her to bed one night and noticed she was deep in thought. She asked her what she was thinking about and Kara said “Mommy, I don’t think I want to go to heaven.” Amy was a bit surprised and so she asked, “why wouldn’t you want to go to heaven?” Kara looked up at her with concern on her face and said “because Mommy, what if I slipped on a cloud and fell right back to earth?” 

You see, in her mind, heaven was a sort of place where you get to jump around on clouds above the earth and look down on what everyone’s doing. Though what Kara had imagined might not be the case, we do know that it is a place of unrestrained joy and freedom from our earthly bonds. When I think about it, I find myself torn inside. I would love to be there and see and experience it, but I also want to be here with my family that I love. So I always come to the conclusion that I find myself coming on many other issues as well: I have to trust in God’s perfect plan and timing. 

This week as we continued our study of Philippians, we tackled verse 19 to 26 of chapter 1. We looked at verse 19 and saw how Paul used the power of prayer and relied on the provision of the Holy Spirit. We then saw in verses 20-21 that Paul was ultimately confident about his deliverance because he had given Christ first place in his life. We talked about how verse 21 is really Paul’s purpose statement and should be ours as well. I think it’s important for us to think about how we would honestly complete this sentence? For to me, to live is ______? What gets you up in the morning? What gets you excited? When you say, “That’s what life is all about,” what are you referring to? Here’s the issue. No one can leave that sentence blank. Everyone is living for something. What are you living for right now?

For Paul to live was Christ and to die was gain. The word “gain” that Paul uses refers to “profit” or interest on money. As Christians, we come out ahead when we’re dead. Actually, we’re not really dead when we die. We leave this world to spend eternity in another world. What do we gain? We gain a better body, a better home, a better inheritance and better fellowship. Live or die as Christians, it’s a win win situation. We finished by looking at verses 22-26 and we saw that we need to be prepared to die but plan to really live.

I’ve had many family members die in just the last few years: 3 Grandparents, an Aunt and my cousin and best friend. I know the truth that the longer I live, the more people I’ll see die. I rejoice in knowing that each knew Jesus and is present with their Savior. When I think about my life I’m torn as Paul was, but as he ultimately did I can say to live is Christ. That means to live is to share the gospel and teach the word of God to anyone God puts in my path. But to die is to come face to face with the God who created me and His Son who saved me. I can’t think of anything better.

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By Grant Castleberry

Pastor Carl preached a powerful and convicting sermon this past Sunday on the doctrine of Eternal Retribution. The sermon was titled, A Place Called Hell. In the sermon, Pastor Carl looks at the Great White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20 and talks about the place where the wicked will be thrown, the Lake of Fire.

One element that stuck out to me in the sermon that I had overlooked in the past is the fact that this place will be a bottomless pit (Rev. 20). Of course I had heard terms like "the abyss" and the "bottomless pit" before, but I had never really thought of their ramifications. In the sermon, Pastor Carl, in Edwards-like imagery, describes Hell as a place where you are always falling and are not able to gain your bearing. I have often thought about the flames of Hell, but I had not often thought about the endless expansiveness of Hell. What a terrible place! Not only is Hell a pit of fire, but it is a bottomless pit, of which the people that are there will never grasp its depths. They will be forever falling, groping, tumbling, and hurdling through its empty recesses, with no hope of ever finding solid ground. That thought is incredibly terrifying to me. I do enjoy climbing (with ropes), repelling down cliffs and climbing walls, and I do plan on sky-diving before it's all said and done, but the thought of falling from a plane without a parachute or falling off of a rock face is grippingly scary to me. The thought of falling for all of eternity is horrifying. 

As I have been pondering this truth, several verses came to my mind which describe God as the rock of our salvation:

Psalm 18:2 - The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 94:22 - But the LORD has been my stronghold, And my God the rock of my refuge.

Isaiah 28:16 (quoted in 1 Peter 2:6) - Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly conerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.

These verses present quite a contrast to Hell for those that are in Christ. Those that are in Christ have God as their rock! They have a solid foundation, of which Christ is the cornerstone. There is no worry about a free-fall for eternity, because their feet are firmly planted in the true foundation! Finally, they will forever reign with Christ in the New Heaven and the New Earth and their existence will be defined by the one true Rock for all of eternity, Yahweh (Rev 21-22). Praise the Lord, for this is all of grace, and we should proclaim this gospel of grace to every creature (Mark 16:15)! Hell is indeed a terrible place, and we don't want anyone to go there.

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