I run a small woodworking business. Mostly I build canes and small tables.

I have a shop full of tools that I use every day. These tools are fairly basic and for the most part I understand how they work.

However, every now and then, one of my tools does something that makes no sense. I struggle with it to get it to do what I want. I throw up my hands. Occasionally…….I say bad words to my tools. They don’t seem to understand.

Today it is a drill press that will not accept my changes to its speed control. As a last resort…….because all else has failed…..I will pull out the owners manual and read the instructions. I have no doubt that after reading the instructions and looking over the parts diagram, I will be able to work through the problem.

I can’t help but notice that the same process applies to the problems I face every day in my life.

Something goes wrong…….I get frustrated because the first two or three fixes that I try don’t work. I throw up my hands. Sometimes I say bad words.

Then……. because all else has failed……..I drag out the instructions.

For me, the instructions are contained in the Bible. Obviously, it’s a pretty big owner’s manual. The general public rarely refers to it. The vast majority of Christians have never read it cover to cover. Most Christians are vaguely familiar with a few passages.

But, I never encounter a people problem that cannot be solved by referring to it. The problem is that the solutions in the instruction book often go against my nature……against what my appetites demand. But, they work……..every time. Sometimes they don’t work immediately……..but, over the long haul they work……if I can just stick with them.

You probably have a people problem that you are struggling with today. If you don’t, just wait…..one will come up. I don’t expect you to pull out the Bible and plow into Genesis right now…….though it wouldn’t hurt.

So here is the Cliff Notes version:

The Holy Bible…….abridged:

Love God

Love your neighbor

Today I am struggling with a difficult customer. He may be a little confused. He definitely hasn’t read the information that I provided. He ordered a custom cane, returned it damaged, gave me a bad review, then ordered another cane in a different size and color. Now I have a voice message to call him. I suspect that he has a problem with the second cane. The protocols of the web site that I sell through are crystal clear. The cane is not returnable and is not refundable.

I want to scream “tough luck schmuckerooski!”

But, the owners manual says different:

Love him.

And that is what I will do…….. later this morning.

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Jesus NIV

love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Jesus NIV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Jesus NIV

Time

We deal with it every day…..all day.

We can measure it very accurately. We organize our days around it. We cannot move without a device to keep track of it…….and we can get into serious trouble if we fail to do so. If you don’t believe me, try going a day without your watch and smart phone.

And yet……..time is slippery stuff.

For many centuries, time was circular. The seasons kept repeating and little changed…….each year the same as the last. In our modern world time has changed. Time has become linear…….each year is different. Each year builds on the last. Rather than continually recycling, time is moving toward something…….for better……or worse.

How long is a year? Ask any kid in January……”how long till Christmas?” They know……they will tell you…….it is forever. To a child, even to a young adult, a year is a long time……..so long that they actually count them. Tell a 15 hear old that they are 14 and they will immediately correct you. Ask a 28 year old if they have “grab rails” in their bathroom…….and they will laugh.

But……for those of us who are old, time is entirely different. If somebody asks me, “how long since……..”, my typical answer is……”seems like 5 years…….so it has probably been 10.” At age 68, a year is extremely short. They run past so fast that I no longer count them.

So…….how much time do you and I have left?

For the time being I will ignore the obvious possibility that you or I could be hit by a train 15 minutes from now. We consciously ignore this question…….we literally “whistle past the graveyard”.

So, again, barring an unplanned catastrophy, how much time do we have?

It depends.

The child is too busy having fun. The young adult finds the question irrelevant because the amount of time is so large……and besides……they have plans. The 68 year old avoids the question because the years are so short and there are so few of them left. I just bought a new truck……it has occurred to me that this could be my last new truck. I sometimes start a project and wonder if I will have enough time to finish it.

And then there is eternity…….an idea that is so huge that we simple cannot wrap our brains around it. As a Christian, the ideas of eternity, paradise, and hell are very real and are closely intertwined. But, even for a secular humanist, eternity exists. The difference is that, as a Christian, I believe that I will actively participate in eternity……..the secular humanist believes that he will not. I will dismiss, for the time being, the secular humanist who has created his own “designer paradise”. This is a pleasant distraction………but it is intellectually dishonest. Either the Christian or the secular humanist must be wrong. There is no comfortable, middle of the road, compromise. Christianity and secular humanism are mutually exclusive……..like it or not.

We all accept the existence of eternity……one way or another. So we return to the original question.

“How much time do I have left?”

It turns out that the child and the young adult are wrong. In the face of eternity……a year in our temporal world is the blink of an eye……..and so is my life………and so is yours. I will die…….soon……..and so will you. You may not accept this now………but you will……if and when you are 68…………and that will happen before you know it.

15 years from now, I and most of the people my age will be dead.

The answer……whether you are 8, 28, or 68……is that you don’t have much time left.

What to do?

Time in our temporal world is precious. Use it wisely. You have a limited number of minutes to use……and any minute that you spend angry is wasted…….lost forever. Any minute you spent in front of a TV is almost as bad. Instead, spend your time…….your minutes……….your life……. loving and caring for God and your fellow man.

This is the central theme of the Bible.

Time in eternity is far different. I cannot say that I understand it……but time as we know it will probably not exist. It will be neither linear nor circular. But, I know one thing……..it will be big. It might be very nice…..it might be very unpleasant……. it might even be a black empty void if the secular humanist is right. But, one way or another, you need to prepare yourself.

Of course…….if you are a secular humanist and you are right, you needn’t concern yourself, you won’t be there.

But I will.

And more than anything else……I want you to join me.

you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

James, NIV

Show me, Lord, my life’s end
    and the number of my days;
    let me know how fleeting my life is.
You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
    the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
    even those who seem secure.

David, NIV

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Solomon, NIV

Image someone coming to you and offering you something of great value. All they ask for in return is that you love and honor them. Seems like a great deal.

This is Christianity in a nutshell.

So…….how do you explain the fact that about half of us reject the offer outright? Then, about half of those who nominally accept the offer do so half heartedly………they accept the gift….but shut the giver up in a tiny corner of their life. They check the box for an hour on Sunday……..or worse, only on Easter and Christmas Eve.

That is pretty much the case with Christianity.

Why do so many of us resist God’s offer?

What is it about the offer that is so terrifying?

Some will say that science and history don’t support Christianity. They don’t want to look foolish…..or naive. But, realistically, science and history don’t support secular humanism either…..science has no answer to the really big questions: “what caused the big bang?” or “how did life begin?” or “how does a new species form?” or “how did we shift from asexual reproduction to sexual reproduction…….among others. Science is a foil that we use to keep God at a distance. The source of our fear must be somewhere else.

I believe that the reason that so many people embrace secular humanism……….even among nominal Christians………is that Christianity terrifies them.

I have always been a nominal Christian. But, for decades, if you judged me by the way I ran my life, I was a practicing secular humanist. During that time I dated a serious Christian woman and one day my lukewarm “secular” faith came up in conversion. She said, “what are you afraid of……that God will ask you to do something that you don’t want to do?” Afraid didn’t come close……I was terrified. I dropped her like a bad habit.

And that brings me around to the topic of this post. I believe that the thing that terrifies people the most about serious Christianity is change.

We like our life just the way it is. We are comfortable and we are afraid of being nudged out of our comfort zone. We have no use for a belief system that will disturb the status quo…….that will disrupt the way we operate. We want to be in charge. We ask ourselves……what if God tells me to sell my stuff, take a plane to Nicaragua and wait for further instructions?

Well……here it comes.

There is one thing that you can count on…….and that is that becoming a serious Christian will change you.

The change will be big and it will be permanent. All of your friends will notice. Some may even drop you.

There it is.

But……… what will that change look like?

It probably won’t be a “vacation” in Nicaragua. When God asks you to do something…….it will be something you are good at. After all he created you for a reason and gave you the skills that you posses for a reason. You will never be more satisfied than when you are using the talent that you have been given for the purpose that it was intended……….by the guy who made you. I promise you that this is true.

Rather….

You will be expected to love and care for your fellow man.

You will love and honor your creator.

You will be asked to live your life in a fashion that will make God happy…….and that will make you happy.

You will ultimately give up some things:

Lying, stealing, murder, disrespecting your parents, extramarital sex, jealousy, working on Sunday.

Relax……you can ease into this. You don’t have to be perfect…….not today…….not tomorrow……. not ever. But, you will find yourself trying to improve.

And the result of that change will be the peace and the joy that comes from being in the relationship that you were created to be in………..that comes from being the person whom you were created to be……..the son or daughter of a king.

Christianity will change you into a better version of yourself………….into a better spouse/parent………. into a better friend for the people around you………into a better child of your creator…………into a happier version of yourself.

That change is good. It’s good for the rest of us. But, it is especially good for you.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!

Paul. NIV

“I am making everything new !”

God, NIV

Hypocrisy.

The hallmark of hypocrisy is inconsistency. We talk a good game……..but then we go and do something else.

This is a charge often leveled at Christians by non-Christians. They say that we don’t practice what we preach.

It is also a foil often used by non-Christians to avoid dealing with Christianity. They say that they would be hypocrites to accept Christianity…….and the promise of paradise…….. after having lived the way they have lived. They have a vision of paradise that they just don’t fit into (clouds, harps, halos, etc).

So…….first, let me get one thing out there in the open.

I am a hypocrite.

I say we should love our fellow man……but it is a rare day when I don’t fail to do this at least once.

Will I make it to paradise?…….. probably…….me and whole crowd of people like me. The simple truth is that paradise is going to be crawling with hypocrites…….people who recognize Jesus but have often failed to follow his command to love one another.

Even worse, hell will probably have a lower percentage of hypocrites than paradise. Imagine a sociopathic serial rapist. His philosophy of life is to take whatever he wants and to do whatever he wants with no regard for others. There is not a whiff of hypocrisy there.

And that brings me to a couple of common misconceptions:

Paradise is a place where you will be rewarded for your good behavior. Nope…… paradise is a place where you will be rewarded for recognizing and honoring Jesus’ sacrifice for you……..in spite of your behavior.

Hell is a place where you will be punished for your misbehavior. Nope……..hell is a place where you will be isolated from the love of your creator. This is its worst feature……..but hardly its only bad attribute. Yes…….the coffee will probably be cold. I won’t dwell on the details……but I can promise you this…….you do not want to end up there.

So…….I am a hypocrite. I try to root it out of my life…..but I fail…….every day.

And I’m on way to a very nice place where I will spend forever with a bunch of other hypocrites.

If you are a Christian……..and a hypocrite…….. I’ll see you there. We will sit down someday in a quiet little cafe and wonder at the incredible gift that we have been given……by a creator who loves us in a way that we simply cannot comprehend.

If you are a non-Christian…….if the way you run your life is completely intellectually consistent……..my hope is that someday you too will become a hypocrite.

I’ll save you a seat.

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

Paul, NIV

I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

John, NIV

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

Paul, NIV

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

Paul, NIV

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

Paul, NIV

This week a song has been on my mind. It is the most beautiful, the most powerful………and the saddest song that I have ever heard.

“I Dreamed a Dream”…….performed by Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables.

The central lyric is:

“But there are dreams that cannot be…….and there are storms we cannot weather”

It is a song about disappointment……..a song about life taking a turn that wasn’t part of your dream…….your plan.

It is very easy to get angry when your plan falls apart.

But, there are two things to consider:

It was your plan that fell apart…….. perhaps God’s plan was different from your plan.

God loves you and and has a plan for your good…..his plan.

So……when the wheels come off. When the future that you had planned…….the future that you were counting on……….suddenly evaporates.

Remember those two things.

Because God will take care of you.

Because God loves you.

And all he asks………is that you return his love.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul. NIV

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

God, NIV

I’ve been running this blog for a few years now. I keep wondering when my well of ideas is going to dry up. Sometimes, the post is a bit weak, but over all I still have things to say.

This week, I thought I’d explore my motivation. I’ll try to be honest…….both with myself and with you. We’ll both do better if my goals are out in the open.

First off all……who am I?

In order of importance:

I am a Christian.

I am a husband, father, and grandfather.

I am looking for the truth…….even if it hurts.

I am an intellectual and a bit of a philosopher. I try hard to use solid logic to move from one idea to the next.

In general, I am a social and fiscal conservative…….you probably guessed. I try to limit the politics in my posts, though sometimes it creeps in.

What do I believe?

I believe that we were created by an intelligent being and put here. This amazing world is no accident.

I believe that the creator put us here for a purpose and has expectations of us………and plans for us………..though I often have trouble clearly identifying those expectations.

I believe that the creator’s primary expectation is that we will love him and love each other.

I believe that there is a world outside of our physical, temporal world and that world is our true home. It is where we belong……..and we will spend eternity there. It is timeless……. eternal. It is divided into a very nice place and a place that is terrible.

I believe that we will ultimately return to that eternal world where we will be permanently sorted between the nice place, paradise, and the terrible place, hell.

I believe that the sorting will hinge on the grace of the creator, Jesus. It will be determined not by the good and the bad that we have done; but, rather by the fact that we recognize Jesus and honor him.

I believe that the great truths that we need to know to live in this temporal world are found in the Bible.

What is my goal with this blog?

I want as many people as possible to join me in paradise.

I don’t want anyone to wind up in hell. I would like for hell to be a quiet, lonely place.

Someday, I want you to sit down with me over a great cup of coffee in a quaint waterfront cafe in paradise.

And if, today, I annoy you in the process, please forgive me.

You can thank me later.

I hear many versions of this.

“Why would a merciful, loving God allow _________(fill in the blank)?

“Why does God allow disease?”

“Why did God allow the Corona virus?”

“Why didn’t God stop the Las Vegas shooter?”

Bad things happen……….if you don’t accept this, you just aren’t paying attention. Sometimes, these bad things are the work of Satan. Sometimes they are the result of a fallible human exercising his free will.

But, sometimes………..they are the work of God. If we look through the Bible, God often allows, or even sets up a tragedy, as the first step in a process that ends well.

Jesus dawdles on the way visit to Lazarus…….who then dies. This sets the stage for one of Jesus’s greatest miracles.

Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers………….leading to his becoming the CEO of Egypt and to his saving the Jewish people.

Paul is unjustly thrown into prison. While there, he writes letters that wind up being a big part of the new testament.

Jesus was tortured and killed………leading to his resurrection and the salvation of hundreds of millions.

In each of these cases………to an observer at the time……..the first step looks bad: Lazarus dies, Joseph is enslaved, Paul is imprisoned, Jesus is murdered. But in each case, God’s “big picture” plan ultimately plays out and the ending is a triumph.

The problem is that you and I are stuck in time……we can’t see the consequences that God is setting up……..down the road. We see step #2 which is painful, but we are blind to step #8 which is the payback.

But God can see it all. He operates outside of the limitations of time. He is the God of step #2……..but he is also the God of step #8.

So……..

When bad things happen, we must not be angry with God.

When bad things happen, we must not reject God.

When something bad happens, we must remember that this may be the first step in a process ………..a process that will culminate in something that we cannot see or understand……… something that is being set into motion by a creator who loves us.

This calls for trust and patience. This calls for trust…..that God loves us and will take care of us……….in the long run. This calls for patience……..that when the smoke clears, we will be taken care of……..because, first and foremost, God loves us.

Because………first and foremost………..God loves us.

He loves me.

He loves you.

“Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

God, NIV

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God, NIV

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Paul, NIV

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    Forever.

David, ESV

I’m a good person.

I truly believe this and I can back it up………with facts and figures.

Sometimes I mess up…….more often than I wish. But for the most part…. I’m good.

You are a good person too…….why else would you be reading this?

I really don’t know any truly bad people. I probably avoid them. But……I only have to watch the news for a few minutes to see that they are out there.

In my heart I tell myself that I am going to paradise and the truly bad people are going to hell. This is very satisfying.

So far so good.

The trouble is……..that this entire stream of logic is untrue.

Why?

Because just about everybody believes that they are good people. Adolph Hitler believed that he wasn’t just good…… he believed that he was great……. possibly messianic.

I want as many people as possible to enter paradise. I want you in paradise. I worry a lot about the ideas that could keep them out……that could keep you out.

So…… what are two most dangerous ideas that could prevent you from reaching paradise?

Deadly idea #1:

There is no paradise. When you die……you are dirt. There are a lot of variants of this idea: secular humanism, Darwinian Evolution, the Goddess within, new age thinking, wicca, etc. If you don’t believe in paradise……an afterlife, then you needn’t read further…….unless you are curious……and I truly hope that you are.

Deadly idea #2:

I’m a good person.

These two ideas will account for the vast majority of people who will miss out on paradise.

Obviously, today I am dealing with deadly idea #2.

I know dozens of people who confidently embrace this idea……..at their peril.

What makes this idea so dangerous?

First off, let me be clear……..being a good person is a good thing. We need more good people. The “good people” whom I know truly are good.

In this temporal world, being a good person is enough. You are truthful, honest, generous, kind. You love and care for the people around you. You contribute to the community. On the occasions when you do something “bad”, you typically have a very good reason……..a justification. But, when you add it all up, the world is a better place because of you.

So far so good.

However, there are several problems.

1. Being good can lead to self satisfaction…….. complacency. If you are already good……why strive to be better?
2. Being good allows you to feel superior to your neighbors who aren’t as good as you. It can lead to judgementalism.
3. There is, at best a weak link between being good and entering paradise……..unless you have devised a paradise of your own……..one that only good people like you can enter. These “home brew” paradises all share one suspicious feature. They allow you to live your life as you please……and still qualify.
4. You cut God out of the equation. Paradise is completely up to you. The people I know who focus on their “goodness” rarely mention God……their creator……..the guy who created paradise in the first place.
5. There is an element of entitlement here. Because I am a good person, I have earned paradise…..I deserve it. God owes it to me. His opinion about my qualifications is………. irrelevant.
6. Once you become comfortable with your “goodness”………and all of your justifications……..it is very easy to look at what God is up to and what he has already done…….and decide that he was wrong……..that he was ” bad”. A lot of people reject God because they believe that they have a better idea as to how things should be run. They are angry about something that God has done………or something that he has allowed to happen.
7. The final result of the “I’m a good person” argument is that you wind up putting yourself at the center of your world…….and shoving God off into a corner……..where he can’t interfere with your plans for today. Where he can’t interfere with your appetites……with your fun.

Here is the truth.

If God created paradise, then God sets up the parameters for admission…….and “goodness”, while important, is not at the top of the list. (More on this later.)

If you set up the parameters for admission to paradise……..(be a good person)………then you are God. No problem……..unless you aren’t……… God that is.

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

Paul, NIV

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

Paul, NIV

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus, NIV

Sounds a little morose.

But, the truth is that we are all going to die.

I once heard it said that the two great adventures of life………are birth and death.

And this raises some very big questions.

Why? Why do we die?

On a very basic level, from the day of our birth, we were built to die. Our very design determines that we must, at some point, die. For many of us, perhaps most of us, the ultimate cause of our death is built into us at birth………high cholesterol, genetic predisposition to cancer, a predilection to risky behavior. In a word……..we are programmed to die. Whether you believe in God or not, it is clear that we are temporary. From the day of our birth, our clock is ticking.

When? When will I die?

When we are young, we kid ourselves. We have big plans. We are powerful. We are “the captains of our fate”. In a word…….we are……..immortal. We are too important……to our family, to our friends, to our job, to the community……..to die. And yet we do. Time is slippery stuff. How long a period of time is depends on your perspective. When you are waiting for something life altering to happen, a minute can be a very long time. When you look at the history of the earth, a lifetime is the blink of an eye. The short answer……..I will die soon…… too soon.

There are other questions……..what will it be like?…….will I suffer?……..what about my family and friends? For now I will skip ahead to the overarching question.

What does it all mean…….life, death, eternity?

And here we encounter the great dichotomy. I have often said that there are two great religions in the world……. intelligent design and Darwinian evolution………..the big plan and the big accident.

If you believe in Darwin, the “big accident”, then you can argue that there is no overarching universal “meaning”. Instead, there are lots of little meanings. And the best part is that you can assign any value that you want to any of them. So can I. Life means my spouse…….. my child…….the environment…….my job……..my stuff……my politics…….my rights……..my freedom. The conflict that arises between the values that we place on these different “meanings” accounts for most of the rancor in our public conversation. I think it is safe to say that Darwin is the dominant religion in daily life in America today……..even among those who identify publicly as Christians.

If you believe in intelligent design, things get much simpler, but in many ways much harder. Along with the idea of intelligent design……you get a designer. It is possible that the designer created all of this and then lost interest and wandered off to new projects…….but that seems unlikely. If that is the case then we are on our own and we are back to no universal “meaning”. I think it more likely that the designer created all of this as part of an ongoing plan of his. And the meaning of life…….the meaning of my life…….hinges on that plan…….his plan……..not mine.

I am a Christian. I choose the Bible as my moral code because it is the most widely accepted moral code on the planet and because there is enough evidence to convince me that it is valid. There are a lot of details in the bible and it is easy to get lost in the detail. Here are the broad strokes of the designer’s plan……… God’s plan.

Love God

Love your neighbor

Act on this love daily

There is absolute right and absolute wrong. But, this is determined by the creator……not by you……not by me. There are some gray areas but not nearly as many as you might think. To sort between right and wrong…….you must study the source material…….the Bible.

There is an existence beyond this temporal life. Death is not the end.

The creator loves you and wants you to succeed……on an eternal time frame……..on his playing field……….using his set of rules………a set of rules that he created for the sole purpose of leading you to success…….to happiness………on an eternal time frame.

But, what does success look like? This is critical. Because, in the final analysis, the meaning of life is determined by the definition of that success.

You succeed in life by approaching the designer…….your creator……God.

This bears repeating.

You succeed in life by growing closer to your creator…… God.

In essence, the meaning of life is to grow your relationship with God. After all, you will spend most of your time…….your eternity……..dealing with him.

Or you can ignore him…….deny him……..but, if you do……..you had better be right. Because, if you deny God, you will spend eternity separated from the love and joy of your creator.

And that is a good working definition of hell.

“The graveyards are full of indispencible people.”
Charles DeGaul

“Nobody Gets out alive.”
Jim Morrison

God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death ’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away .”

John, NIV

God gives us several promises. The one that stands out for me is the promise that everything is going to be OK……in the future.

The key to this idea is the distinction between the end…….and the future. The end implies that everything stops. For most of us death is our definition of the end. The Bible doesn’t use the term “the end” very much. When it does it refers to the end of our temporal world and by implication, the beginning of God’s timeless world. God’s timeless world will have no end. The term “the future” covers both the remainder of our temporal world and the endless non-temporal world of God…….paradise. “The end” is an idea that is limited to our world. It will not have any meaning in paradise.

The heart of the Bible is the business of surviving our time in this broken time constrained world until the end…….and doing so in such a way that we can reach and enjoy the timeless, endless future that follows.

The old testament is, in essence, God’s attempt to teach us how to live in such a way that we can reach him……..reach paradise. Because that is what he wants from us. That is all he wants from us.

It didn’t work.

The new testament is God’s “plan B”. It is a workaround that will allow God to populate paradise in spite of our failure to run his world the way he wants it run. I guess that God is patient too.

The world we live in is not paradise…….you probably guessed. Paradise is somewhere in the future……after “the end”. The trouble is that we have to wait. And that calls for patience on our part. You and I have to survive dealing with all of the broken stuff……. all of the broken people who come our way every day. In the final analysis, we have only two jobs to do in this broken temporal world.

Love God…….and that includes Jesus.

Love the broken people who come into our lives……every last one of them.

It is not going to be easy to keep loving when we are confronted by pain, loss, disappointment, rebellion, evil………..and even death.

But, we have to keep doing those two jobs until the day we die……until the day when we transition from “the end” to “the future”…………..until we reach paradise.

And that is a good working definition of patience.

I wait for you, O LORD; you will answer, O Lord my God.

David, NIV

“you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

The angel Gabriel, NIV

You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus, NIV

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God, NIV