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The Harsh Reality of Hell

The past week has seen a lot of discussion about hell on Christian blogs. Rob Bell, of the Nooma video fame, has a book coming out at the end of March called Love Wins. Justin Taylor, in response to the blurb from the publisher and the promo video from Bell, asks whether this book will show Bell to be a universalist. Universalism is the belief that in the end all people will be saved and – if there is a hell – it will be empty. Critics of Taylor say that he can’t make a call on the book before it has even been released! Yet I think that Kevin DeYoung makes a good case for Taylor’s initial response. // Read more from Tim Challies.

I don’t know what Rob Bell believes about hell. I pray that he isn’t a universalist.

This week I’ve been thinking about the harsh reality of hell. I believe that hell exists because I trust what Jesus says is true. We’re currently studying Matthew 8-12 at church. It’s shocking to see how often Jesus mentions hell in Matthew’s Gospel.

This weekend I preached on Matthew 10:24-42. Check out this verse:

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JC and the Cool Gang

The Weekend Australian Magazine featured an article on the relationship between Christianity and “cool” in Australia. Basically it’s about a variety of Gen Y peeps that don’t fit the Ned Flanders (or any other traditional understanding) template of a Christian. These guys and girls are cool and yet unashamed to be into Jesus.

It includes some interesting comments on the decline in mainline denominations.

The highlight for me were the quotes from Mark Sayers on the danger of crafting a “cool” Jesus and the drift towards man-centred theology:

“When, in their quest to remain relevant to young people, churches begin to turn him into a cool Australian, latte-loving guy who hangs out with his surfboard and is cool with everything we do… kids will come [to church] because they are attracted to that. But then they discover they’re not going to be turned into a superstar and they read the Bible and they discover Jesus dies at the end.”

Along with a consumerist ideology in which ‘cool’ is the motivating force, Sayers says another dominant culture factor troubling the church is the triumph of the self-help movement, which preaches a message that life should be about self-fulfilment, not suffering.

“So the quest for salvation has been replaced by the quest for wellbeing. And the danger is Christianity will end up looking like the empire of Oprah, in which God is a sort of cosmic butler who delivers things for us… We need to return to a biblical world view that grapples with suffering, rather than avoids or denies it, and that recognises that man is not the focus. God is. And that God is not going to transform you into this buff entrepreneur with a beautiful wife. There is a much deeper reality than that.”

Go read the article and let me know what you think.

One of the things I love about Christianity is that you don’t have to be cool to follow Jesus. I love seeing awkward, uncool people (me?? you?? haha) that don’t fit in anywhere else, accepted and included into the people of God.

We’ve got to keep calling all people (cool or otherwise!) to make counter-cultural commitments in response to the gospel of Jesus – we don’t just fit Jesus around the cool stuff in our lives, but Jesus is to shape all of life!

(h/t Mark Sayers for the heads-up on the article)

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Time for some nuance between the gay and the god-fearing

John Dickson has written a great article for ABC Unleashed arguing for a more nuanced discussion about homosexuality. It’s reasonable, intelligent and well-argued.

I think this is an important issue to be discussing and appreciate Dickson’s input. Christians have to work hard at not being jerks in how we speak.

Here’s another recent article from Michael Jensen on the issue.

EDIT: Here’s a great quote from Dickson:

There is a failure of ethical imagination here, an inability to utilise two mental muscles at the same time: the muscle of strong conviction and the muscle of compassion for all. Jesus was the master of this ethical exploit. Open the Gospel of Luke at chapter 13 and you’ll hear him condemning certain behaviour and warning of coming judgment. Continue through to chapter 15 and you’ll find him wining and dining with ‘sinners’ – those you might have thought were first in line for judgment – and illustrating the point with a parable about a father’s love for his prodigal son. Keep reading to the end of the story and the point is made with disturbing clarity: so seriously did Jesus take sin that he thought he had to die for it; so seriously did he love sinners, a category in which he placed us all, that he thought he had to die for them. He was able to be morally exacting and deeply compassionate toward the same people at the same time – though it is a sad and undeniable fact that many in the church since have had difficulty emulating the feat.

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Youth Ministry Papers: Don’t Water it Down

I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.

Vegemite is delicious. There wouldn’t be many weeks in my life that I haven’t enjoyed its salty yeasty goodness. Not everyone thinks that Vegemite is delicious. It is definitely an acquired taste, but a taste none-the-less worth acquiring! So I was shocked to recently read that “Kraft has been forced to launch a milder tasting version to woo a new generation of Australians.” My First Vegemite is part of a strategy used by Kraft to “wean people onto the traditional spread, sales of which are flat.” The hope is that as children get older they will graduate onto the heavier stuff. I think it’s a terrible idea.

I also think that sometimes we try and run youth ministry like it is ‘My First Vegemite’. We try and water things down in such a way to make it more palatable for teenagers. A branding expert has suggested that watering down Vegemite actually “robs it of its unique qualities”. That is likewise the problem with watering down the gospel of Jesus for a teenage audience.

Even when “sales are flat”, we continue to preach a message that is full of salt as we declare the “unique qualities” of Jesus.

I’m not saying that contextualisation is a bad thing. It’s a good thing to share the gospel with teenagers in a language that they will understand. It’s appropriate to use cultural artefacts and illustrations from their world to help explain the profound truths of the Bible. The problem though is when we misunderstand relevance. Our job is not to make the message of Jesus relevant for teenagers, rather it is to show how the message of Jesus is already relevant to all people in all places.

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Pinch + Punch // March 2011

I forgot to do a Pinch + Punch post for February. Ah well. It’s now the 3rd of March. Again I forgot to do a Pinch + Punch post. But I’m going to back-date this post to the 1st of March and pretend I wrote it then. Deal? Deal. February was big, and we’re now 1/6 through 2011. Here is the smashing mag desktop wallpaper I’m rocking this month. What about you?

Here’s the best of February (according to clicks) and some other stats:

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This is the end of my street…

I snapped this photo while taking the young fella for a walk this morning. It is the end of my street. It really is an amazing location. Public transport. Cafes. Restaurants. 7-Eleven. Cycle paths. Playgrounds. Patrolled beach. Fruit shop. Schools. Hardware store. Bakery. Lake. People. Church. We don’t presume to live in such a sweet location, but are nonetheless grateful for God’s provision and the generosity of God’s people.

In Ben’s sermon today, he spoke about how the needs are obvious in places where earthquakes, famines, uprisings, poverty and injustice abound. But the needs are less obvious in affluent, comfortable, self-reliant areas like the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Yet there remains a façade hiding the deep spiritual poverty on the Beaches. It really is an area that, despite its affluence and beauty, is full of people who are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

I’m praying for this area from Matthew 9:37-38 – Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (ESV)

I’m also praying that however long we live in this beautiful place that we will be part of the answer to that prayer.

ps – did you stumble here looking for pimpin real estate on sydney’s northern beaches? You’ve got a deeper need than a sweet view and a lazy lifestyle. Find out more about what matters most here, here and here.

pps – the above phone pic is originally from my posterous photo blog. The boomsauce is thanks to the instagram app.