Hell Know

So what is it? Hell yes? Or hell no? Or hell know?  “Hell know” seems to be what the Spirit is saying to us at this time… it would seem He wants to share with us more light and more truth for our journey. A journey that can be eternal. He has after all “set eternity in our hearts.”

Our culture loves movies. So share “Hell and Mr. Fudge” with your family and friends. Encourage them also to read the book “Heaven Is For Real.” Make it your practice to meditate on eternity as Paul tells us to do in 2 Corinthians 4:18.

But let us, with Jesus and Paul “keep the main thing the main thing.” Let’s FOCUS. It’s so very important in our distracted times! Paul in I Corinthians 2:2 says, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Jesus in John 12:32 says, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me.” Again Paul in Philippians 3:10 says, “...that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering ....”

So, we see that hell isn’t the main thing. Jesus Christ is the main thing, and the path to eternal life. So as we look at hell, eternity, ethics, history, church,… any number of things in the Bible for guidance on how we should live our lives, let’s remember to focus on Jesus’s life and words. It’s okay to look at these other things for sure, and indeed we should. But let’s remind ourselves, and each other frequently, that it’s about Jesus Christ who is “the Author and Finisher of our faith.” It’s “In him we live and and move and have our being.” And it pleased the Father to give Him the keys to the kingdom.

Know him. Serve him. Love him. Obey him. Over time you will come to know Him as His personality by the Spirit is being formed in you. I can’t say it clearly enough or strongly  enough? Keep Christ central in your heart, in your thinking, in your life.

Back to the topic of hell.  Are you defending what the Bible says, or the traditions of men? Or defending the teaching of the church? Do you in fact need to defend either? Or simply be a martyr (witness) to what you’ve seen and do believe? Perhaps to just bloom were God has planted you?

The answer to that question is profound and will change the way you think, act, and live.

It’s an ancient question really,”What does the Lord require of you O man?” 

Recorded in Micah 6:8, the Father’s answer is “to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”

The Son’s answer was akin to that, yet a fuller revelation, as he gave us “the great commandment” and “the great commission.”

Augustine who was the most important theologian during the first 1000 years of church history wrote his views about hell and eternal punishment in Book 21 of his monumental  work, ”The City of God.”  Yet Augustine himself once urged: “Do not follow my writings as Holy Scripture. When you find in Holy Scripture anything you did not believe before, believe it without doubt; in my writings, you should hold nothing for certain.” So always, and foremost, go back to the Bible, and go with the Bible.

Does the Bible teach that man has an immortal soul? Or does the Bible teach that man has a mortal soul? I recommend you try reading the Bible with both sets of glasses. See which set of glasses seems clearer or cogent with the whole counsel of Scripture on the punishment of the wicked, eternity, and the after life. May the Lord lead you into all truth, as He’s promised to do for those who seek Him. And please remember to keep Jesus your main focus in these days and and all your days. May you know him and be known by him. Amen.

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:8–12)

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                   Look forward to seeing you at Life Group this Wednesday, Sep 30, 6:30 pm at 1108 Adelaide, Fort Smith... Bring your questions, thoughts, yourselves, and a friend if you like! :) 

                   Our topic for discussion will be "What does the Bible teach about hell?" Focusing on the movie we saw last week, "Hell & Mr. Fudge." Should be interesting!

[Photos taken yesterday on the journey back from Dad's home in Harrison. Life is a journey. Let's slow down to enjoy it, with the top down, and to make sure we consider what is truly important. The words and life of Jesus... the narrow way that leads to eternal life, with Him. :)]

“Hell” Yes

“It’s not what I don’t understand about the Bible that bothers me, it’s what I do understand.” Mark Twain

This excellent quote by one of America’s greatest minds should be true for all people and all times, but especially for us in our humanistic, materialistic day. 

That’s the importance of this discussion at this time. It’s not “What is the exact truth about hell from the Bible?” although that would be good to know. It’s this:  is the Bible relevant to your life? Is God relevant? What he says? What he has done and shown us historically? What he says about the afterlife? Eternity? How relevant is all that to your thinking? And consequently, to how you live your life?

Or has life’s pace and our materialistic culture caused all of that in fact to be removed from your focus? Does it have any practical bearing on your life and actions? Stated another way,  “Are you living like here and now is all there is?”

If that is the case, whether you’ve chosen that path intentionally or been duped into it by our culture and the spirit of our age, like a frog coming to a boil in water,  consider this statement by a young agnostic friend of mine, Michael: “If I’m wrong, the consequences are significant.”

After we have a look at what the Bible says about hell, I don’t really care which view you hold. It’s enough that you know there are two views, both differently held by very bright, truth-seeking theologians through 2000 years of church history. And that you examine the evidence for yourself, along the way learning a little bit about how we study our Bibles to learn truth. And about the God Who reveals truth.

The most important outcome of our look at this is our focus on eternity, the Bible, and Jesus.

If we approach it humbly as I believe Edward Fudge has done, it will make us better witnesses of Christ and his kingdom, as we share our faith and knowledge of truth from the Bible with others.

We will know Jesus better. We will know Christ better. He will be more completely formed in us. And it’s “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27

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                   Look forward to seeing you at Life Group this Wednesday, Sep 30, 6:30 pm at 1108 Adelaide, Fort Smith... Bring your questions, thoughts, yourselves, and a friend if you like! :) 

                   Our topic for discussion will be "What does the Bible teach about hell?" Focusing on the movie we saw last week, "Hell & Mr. Fudge" Should be interesting!

[Photos taken as I drove across town from men's meeting this morning. :) Seemed apropos :)]

Contemplating Eternity

Greetings, 

We had a lively home group meeting Wednesday around the movie, "Hell & Mr. Fudge." Thanks to all who came and participated. After a short time of introduction and house keeping, we had a time of prayer for friends in and out of our group. Then after the film, complete with popcorn and refreshments (Thanks Elizabeth!), a few had children to fetch, but most stayed and contributed many excellent thoughts, questions, and insights from the movie and subject matter. It's going to be lively next week as we conclude our discussion of this topic and move to the next!

Please remember your thoughts and bring them next week for discussion by the group. You'll have more time to think things through for new thoughts and insights too. If any of you would like to borrow any of the resources pictured below, email or text me and I'll get them to you. Also please bring any Scripture references you feel are pertinent to the topic of discussion or related topics and we'll certainly examine those, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal insights and truth as we go. 

I wrote this article I'll add to the mix, and hope to write other insights this week. Please feel free to email me your insights too, if you would like me to share them with the group via this blog before next week! And check out the links at the bottom of the last blog article, because they are very germane to the discussion.

Blessings and Thanks Again for your presence and participation!

Love in Him,

Dwayne

WHAT THE HELL?

Recently I sent out an email to a few close friends, who I also consider theologians and Bible scholars with "What the Hell?" in the subject line. I also sent my son a copy because we discuss Bible issues from time to time.

I immediately received an email from my son saying, "Who are you, and what have you done with my dad?" One of the other addressees responded, "I think your email account has been hacked!" :)

Actually what had happened was this. At a local coffee shop after a men's meeting at a sister church, I met a 75 year old man who had come to faith at the age of 70! Very unusual, but even more unusual was that he had read through the Bible five times in the last five years. He had my attention. He brought up the topic of hell for some reason, and told me what he believed (something akin to what is called universalism), and asked nodding his head, "That is what you believe isn't it?" I smiled at him and replied, "Not at all." Then I looked at a close friend with years of Bible study under his belt who was listening to our conversation and said, "Is that what you believe Tom?" He smiled and shook his head "no." It was time to go, so I determined to take the conversation up with my new, older friend later at a time and place of the Spirit's choosing.

The following week, my friend who shook his head "no" brought me a DVD of a 2012 movie entitled, Hell and Mr. Fudge. It was well done, and based on a true story about a Bible student who was hired by a Canadian businessman to study for a whole year what the Bible and church say about hell, and write up the results.

I've become infatuated with Edward Fudge, his story, and his research on hell. But perhaps moreso by the way he approaches the Bible, the people of God, and the people of the world. Humbly, lovingly, and honestly. For these reasons and more that will come to light, I have suggested that our life group give it a look and make it our topic for discussion for a couple weeks.

This we will do starting this Wednesday night, 6:30pm, at the Bell patio by watching the movie, after a time of fellowship, sharing and prayer. A short time of sharing your immediate thoughts will follow the 90-minute movie, and we'll finish on time for those needing to pick up children at the church.

Hope to see you there!         Dwayne

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Interested in the movie, click here.

To view the trailer, click here.

To view Fudge's summary book on the subject, click here.

To understand the debate between traditionalist and conditionalist, from another web source, click here.

DVD from Amazon, click here.

For a very short summary of the debate from a very young guy, click here! :)

For a Jewish perspective, click here.

BACK IN THE SADDLE

Perhaps life group wasn't the most exciting spiritually last night, as we decided to switch gears on the fly, and watch the presidential debates together on the patio big screen. The coming election is very important to actively participate in and pray about. That was Dr. Stan's point.

Seems like it's always a little challenging at the beginning of a thing to get your focus set and get momentum, but we're definitely "back in the saddle again," and I expect things to pick up and get exciting as we all participate with prayer, presence, and engage with the subject matter, each other, each week. :)

Stan gave us a little overview of the Book of Hebrews main point: the centrality and Person of Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, King of Creation, King of all. We pray that will be a focus of what we do and experience this fall: "keeping the main thing, the main thing -- Jesus."

Stan had us read the following Scriptures from different translations and comment on them: Col 2:9-10, Col 1:16-20, and Eph 1:19-23. Seeing that Christ is the "Head over everything," he began reading Hebrews 1:1-4. Please read and mediate on this revelation from Holy Scripture. If you get it, it's a game changer for your life and times. All life, and all times.

Before we prayed and watched the debate together, Stan read two verses from Matthew that had stood out to him this week. I'll end this first home group report with that!


“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18)


“... and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:20)

Stan Speaks

Dwayne invited us to share something we have done or intend to do to “guard our souls”.  This past Monday night Patty and I went to CCF to the weekly prayer gathering.  I did not really feel like going, and had a bigtime case of the “Blahs” all day long.  I just felt cruddy.  Not physically, but mentally and emotionally.....just “blah”.

I thought I would just make an appearance...show my face...and then leave early.  Andy and Michelle led in worship.  I felt like I got a huge spiritual drink from the Living Well.  I did not pray out loud, nor felt compelled to.  I just sat and “drank”.  It was just what I needed.  I sensed the Lord giving me just what I needed—which  reminds me that our relationship with him is not rubber stamped—it is very personal and individualized.  I was so glad that I went and that I did not talk myself out of going (why do we do that so often???)

If you have not gone to Monday night prayer, I suggest you go a couple of times....Just set that time aside for the Lord to minister to your heart and soul.

                                                                                                        Stan

COMING THIS FALL!

TOPICS!

SURVEY SAYS...

As mentioned in the first post, we asked each of you to fill out a survey ranking the suggestions of topics for the fall from 1-8 as they most interested you.  The results indicated the following, with three of the topics being very, very close in score.

[1] Hell and Mr. Fudge - How we look at truth and study the Word. New insights about hell.

[2] Verse by verse study of the Book of Hebrews.

[3] Deeper spiritual life - How to foster it, spiritual disciplines and methods, past practitioners

[4] Alpha Course / Sharing your faith - personal sharing of our faith in friendships and the workplace

[5] Persecuted Church - How Christians are being persecuted around the world and at home, response

[6] Gifts of the Spirit - Biblical and practical look at tongues and the gifts of the Spirit, interactive

[7] Contemporary Cultural Issues - Homosexuality, etc., How to live and share truth in our time

[8] Gary MacDonald Course - Withdrawn, it doesn't lend itself to the time frame of our meetings

Because Dwayne's out of town this Wednesday, Stan will introduce and lead our first discussion on Hebrews. Please read the first few chapters and bring your Bibles, ready to read and discuss, take notes and learn. 

We will intersperse Hebrews throughout our times together this fall. We probably will begin a consecutive two session discussion of "Hell and Mr. Fudge" the following Wednesday, September 23rd. Stay tuned to this blog each week to know the topic at hand. Of course there will be the usual time for fellowship, and praying for needs in addition to the topical study at hand.

Come to the Bell's home, 1108 Adelaide, this Wednesday, September 16th, @ 6:30 p.m. to discuss and learn what the Book of Hebrews has to say to us in our day.

Welcome to the Bell home and to the Udouj/Bell Life Group 2015!

Our first meeting this fall was last Wednesday, September 9th, and we had seventeen in attendance! Most of our regular family was there, except Chad & Amy, who were in Boston, and we had several folks join us for the first time. Thanks to all who came and participated.

We discussed what material and format to use this fall, and took a survey of the topics mentioned at our summer social gathering. I'll get to the results of those surveys in a moment.

Dr. Stan led us in a brief discussion of something that had been on his mind, Proverbs 22:5.

     In the path of the wicked lies thorns and snares, but the who guards his   

         soul stays far from them.

He asked us the question, "What are you doing to guard your soul?" What follows is a list I copied from what different folks shared.

[1] No TV or very little

[2] Slay three dragons every day (a) Get up! (2) Get some physical exercise. (3) Spend some quiet time in the Word, in prayer, or in mediation.

[3] Attend a men's meeting 2 or 3 times a week

[4] Get with a friend for fellowship and sharing life issues

[5] Read the Word

[6] Pray, Pray for others

[7] Journal

[8] Eliminate "Hurry"

[9] Be quick to forgive, let there be no root of bitterness

[10] Keep good, correct attitudes

[11] Focus on the Author and Perfecter of our faith

[12] Careful to intake good things and keep out bad things

[13] Confess your sins to another

[14] Have someone you share with

I invite you to respond with something you've done this week to "guard your soul." Or something you're going to do this week and fall. It was mentioned, "You have to be intentional!" Write your idea or plan down, share it with a friend, these are ways to make it happen. Pray for the Holy Spirit to help you, remind you, and empower you. Godspeed in this cause in this season of your lives.

Please respond someway and often to this blog, or it won't be very helpful or exciting. It's for sharing thoughts, what you've heard, or commenting on what we are discussing or learning as we consider the different topics this fall, and just live life together. Thanks!

Dwayne