First on that list is Angelia Jolie. Here is the description of her efforts:
The list actually under reports the things that she does.Cause: Helping refugees, disaster victims, orphans. Jolie, 31, began work with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Sierra Leone in 2001, the year she became a goodwill ambassador. She has put her time, influence and millions of dollars into helping people in Sudan, Chad and Thailand.
Impact: She donates one-third of her income to charity, and her three adopted children—Maddox, Zahara and Pax—are examples of her continuing commitment to helping those in need.
This gets me to my question about heaven.
I am absolutely convinced about several things. I am convinced of every word of the Nicene Creed. I believe in the virgin birth, I believe Jesus sat in the temple as a boy and amazed the rabbis with his knowledge of God. I believe in everything from turning water into wine to his death, resurrection, and ascension. I believe he will one day reappear. I believe those things.
But as certainly as I believe those things I also believe - by necessity, not by choice - other things, scary things, intimidating things. I believe, for instance, that Jesus' words at the end of the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel are true:
31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
Those words should absolutely terrify every person who purports to follow Jesus. Every person who has uttered any words that they want their lives to be about following Jesus must come face to face with those words. Because in those words Jesus does not say, "If you say 'I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior' you will enter heaven." No, Jesus throws the eternal curve ball. Jesus says faith must mean something serious and sacrificial when it comes to helping those who are sick and imprisoned and hurting and THAT matters when it comes to that final question of who gets into heaven.
Now, what about Jim Dobson? What about me? I feel like my chances are the worst of all. Despite all of the political things that Jim Dobson has done that I so fundamentally disagree with there is also the reality that he started a ministry called Focus on the Family that - when it was actually focused on the family - did (and still does) great things to help people. Millions of families have benefited from his advice and counsel about raising kids. He is encouraging adoption. He has done much. Again, I want to emphasize that I am NOT pronouncing spiritual judgment about any individual - rather I am using his life and Jolie's life as examples.
Me? I don't know. I knew someone once who said that his career goal was to get into heaven. I didn't really understand it at the time. I thought it was kind of glib or cute. I think I get it now. I think I get more and more every day that getting to heaven is something that requires effort, not just something that can be taken for granted. No one "deserves" heaven. But the more I look at Jesus' standards the more convinced I am that I think I am the least deserving - at least between Angelina and Jim. I am working to change that.
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I too don't believe in hell. I too have a child and cannot imagine any action that they can do, even if one child were to murder another of my own child, which would want me to send the murdering child into unending, unredeemable hell. No way.
I can imagine, that in the worst circumstance of all - in an circumstance where one child of mine, murders another child of mine, brutally and horribly, that I would only think, where have I gone wrong? If I could only have another chance. If I could only give both my children another chance. And regret that I do not have that power. So, if I were to believe in a loving God, I must believe in a God that will love His children as much as I love mine. And I must believe that God will find a way to ensure that all his children will end up safe and in happiness with him. And if I were to believe in a God as a supreme power, then I must believe that God is not hostage to word games which may be played by reading the bible.
The essence of an infinite, loving, all powerful God cannot be distilled a bunch of words, translated several times and open to any manner of interpretation. I believe that any interpretation of the bible that conflicts with the essense of god's infinite and great love, cannot be the correct meaning.
And yes, if I must choose a view that somehow, the evil must be punished, then I'd rather believe that God sends them back to earth to suffer the same mistakes till they learn and move on. Reincarnation, anyone??? As for Ms Jolie's alleged adultery ... Jesus said, of a woman caught inflagrante delicto, "judge not". In Ms Jolie's case, there is even more reason not to judge, or should you seek to judge, to reach a finding of NOT GUILTY. After all, there is no evidence. No one in this wretched triangle, not even the ex wife (and her best friends), believes adultery took place.
Jake, I answered you in the other blog. Jude, James, John and Peter squared off against the gay crowd 2000-years ago. The neologisms aside, these men faced the same kinds of poeple in their day as we Christians face today. It was no secret that Nero attempted a sex change operation on his male wife. And it was no secret that Nero and the "Romans" hated Christians for their moral stance against same-sex sex. Or, what we 21st century folks have dubbed GLBT culture. Now after we set aside the non-negotiables of homosexuality and abortion as not somthing Christians can promote, we can see that they did deal with marriages, slavery and foods. Oh and Angelina? I thought we were not supposed to judge people?
But then again, is that what Jesus "really" said? It appears His sentence did not end there. The New Testament is not an difficult read.
While it is certain that "faith without works is dead", it's equally certain that works without faith are dead.
There's a basic backdrop we have to keep in mind when we interpret anything going on in the world -- that anyone who is in sin (which, is everyone, of course), is an enemy of God. We are against him while we are not in the condition of not having *believed* that Jesus is the Son of God, slain for the sin of the world, and while we have not repented of our sin and turned towards the good works *out of thankful faith to our God, who saves*. This is Satan's great ploy: that he tries to convince the world that the deeds that are *coincidental* with God's good works are from God. That is, our enemy -- who ranges like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may kill and destroy -- wants to convince us of either fallacy: that we can believe without *active work* and that is sufficient to please God; or that working good works without *explicit faith* is sufficient to please God. In short, God does not require good works from us (as though he needed anything from us), nor is he "satisfied" by a confession of faith. Instead, what he wants is that we accomplish His good will on this earth *out of gratitude for, and modeled after, his saving grace and work for us*.
I don't follow celebrities, so I don't really know anything about Angelina Jolie (except that she adopted some kid or something), but if she has not seen herself in the bright light of the Truth of God as a wretched sinner slated for destruction, and if she has not seen the goodness of God as he demonstrated his love for us, and if she has not felt the exceeding glad lightness that comes when the weight of the knowledge of one's sin is lifted, then no amount of good works are pleasing to God. They must be *out of a thankful heart* that is grateful to God for salvation from Jesus.
Sir Robert, perhaps I misunderstand you. I don't believe God needs our praise, or our gratitude, no more than I require praise or gratitude from my 1 year old child. God's love is freely given, without expectation of any return or acknowledgement. Anything else is conditional and therefore, necessarily imperfect. I believe we can be christ-like without being Christians. I believe God doesn't care whether we are "christians" or not so long as we behave in a christ-like way.
you can not get into heaven by doing good works only and you are not suppose to brag about them. One should be humble. You needed to accept God as your personal savior, have apersonal relationship with Him and study his word on a daily basis!!! God is the number one person in a chritstian's life. You honor him daily. I feel sorryi for those of you who do not understand this. It's all about God. He is our creator. Give Him glory not people like Angelian jolie. Jim Dobson is a far better Christian than she is and he doesn't brag about his works.
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