Reading from Saturday, July 24

Oof - it's been a long week. With Jill out of town the past three nights, I have not only missed her, but I have also missed her functioning as my sleepy-time barometer. She usually goes to bed earlier that I do, which is when I do most of my blogging, but with her not sleeping next to me, I stay up all late (like 1 or 2) reading or playing video games or blogging. She comes home tonight, and it will be nice to get some rest and just to be with her.

Yay - Bible time.

Reading for July 24
2 Chronicles 11:1-13:22
Buh - boring.

This section gets into the history of Solomon's son, Rehoboam who was now king of Judah - and his confusingly named counterpart, Jeroboam was king of Israel.

There were some battles. There was some Grace of God. There was some anger of God.

Then Abijah succeeded Rehoboam as king of Judah.

That's...about it.

Romans 8:26-39
This is an incredibly hopeful section of text. There is a bit of talk about how God predestined certain people to be his followers - which at first brings up the point - why not make everyone followers? But then it doesn't say that he made them followers, he just set them on the course for it to occur. I think the answer as to why he didn't set others on that course was because he wanted his predestined folks to be able to share the love they experience with people who have not experienced it yet.

There is also a big paragraph on this idea: regardless of who we are or what we've done, there is nothing that can separate you from the love of Jesus. I've often heard the word "unconditional" attached to the front of "love" when speaking of God's love. I have yet to see that specific phrase in the Bible, but Paul basically encapsulates it here. Saying that God will love us, even if we don't love him back, even if we turn away for the rest of our life, God will love us.

When I was in high school, a girl from our youth group committed suicide. I didn't know her that well but she was very much loved by many people in the church and in the youth group. A few days after her funeral, our youth pastor got us all together to talk through what had happened. I found out later that one of the biggest concerns shared by the majority of the group was the fate of this girl's soul. Catholics believe that suicide is something that will damn one's soul to hell, because you can't confess that sin before dying. In the Protestant church, which is where I was at the time, there isn't as much of an emphasis on confession, that being said, most of us were still worried about where this girl would be "ending up" so to speak.

After we all sat down, our pastor began speaking and talked for a while and we all shared stories about the girl and what we remembered about her. I wanted to ask the question that was on everyone's mind, but since I was only acquaintances with the girl, I didn't feel right doing so. For a while, it seemed like no one felt right asking anything at all. Then, finally, right at the end of our time together, someone asked the question directly: "Since she committed suicide, does that mean she's going to hell?"

Our pastor let the question hang in the air for a moment. A few people started softly crying. Then, to our tight-knit group of about 15 high school students who were all crammed into the first two rows of the massive sanctuary, our pastor responded only by quoting this verse from Romans, his deep voice echoing off the tall, vaulted ceiling:

³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither 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.

We all sat for a moment, quietly. Absorbing this idea of God's relentlessly endless love. After a moment our pastor prayed for all of us. He said amen and we all quietly walked out of the back door.

Personally, I don't know what I believe about Heaven and Hell. I haven't read enough about either of them to make a fair assessment. But that night, after letting the crisp, fall air fill my lungs outside of the church, I knew the girl who we all missed was with God.

Psalm 18:37-50
 ⁵⁰ He gives his king great victories;
       he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed,
       to David and his descendants forever.

It's interesting to see that middle line there: "unfailing kindness to his anointed", meaning his unconditional love was extremely conditional. Now look at what kind of love we receive - nothing we do, nothing anyone else does, nothing even the devil does can keep God from loving us.

That appreciation of the ease in my faith just grew that much more.

Proverbs 19:27-29
 ²⁷ Stop listening to instruction, my son,
       and you will stray from the words of knowledge.
 ²⁸ A corrupt witness mocks at justice,
       and the mouth of the wicked gulps down evil.
 ²⁹ Penalties are prepared for mockers,
       and beatings for the backs of fools.

And it's bedtime. Goodnight, kids.