It is almost a crime...
Illustration
It is almost a crime against Christ, the tendency to narrow the meaning of the biblical word "salvation" to life after death. The term means so much more than that -- being healed, made whole, rescued, delivered! Salvation is a wide ocean of possibilities of God's goodness and gifts, but too often we have restricted it to only a single distant portage. In effect, we have suggested that salvation happens only after we die. When we do that, then Paul's words, "now is the day of salvation," sound strangely like a theological death knell. Thus we may hold back, hoping that salvation comes at some remote time. As one blessing puts it: "May the Lord find favor with you -- but not too soon." S"ren Kierkegaard once told the story of an immense vestibule with two doors. Over one door the sign reads, "Heaven." Over the other door the sign reads, "Lecture on Heaven." Guess which one Kierkegaard said the people were flocking through?
-- Bristow
-- Bristow
