Here and Now

I often preach about the problem of abstract faith.  This is the idea that faith is something undefinable - it's kinda like believing in something that's kinda different from knowing something with an element of trust in there and maybe kinda more a heart thing than a head thing... Well, I don't know what that is, but it isn't the faith the Bible talks about.  That almost makes it sound as if what we have faith in may or may not be real, but who cares!  No.  The faith the Bible talks about is a faith based on what actually is - not what may or may not be.  It is a faith that is sure because the object of that faith - Jesus Christ - is as sure as it gets.   Can I get an Amen? However, there is a different kind of abstract faith that affects us as believers in Christ.  It is that faith that believes in Christ - believes in what the Bible says about Him and what it means for us - but that is abstract because we believe these things in principle but not in practice .

Last week, a long-time acquaintance - a good friend of a good friend - died.  Without giving all the details, we'll just say that years of wrong living and abusing his own body caught up with him.  In the wake of his death, my friend asked me about the after life.  This friend of mine is a believer, though relatively new.  He wanted to know where our friend's spirit was now. The issue is that between his Roman Catholic heritage, much popular misunderstanding of what the Bible says - and doesn't say - about what happens after physical death, along with the influence of modern spiritism, he was unsure of what happens to a person - including an unbeliever, like his friend - when they die.  Is he in hell?  Does his spirit linger on earth?  Does he have a chance to get into heaven? It is sad, indeed, when someone dies and you cannot give those he left behind any assurance that they are "in a better place."  And the truth is that the Bible doesn't give a whole l