who is in

Someone asked me to write more about who is "in" and who is "out."

For centuries, some Christians have reveled in insisting that they were in and others were out.  They were going to heaven and others were going to hell.  We like to be right and we like others to be wrong.  How sad is that!

Let's stop here for a moment.  The only people that Jesus condemned were the Pharisees.  They were the ones who were saying who was in and who was out.  How sad that in such a short period of time, the Pharisees rise again in the form of any number of religious groups that insist that they are in and others are out, and sadly, they don't see that they have become the Pharisees.

I believe in Jesus and I follow him.  That does not mean that Jews for example are going to hell.  In Mt 8:11 Jesus indicates that people from the east and the west, from other cultures, and Abraham, Issac and Jacob will all be there in heaven.  So never throw out people who are not exactly like you, and for heavens sake, don't count out the Jews.  They are God's chosen.  They are the original tree, we Christians are only grafted in.  See Romans 10 and 11.

We also worry about people that don't know about Jesus.  Will they go to hell?  well, maybe, but that is not up to me and you.  We are not in charge of who goes to heaven or hell.  That is a decision that is in God's hands.  I take much comfort from Romans 1:20 which says,

      For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--      have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

So every person is responsible. Every person is accountable.  God will hold every person with out excuse.  I don't know what that means and it doesn't fit the theology that I was raised on, but they have witnessed him in the things that he has made, and they are without excuse.  This does not absolve us from telling the story of Jesus and his love.  They have not heard the story yet, but they have seen the story via the things that God has made and he holds people accountable for that somehow.

Friends, God's ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  We cannot insist that he follow the exact pattern of our minds.  God alone decides who is in.  It is his job to lead and our job to follow.  Maybe we would do better if we stopped  trying to be the boss and instead lined up to serve him.  Maybe we should stop trying to play the role of creator and take upon ourselves the role of the created.

When we spend our lives measuring and judging others, we don't have time to do what we were created to do, which is to love God and love others.  God knows and God chooses.  We are to LOVE and to live and to do our best to tell the story without judging.  The outcome of a person's eternity is between them and God alone.  Oh, it is so nice to leave all of that in God's hands and oh how that leaves me in peace!

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.