Notice that Job only talks about punishment for the deceased's children, "What do they care what happens to their families after they're safely tucked away in the grave?" Hell doesn't even come up.
I believe my step-dad, Steve, is with God now in heaven. However, his family (my mom and his two daughters) are being torn apart by the girls' greed. My mom and Steve never got married, although they've been together for the past two decades. As the only two legitimate heirs, my step-sisters want more than the 1/3 their dad provided for them in his will. Five days after what would have been their 20th anniversary, my mom has to go to court in order to keep her house and car. She is currently unemployed.
Through trials and testing, we are being shaped into the kind of people that God can work with in this age and the age to come. Others, who we would like to call "wicked" (and not in a good way) are hell-bent on turning away from God and seeing only what's in it for them.
We talked about temptation again last night. While we may be tempted to cash in on things in this brief life, we know that we are actually preparing for eternity with God in his kingdom, which is coming to earth.
It is the child the Father loves that he disciplines. The word disciple comes from the root word discipline or teaching. Jesus came to earth to save us from greed and pride, prejudice and hate, certainly. But he also came to show up how to connect to the Father and live this life of being molded into a God person in the world.
Please join us for worship on Sunday and Soup, Song, Story, and Sacrament in the vestry from 6:30-8 pm on Wednesday. We'll be talking about why God needs a church.
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