JR. Forasteros - December 7, 2014
The Apocalypse Isn't So Bad
Our culture is pessimistic about where the world is going. And you’d think Christians are just as bad, what with our fire-and-brimstone apocalypse. But the earliest followers of Jesus looked forward to the End. For them, it wasn’t the end of everything, just the end of injustice. So they celebrated that God has been holding off, because every day is one more day for people to find the life God is inviting us all into. And God invites all of us to join in his rescue mission, to speed the coming of the End by living as breathing invitations to escape death and find life!
From Series: "Thrill of Hope"
It seems like everyone's in a competition to "Do Christmas Well" these days. From party after party to non-stop shopping for all those perfect gifts to endless feasts, we don't feel like we can stop. But Advent teaches us that to do Christmas well, we have to learn to wait. And waiting is not something we are very good at. Learning to wait well is the key to doing Christmas well. And it's very good news! In this series, we'll learn that waiting brings back the thrill of hope!
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When I was in high school, a friend of mine invited me to play Dungeons and Dragons. This was exciting to me for a couple of reasons: first, I am and was a huge nerd, so D&D had always been something I wanted to check out. And second, I didn’t have a lot of friends in high school, so this invite was exciting to me!
There was only one problem: I was a child of the 80s, which means I grew up during the so-called “Satanic panic” when America was convinced there were covens of Satanists behind every rock and tree. D&D was alleged to be one of their primary recruiting tools. So my mom was not thrilled that I would be summoning demons with my friends so that we could sell our souls to the Dark Lord.
I’ll spoil the ending: she eventually relented, and my friends and I played D&D for several months straight and no one ever even saw Satan.
We certainly weren’t interested in selling our souls.
But even today, in many churches, bring up D&D and people who wouldn’t know a d20 from a d10 are convinced that D&D is a tool of Satan, along with rock n roll music, high school dances, and a host of other activities.
Which begs the question: really? And, in light of our last series about asking better questions, “Are those the right places to be looking for the devil?”
Today, we’re going to see the answer to that last question is, “No. Actually, if you want to find Satan, you might want to start by looking at religion. Because according to Jesus, one of Satan’s favorite tools is not D&D, but the kind of religion that shields us from looking closely at ourselves.
There’s a way to be religious that keeps us from being honest about our sin, so it actually keeps us from God.
The good news, though, is that Jesus offers to shine the light of truth on our satanic deception, freeing us to follow him into God’s life!
