So here we are at the generally sunny Lincolnshire showground at the Christian celebration Grapevine 2010. Fond memories - I was at the first one which was held in what is now the canteen area. Great to see how it's grown.
As always, broad range of speakers and worship leaders plus a great prayer tent, creatively laid out to allow for quiet reflection and less quiet corporate prayer.
To date there's been a definitely Celtic feel to proceedings. Roy Todd is an Irish evangelist who did what he does best on the first evening - inspire our faith ins God who ivolves ordinary people in some extraordinary exploits, and followed that up with a powerful seminar in which we saw some amazing healings. And a good response to his Gospel invitation.
This morning's speaker, Anderew Owens is a Welshman based in Glasgow. He has seen some fantastic answers to pray and shares about encounters with God in a very down to earth, hype-free way. He has a good relationship with local politicians and businessmen to whom he describes himself as a 'social entrepreur.' His job is to improve the lives of individuals and society, the starting point to share about how his faith motives him in all this. His message was about 'the reinvention intervention' how God reinvents people throughout life, sometimes very late in life, to make an impact for the kingdom. Great to hear him say to people in their 50's "Have you thought about what you will do with the next 30 years of your life?" A great affirmation for people our society so often rights off.
Took some this afternoon to join a prayer meeting where about 40 of us met to pray about a range of issues and break bread together. Had some fun at the end with words for a couple of people which they encouragingly described, respectively, as "Spot on" and "Amazing". The best part about sharing revelation with people at event like this is that they will remember the word and have no idea about who shared it. Glory to God alone (!).
Also met some interesting people in the exheibition area. I was particularly impressed with the Street Pastors who serve people coming out of pubs and clubs late on weekend evenings. In Lincoln they've just been given rent-free access to premises by a local business and enjoy funding from the County Council's crime reduction fund. They were interested in our treasure hunting adventures and we'll swap some web references when I get access to my computer again.
And a joy to have me three friends from Mosaic. The trick now is to pace ourselves for the next few days (!).
Whilst life is a multi-faceted
experience, one certainty it carries is that it will end. What hope do Christians have in the face
of the finality of death?
The Old and New Testaments tell us the story of how mankind has wrestled with the reaity and meaning of death. Genesis (3:19) tells us that death is a consequence of our rebellion against God. Ecclesiastes repeatedly asks whether the fact that all die - rich, poor, successful, failures, righteous and unrighteous - makes all human activity ultimately meaningless.
The
Old Testament writers knew that mankind has a physical and spiritual
dimension. They talked about a place called Sheol (Hades in the New
Testament) to describe what happens to human beings in death. One one
level, Sheol was the ground in which dead bodies were buried, on
another the place where departed spirits went. Sometimes they saw it as
a gloomy, shadowy place (Ps 88 12), at others a place where God could
be found. And if God was there, and you had lived in a right way before
him, that couldn’t be a totally bad place (Psalm 139:1-8). Daniel saw a
time - at the end of time - when Sheol would give up its guests to a
final, bodily, resurrection at which a final reckoning - a judgement
- would occur (Daniel 12:1-2).
With the New Testament, much of the mystery and uncertainty of death disappearerd. Jesus didn’t just visit Hades, he went and got the keys to it (Revelation 1:18). The final destination of all people now rests on his decision. Happily for Christinans, once we are united with him through faith, nothing - not even death - can sever that connection. Those who die in Christ go to be with him (Philippians 1:21-24), whilst some even get to visit heaven in this life, and come back to tell about it (Revelation 4 onwards).
When we see Christians die, the New Testament
encourages us to see them as ‘falling asleep’ - even when death is
brought on violently and suddenly (Acts 7:60). From our point of view,
as people left alive, we will all wake up in eternity. From their point
of view, death takes them from one conscious experience of Christ, to
an even more glorious, clearer, and uninhibited experience of him.
So
whilst death brings sadness in this world, its finality and mystery is
destroyed by Jesus’s resurrection. Good Friday assures us that death
takes us into Paradise (Luke 23:43). Easter Sunday shows us, through
Jesus’s resurrected body, that we are not destined to become some kind
of disembodied spooks, but will always have bodies fit for wherever we
are - earth, heaven, or a new heaven and earth (Luke 24). And whilst
today we bid farewell to friends, we look forward to a time when all
sadness, pain, and even death itself will become nothing more than a
distant memory - forever.

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