Hell No!
She was laid up in St. Josephs, wedded to a morphine pump and an oxygen tank. This was not to be.
Sara was a high profile commercial real-estate lawyer in New York City, making money hand over fist. Success came with a significant price tag – long hours, weekends for stellar clients, exacting precision in hammering out huge contracts. She was respected as a smooth-as-silk and tough-as-nails negotiator. Dr. Wagner was at the top of her game, had the world at her feet – until into her life – to end it all – came cancer.
She was down to her last minute. Breathing was labored. Her parents and her brother were at her bedside. Her chest heaved for one last time, and then the heart monitor went flat.
But Sara was regaining consciousness.
How long it took for her to survey her surroundings, she did not know. Angry shouting, high-pitched wailing in a twilight world were her first impressions.
Could this be? Was it true? Was this hell?
The Doctrine of Hell
“Of all the doctrines of Christianity, hell is the most difficult to defend, the most burdensome to bear, and the first to be abandoned,” writes Professor Peter Kreeft of Boston College.
We all struggle with the doctrine of hell. Despite how difficult the notion of hell is, we don’t abandon it.
Mark Galli, the editor of Christianity Today, writes,
“If it was left up to me, I would probably eliminate hell from our vocabulary because it does present seemingly insurmountable problems. But Jesus does talk about it as a reality, and he doesn’t seem to have any doubts about it.”
Jesus Spoke About Hell
Indeed, Jesus spoke unflinchingly about the reality of hell. In fact, Jesus speaks more often of hell than he does of heaven.
In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, we hear Jesus referencing Abraham as he speaks to the rich man. Notice in contrast to Lazarus who is named and lying in the arms of Abraham and “the rich man,” who has no name.
He refers to “a great chasm has been set in place so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” (Luke 16: 26). Eternal separation from God and His goodness is hell.
A Game-Changer
In football, an interception can be of such magnitude that it becomes a game-changer.
If, as many religious sociologists would contend, that 80 percent of Americans are non-professing, non-believing, non-Christians, then those like Sara who are on their way to hell are literally within reach of the local church. What we need is a game-changer.
MyLife-Workshop is a game-changer! It intercepts people on their downward trajectory away from God and in connecting them with Christ.
What makes MyLife-Workshop so useful like a life vest thrown to the drowning?
It is a course that is relevant to the secular person because it taps into their lives (predicated on narcissism). MyLife-Workshop is a pain-based approach to evangelism, which means that it is the emotion that leads to cognition that leads to faith. As such, it is holistic.
MyLife-Workshop is interactive, allowing participants to openly share their dreams and disappointments with one another. It is not a cookie-cutter course, with questions posed that lead to predetermined answers. The self-discovery and the developmental aspect of the course serve to make each participant’s MyLife-Map unique to them – and to the beauty of the gospel for them.
And, because MyLife-Workshop is powerpoint driven, it is easy to use, especially for those us who are not great communicators or do not have the gift of evangelism
As a church leader, Jesus is building his body through you, “and the gates of hell cannot stand against it (Matt 16:16). With MyLife-Workshop, you have a tool that can be a game-changer for people like Sara.