Heaven and Hell: Transforming Suffering

Sharing a bit of what the Lord is teaching me concerning, transforming suffering and His healing:

In the Hebrew understanding, and in the understanding of the Biblical Christian, ‘hell’ is the absence of other people, solitary confinement in the prison of the self. It is through separation from others that we are separated from God. As it is written,

‘For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.’

and again

‘you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (self-centered nature), so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.’

Can you imagine a persons self-centeredness, their spiritual/physical violence towards others being so arrogantly established and blinded by pride that even after their physical death, the Lord has no compassion on them…the Body and Spirit still retracts even from their very memory? They have lost all image-bearing qualities…their humanity is eternally destroyed. Let us pray, 'God, keep us from the evil one!'

As it is written,

‘I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.’

and again

‘You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.
Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished.
The LORD reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment. ‘

But this is about healing…about transforming suffering…what happens when those we love pass away and we are attacked by grief? Death is a hard thing to deal with. Bereavement forces us in on ourselves. This is why Jesus commands his disciples to mourn with those who mourn. He doesn’t say sugar coat it, pretend its ok, that it’s not painful…death is an enemy.

Now is a good time to talk about the spirit behind the week of ‘shiva’ (means seven- as in days), ‘during which covenant people are visited by neighbors and friends and rarely left alone. This forces us out of ourselves and back into the land of the living. It helps mend the broken bonds of relationship. ‘Shiva’ is a form of reintegration of resurrection (in a metaphorical sense), a radical insistence that it is not in and by ourselves that we are able to restore life, but in the company of others as the Lord himself changes us through the suffering and we find upon the eighth day that our loved one has found a place in the very presence of the King who comes…who was and is and is to come, with Christ…within us and in our midst. We have all been caught up together in the Life. Therefore it is written,

‘we do not mourn as those without hope’

and again

‘Led in with joy and gladness,
they enter the palace of the king.
Your sons will take the place of your fathers;
you will make them princes throughout the land.
I will perpetuate your memory through all generations;
therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.’

and again

‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?’

Proper mourning in Christianity, as in Judaism, is a process of ‘tikkun’, healing the fractures caused by suffering and loss, evil and injustice…healing in the name of Jesus for the glory of our Father.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Tikkun Olam

It was the Jewish hope and it is the Christian hope to be used, as God's elect, "to perfect the world under God's sovereignty." In other words, when all people of the world abandon false gods and recognize YHWY, the world will have been perfected. YHWY is the Alpha and the Omega. The Beginning and the End. The purpose of it all. As Paul says we have been given grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith. To get to Him, there is a Way one must walk, a Life one must lead, a Truth one must manifest in word and deed. We must grow up into the fullness of Messiah. So we answer the call, we submit to His will, we receive His Spirit and we go where he sends us. We bring the good news that God's Kingdom is coming, it has been inaugurated, in Spirit and in Truth, the veil between Heaven and Earth, Creator and Creation has been torn and the two are becoming one. YHWY has summed up his plan for the whole cosmos in Jesus. Fully man, fully God. And so as John says, 'We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know YHWY. And we are in YHWY by being in his Son Jesus the Messiah. YHWY is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." YHWY is the Supreme King of Kings, the one from whom all authority is derived; this is the good testimony that our precious Lamb gave before Pilate, this is what we, as Christians have been grafted into, by the atonement offered to us by YHWY's anointed one, His Messiah, Jesus, whose advent we celebrate in jubilant wonder this Christmas season. Him who came into the world to preach the good news of the Kingdom,to destroy the works of the devil and to do so in and through those who believe in the name of the Father's only begotten Son.


So we exhort one another with the 'Aleinu' celebrating our Father and the privilege we have been afforded by His great love and grace, to serve in beautiful relationship with Him, through Jesus Christ our Lord.



It is our duty to worship the Master of all,

to ascribe greatness to the author of creation,

who has not made us like the nations of the lands

nor placed us like the families of the earth;

who has not made our portion like theirs,

nor our destiny like all their multitudes.

For they worship vanity and emptiness,

and pray to a god who cannot save.

But we bow in worship

and thank the Supreme King of Kings,

the Holy One, Blessed be He,

Who extends the Heavens and establishes the Earth

Whose throne of glory is in the heavens above

and whose power's Presence is in the highest of heights.

He is our God and there is no other,

Truly He is our King and there is none else

as His Word testifies, "You shall know and take to heart this day

that YHWY is God,

in the heavens above

and the earth below, there is no other."


Finally, we remind one another that the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ No! That completely misses the point. What we declare is that 'The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim. Or do you not know that you are God's temple, the place where He dwells in the midst of His people. That by the grace shown you a stream has been placed within you bubbling up to eternal life as the scriptures say 'There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.' and again, 'Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.' and again, 'Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.'

The LORD comes

A woman was asked one time, "Are you secure in your salvation?"

To which she responded..."Well, I wouldn't be much of a Kingdom person if I didn't trust my King."

She got a bit of a blank stare and apparently the response indicated that she needed some clarification as to what was asked. "What I mean is, do you know you are going to heaven when you die?" To which she responded. "I've already died. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

The evangelist, clearly not getting the answer he was looking for, tried again. "When you stand before God and he asks "Why should I let you into Heaven, what will your response be?"...to which the woman stated, "Well, that's a strange question... I stand before God every day and ask Him to let me in on what He's up to...He never says "Why should I let you"...I'm his Child and I've come to Him to hang out, to listen to Him, to learn from Him, to walk with Him in the good works he has prepared for me" and she finished by saying “Haven’t you read in your scriptures that in Him we live and move and have our being?”

In a last ditch effort to get the answer he wanted out of her, He said, “When your body physically dies, what is going to happen to your soul?”

“Well, assuming the Lord doesn’t appear before then…I guess it will do the same thing my body does…it will be at rest with Messiah until the End comes, you know…1 Corinthians 15, Romans 8, Revelation 21 and 22. Or like Peter says of our blessed hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 3…ummm, how does it go…New Heavens and New Earth…oh yeah, ‘Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago…’

Then the evangelist says, “All I am really interested in is if you believe in the name of Jesus or not, our Immanuel?”

“I just told you I do. I trust that YHWY saves…that He is with us. How is it that you think I was able to completely walk away from my own identity to continuously lay my rights down, to look after the poor and widow, to bring healing to the sick and dying?”

The evangelist was frustrated, his peace had left him, “That’s just it, salvation is not based on works! You just say ‘I accept Jesus so I can go to heaven when I die.’ That’s all you have to do! It’s much more simple than you are making it!”

The woman became concerned for her friend and she was filled with the Spirit, placing her hand gently on his shoulder she spoke, “Brother, it’s ok, don’t be afraid.”

“I just don’t know about you.” He said.

Speaking in the Spirit, she said, “Neither did they, but I AM with you and you are known.”

And as she placed her other hand on his other shoulder their eyes met, and there, face to face, the Holy Spirit fell upon him with great power, the demons fled and he saw for the first time… all things had become new, there is a new creation. The Lord comes.