Pastor Craig's ConSpiritu Blog

I have enjoyed the following joke for years: Jesus and Satan have a discussion as to who is the better programmer. This goes on for a few hours until they come to an agreement to hold a contest, with God as the judge.  They sit themselves at their computers and begin. They type furiously, lines of code streaming up the screen, for several hours straight. Seconds before the end of the competition, a bolt of lightning strikes, taking out the electricity. Moments later, the power is restored, and God announces that the contest is over.  He asks Satan to show what he has come up with. Satan is visibly upset, and cries, "I have nothing. I lost it all when the power went out."  "Very well, then," says God, "let us see if Jesus fared any better."  Jesus enters a command, and the screen comes to life in vivid display, the voices of an angelic choir pour forth from the speakers. Satan is astonished.  He stutters, "B-b-but how? I lost everything, yet Jesus...

The title for this week’s sermon comes from a quote that I encountered somewhere: “Jesus did not come to get you into heaven. Jesus came to get heaven into you.” It is hard to determine who first came up with this quote, and many variations of it are circulating on the Internet. Some of these include the following: "Jesus not only died on the cross to get you out of Hell and into Heaven, but to get God out of Heaven into YOU;" "the authentic Christian life is not merely getting into Heaven – its getting Heaven into you;" "The purpose of religion -- at any rate, the Christian religion -- is not to get you into heaven, but to get heaven into you" (from Frederick Kates). However it might be phrased, it is a point well-taken. A careful review of the New Testament reveals that most of the times Jesus talks about heaven, it is in comments such as “Heaven is in the midst of (or within) you” or “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospe...