Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever lived. One of Jesus' techniques was to relate spiritual ideas to common everyday life. Pensamientos (afterthought) is an attempt to follow Jesus' method of teaching. Its title is in Spanish because we recognize the importance of multi-culturalism. We hope to translate some of these messages into Spanish soon.

Pensamientos para hoy (afterthought for today)

In from the cold

We hear a lot about global warming these days. Some people claim that the earth's atmosphere is warming due to carbon and other so-called "green house" gasses. These people blame pollution caused by humans for causing the earth to warm up. Yet, even if the earth's temperature is warming, there are still some very cold places on the planet. The lowest temperatures are found in Antarctica. Since Antarctica receives very little direct sunlight it remains at an average temperature of about minus 35º F. Antarctica's summer temperatures usually stay about zero degrees. In the winter the temperatures often get down to 70º below. The coldest temperatures in Antarctica were recorded in 1983 at the Russian Base Vostok where the thermometer dropped to minus 129º F.¹

But Antarctica is not the only cold place on earth. Some places in Siberia get down to minus 100º F. Other frigid places are a Russia, Greenland, the Yukon, and Canada. Some places in these areas often have winter temperatures of minus 80º F or less. The coldest place in the United States is at Prospect Creek, Alaska. Temperatures at Prospect Creek average 79.8 degrees below zero. The coldest city in the continental U.S. is International Falls, Minnesota where winter temperatures can often get twenty to thirty degrees below zero.²

Interestingly cold often is associated with evil. Hank Williams sings his lovesick song about his girl friend's "cold, cold heart." And the singer in the rock group "Foreigner" complains that his girlfriend is "as cold as ice." And of course we're all familiar with Batman's evil enemy the mad scientist Dr. Freeze. But probably the most famous reference to evil in ice is in Dante's "Inferno". In this story about a voyage through Hell Dante depicts the lowest level of Hell as a frozen place of ice. The reason Hell is a place of ice is because the cold and ice symbolically portray a place far removed from God's love and warmth. Those in Hell are so far away from the warmth of God's loving presence that they are frozen in ice. A more modern day illustration of cold being evil is in C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia" where the White Witch has turned the land of Narnia into a dreadful land of ice, snow, and terror.

In all these examples cold and ice is put in contrast with love and warmth and in the case of Dante's "Inferno" and Lewis' frozen Narnia the cold and ice is in contrast with God's loving warmth. The Bible also speaks of cold being contrasted with love. Jesus warns us that in the last days: "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold (Matthew 24:12)." ³ Job says that "the light of the wicked goes out, and the flame of his fire gives no light (Job 18:5)."

Fortunately we can all come out of the cold. We can heat our homes and buildings and find a warm and comfortable place to rest from the cold. But how do we heat up our hearts and warm up our love? First of all, the Bible says: "If two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? (Ecclesiastes 4:11)" If we apply this concept to our spiritual lives, then we can warm up our hearts through Christian fellowship and warm our souls through fellowship with God. Second, we can warm up our love, if we live according to God's laws. The relationship between fellowship and warmth is simple--we gain warmth from the heat of other loving and caring people. But what is the relationship between living by God's law and having love? The answer is that when we live apart from God's laws, we live apart from him, but when we live according to God's law, we live with him. Jesus says, "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love (John 15:10)." A body that is alive is warm. A body that is dead is cold. So too our love for God and love for others will be warm and alive, if we live within God's laws, but our love for God and love for others will be cold and dead, if we live outside of and apart from God's laws. So come in out of the cold. Follow God's commandments, and let him fill you with his loving warmth today. Then don't try to stay warm by yourself. Find a good church where you can enjoy the warmth and comfort of a loving and caring fellowship and learn to live in God's love each and every day.

Seeking the warmth of God's love,

Pastor Steve