Animate: Week 4

Salvation | Abundant Life Now • Shane Hipps
The cross of Christ stands as a symbol of God’s saving work. But what, exactly, does it mean to be saved? From what? For what? Is salvation a reward we claim at death or something meant to change our lives right now? For Shane Hipps, these are the questions we need to answer if we are to truly receive the release that comes with salvation in the here and now.

I’m grateful for all of you and our wonderful conversation this morning. In case you wanted to see the information about Hellbound?, you can find out more information on their website here, and you can watch the movie trailer below. I’m planning on taking the College Group to the showing on October 17th and staying for the Q&A afterwards.

It was wonderful to hear your thoughts on salvation this morning. It’s definitely something that can stir up a lot of thoughts (both good and bad) for people, and so I appreciated your willingness to share them.

I think for me, a lot of what Shane talked about in terms of salvation being in the HERE and NOW as opposed to being something we just think about for later or then…a lot of that plays in very nicely with this idea of being saved versus saved as a one-time decision.

And for many of us, we can probably relate to both of those two ideas co-existing in our own spiritual lives. For me, I can look back on a moment (or perhaps two) where I think I might have been able to say, I experienced “salvation” or “I was saved.” But it certainly wasn’t a one-time deal for me. There were continually moments, sign posts along the journey, where I’ve had more and more of those moments, where it really does become a process, a journey, of salvation.

One thing I like to do sometimes, is to do a Google search for a word, but look at the Image results. I just did that with “salvation” – there are about 69,200,000 images results: here are a few of the ones that came up in the top 30 results.

This is kind of a typical understanding of “salvation” I think. Probably one that many of us don’t really connect with. We’re on one side of a chasm, and the only way to get over to the other side and be “saved” is by accepting/receiving Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior…after that, everything is okay – because we’re on the “right side” of the chasm.

This one is for a kid’s curriculum, and is the “list of things” that need to happen for a child before they can be baptized…wow! That’s a lot of pressure for a child to have to have faith, believe, pray, repent and confess…all before they’re able to baptized…obviously, a much different understanding of baptism than we have in the Presbyterian church. So, I’m not sure if for these people you must get to “baptism” before they would say you’re fully “saved” or not, but…again, an interesting take on salvation.

This image connects with me a bit better – and seems to be more like what Shane was talking about, especially in terms of the idea of a rope becoming undone, or something inside us being “loosened.” I can imagine Shane doing this after his conversation and prayer with his father from his story. It appears that this person is ready to receive something…maybe that is salvation, putting ourselves in places and postures ready to receive God’s blessings and gifts?

I like this one the best. It really does portray to me the idea of the journey – of setting out on a quest…

Which image do you connect with? Do your own Google Search, and post a link to a photo that speaks to you or resonates with you when you think about salvation.

In the end, I wonder how we would all answer that question from the end of the video. If the 25,500 days are really the entree, and not the appetizer, if we can experience the kingdom of God and salvation in the here and now…and not wait for the afterlife (whatever that might be)…how does that change the way we live? How does that change the way we treat others? How does that change the way we look at our lives, the ways we encounter God? Does it?