The Bible Study Podcast, episode 270. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues with part four on a study of the kingdom of God.

Welcome to the Bible study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. This is part four in the study of the kingdom of God. We've looked at there being different kingdoms. We've looked at the authority of Jesus. We're going to go back and look at another verse in Mark that we skipped over last week. And this is Mark chapter 9, verse 47. And this is one of those difficult sayings of Jesus.

If anyone causes one of these little ones, those who believe in me, to stumble, it would be

better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the

kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where the worms that

eat them do not die and the fire is not quenched. And I say that's Mark 9, verses 42 through 48.

These aren't difficult sayings. I had someone ask me in the Bible study that I teach at Juvenile

Hall, did the Bible really mean this? Did Jesus really mean this as he says this? And I think he does.

I think he is really trying to say, honestly, if your hand causes you to stumble, it is better.

I mean, which of these things is better? Is it better to be one-handed in

heaven or two-handed in hell? And it's a difficult choice. Have you read the autobiography or

seen the movie between a rock and a hard place? The film is 127 hours. It's the story of Aaron

Ralston, and Aaron Ralston was a cannoneer who was out doing boulders, dislodged a boulder.

It fell on his arm, and he was pinned there for five days and seven hours, and he finally came to the realization that if he was going to survive, he needed to cut off his own arm.

He needed to amputate his own arm to live to get out of the situation that no one was going to find him.

We look at that movie or we read that book and we go, there is a very difficult choice.

There's a situation I never want to find myself in.

But we look at this response as a logical or heroic response because it didn't make sense for him to say, I want to

preserve my arm and die. And this is the same thing that Jesus is talking about. If there's something that is keeping us from the

kingdom of God, if there's something that is holding us back, that is dragging us down to hell,

and this is one of those few verses in the Bible where Jesus uses a very vivid definition of

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