Tuesday; October 25

The other day I was a part of a “Question And Answer” session in a Bible Class. Now, before you ask if I have lost my mind, we didn’t take live questions from the audience, we asked that they submit them beforehand so we could be prepared. One question submitted was “What happens in hell?”. When I first thought about the question, I reflected on the obvious biblical references, including a response from one of Jesus’ parables, “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels …” (Matthew 25:41). While this sounds bad enough, I also got to thinking about another layer of hell – it is the place separated from God. Imagine, if you would, the worst and most dangerous place in the world filled with opportunists and evil people who believe in survival of the meanest. They do what they want and have no conscience nor any redeeming value. Yet, there is one more layer – there is no hope for rescue or redemption. Without God’s protection or regulation imposed by a concern for His values, they continue to torment people. At the heart of this evil is satan who hates God and His creation! That doesn’t sound like much fun, does it? As I thought about it, the fear of living for an eternity being abused by absolute evil is as scary as suffering in the heat of an eternal fire. I realize this detailed description isn’t found in the biblical text, but I do know a couple of things. First, I cannot fully imagine what hell will be like and, second, I do know that I don’t want to be there!

The good news is that as long as we have breath in this life we can repent of our evil ways and set our sights on heaven. Are you certain of your eternal future? If not, is it worth the risk of ending up in hell?

Think About It!

Popular posts from this blog

Thursday; May 3

I have a fish tank that allows my three Bettas (Larry, Darrell and Darrell) to live in the same structure, but remain hidden from each other – well sort of.   When I go to feed the fish, I believe that one of the Darrell’s can sort of see that the other Darrell is getting fed and he will linger over on that side of the tank even after I put his food in his tank.   I have to tap on the side of the tank where his food is floating to help him refocus and eat.   I get the impression that he is so interested in what is going on in the other Darrell’s tank that he can’t enjoy his own food. I have been told that the brain of a fish is pretty small – which explains their inability to process “blessings”, but are we guilty of the same malady as Darrell?   Are we so worried (or consumed) by what happens to the people around us that we fail to realize what is going on with us?   Are we envious of the blessings that others are receiving and end up missing out on what we have been given?   Are w
Read more

Thursday; February 14

         While most of us are familiar with today being Valentine’s Day, there are some who actually refer to February 14 th as “St. Valentine’s Day”.  This title is often affixed to a criminally historic event known as “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” on February 14, 1929 in Chicago, but that is another story for another time.  Not knowing much about the history of “Saint Valentine” I did a little research and found out he was a Roman religious leader who was martyred in 269 AD.  According to my limited research Valentine was killed because of his encouragement of Roman men (especially soldiers) to marry which was in violation of Claudias’ edict that prohibited marriage to keep their minds singularly focused on their task of defending the Empire.  Somehow, from this beginning – and possibly embellished by Chaucer – St. Valentine became intertwined with the concept of romantic love.           I am not really sure how February 14 th became connected with love, but inspired by thi
Read more

Wednesday; December 6

What does it mean to be a leader? I subscribe to the belief that a leader is someone who seeks the best for others and works with them to achieve their potential. There are others; however, who define leadership as the ability to have a vision and the tenacity to get their own way. Leaders who are this way are often portrayed as having developed the maturity to manipulate people to do things their way. However, is the ability to drive people in our direction mature or is it childish? The Christians of the 1st Century came from a lot of different backgrounds and had to work hard to work together. As the Apostle Paul challenged Christians in the city of Ephesus he challenged them to accept individual differences, “… until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. “ (Ephesians 4:13). Bossiness was not to be viewed as a sign of maturity, a willingness to wo
Read more