I used to hear people talking about partying in hell with Satan but that is not how Jesus described it. He told a story of a rich man who didn’t care for anyone but himself. A man named Lazarus was a poor man begging at the gate to the man’s home but he never received anything. One day, the rich man died and was buried. Lazarus died and was taken by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. While there, the rich man called out to Abraham to ask for a drop of water to cool his tongue. No parties, no joy, no meeting with friends in hell, just punishment and pain. Abraham told him that there was a chasm between them that was there to keep anyone from crossing from the place of torment to paradise or from paradise to them.
God didn’t make hell to punish people. It was created to punish Satan and those who rebelled against God by not accepting Jesus as their Savior. That is the key to staying out of hell…believing in Jesus as your Savior. No amount of money or works will do it. Life doesn’t suck bad enough to waste your time following things that will lead you astray. But many people think that it does. Some even take their lives over trivial things that, in the long run, don’t matter all that much. I know there are veterans and drug addicts who take their lives because of the “demons” that they are living with but Jesus can fix those problems too if you will let Him.
God loves all of mankind not just one nation or a few people. Jesus died for all of us but there are so many who just refuse to believe this. It is spelled out in the Gospel but so many people won’t read it or they look at God’s Word like it is just some book written long ago and it isn’t relevant for our time. God knows each of us better than we know ourselves and when you think that the Creator of the entire universe even considers individuals on our little speck of dust, that is amazing!
We have trouble believing this but if you have given your heart to Jesus, it is easy to live this way because the Holy Spirit lives inside you. He will give you the strength and the ability to live your life this way and to forgive those who have hurt you in the past. Seek to know Jesus as your Savior because hell is the punishment that never ends and it wasn’t made for you.
This is a core value of a Christian and their life in Jesus. When a Christian applies it to their daily life it separates church goers from disciples of Christ. Why should there be a difference? Because, people who go to church, regularly or not, are hearers of the Word but many don’t live that way. There are many who have heard many sermons during their lifetime but their life doesn’t reflect Him. It’s like a car that goes to the station for gas once a week. They get filled on Sunday and then try to run on that for a week or more. Their life and even their heart doesn’t show the transformative power of the sermon or of God’s Word.
I know that we aren’t supposed to judge people and I’m really not doing that. It’s just that there are certain things which show up in the life of a believer after they have given their life to Christ and for many “church goers” those changes aren’t there.
God’s one requirement for all of us, especially believers, is obedience. The Ten Commandments are a prime example of what all of us should be trying to follow in our lives daily. So many believers try to do this and many of us fall short. We let anger and frustration get in the way of our walk with Jesus. We let family squabbles get in the way too. Life is too short to allow things like arguments or hurt feelings get in the way of our walk with Jesus. It happens, but if you truly belong to Jesus, you are forgiven and can claim forgiveness from those sins, big or small.
There are so many things that are happening all over the world. In Asia, America, Israel and everywhere it seems, there is so much happening everywhere and the world seems to be ignoring a lot of it. Even the floods that happened in North Carolina have been ignored now that fires have destroyed so much of California. In North Carolina there were many houses destroyed and thousands who died but after a couple of weeks, this “news story” was pushed aside.
Why do the networks push aside stories so quickly? Likely because the new stories are more interesting, some because they are in California and near Hollywood. Flooding in the mountains of North Carolina doesn’t grab people’s attention like fires burning through cities in California.
These are just a couple of the news stories out there but you can tell how the news is decided. Why am I bringing this up on my website? Because there are many millions of Christians who are being tortured and killed in countries that don’t like Christians and we never hear about it either. We are living at the “end of the age”, the Church age, and life is getting harder to understand. Much of what we see depicted as “normal” today is not normal at all. God’s Word tells us that the world around us would become more like the world was when Noah built the Ark before the floods and it has become that way.
Read the sixth chapter of Genesis and then the 24th chapter of Matthew. The Lord describes much of what is happening today and He does it from 2,000 years ago. He is God the Son after all. My point is that we should be looking into eternity and where we will spend it. If you believe in Jesus as your Savior then your eternal home will be in Heaven. If you refuse to believe in Him for your Salvation and think that you can work your way into Heaven, your eternal home will be in hell. Take your pick.
The Creator is bigger than your problems and small enough to fit in your heart. He has stretched out the heavens with His hands and according to the James Webb telescope, the universe is approximately 93 billion light-years across. WOW! That is BIG! God is bigger!
When God calls each of us to be His children, the Holy Spirit creates a new creation in us so that we will become more like Jesus. Your salvation is a process and it begins with your repentance and acceptance of Jesus into your heart. Then you have to study the Bible and learn more about this Savior Who wants to live in your heart and change your life. Some of us actually read the Bible and learn more about Him, some of us just go to church for a little while and learn as little as possible.
If you are in a relationship, marriage or covenant, don’t you want to know your partner or your Savior as well as you can? The best way to learn about Jesus is to read the Bible and study it. Going to church for an hour or less every week is not enough to learn about Him. Your salvation doesn’t depend on your attending church but your faith will grow along with your knowledge of Him that you gain.
When you feel His call in your life, don’t turn away from Him.
The Living Message of Christ 