On the Other Hand

Had the huge blessing of sitting with two friends for lunch yesterday. One I see regularly and the other one I see about once a year because he lives outside the state. I remembered a lunch like this almost 15 years ago where God put hope in our hearts for a special project. What we had never came together as we wanted. It fell apart quickly due to some people who lied and created problems. And yet, God's ultimate plan played out very differently. He's still in charge, and I trust Him. So, even though I felt a wave of sadness wash over me, I also realized I'll spend eternity with these two because of our shared deep faith in Jesus Christ. That is a blessing and a promise from God that no one can take. On the other hand, rejecting Jesus' offer of eternal life to all who would believe in Him and live for him... well, it results in eternal destruction and agony and separation from Jesus for eternity. Yes, I'm talking Hell. As far as heaven goes, Jesus speaks several times of both heaven and hell being real places. Heaven is the physical destination for those that love and follow Jesus until the end, and Hell is the physical destination for people that reject him and the offer of eternal life he made for every person that would choose to believe in him and follow him. Many of his parables also point to it. 

Matthew Chapter 25 says a lot about Hell, particularly the last 15 verses or so. In the book of John, Chapter 14, Jesus says, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me". In context of everything else he said, that means we have to choose to believe He is god, died for our sin because we are all separated from God, and was raised from the dead after being crucified. He says if we believe that, then Heaven will be our home after we die.

The Bible says, "And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment". (Hebrews 9:27) No second chances. You've got to make up your mind about what you believe before you're dead.