Heaven and Hell

Yesterday morning I was hanging the clothes on the line (it was a deceptively day – the rain came with no warning!) and was thinking of and praying for salvation for loved ones. As I mulled over the topic I realised that people who have a view of ‘being good enough’ to get into Heaven, must have an extremely mediocre view of Heaven. If all it takes is looking after an ill parent, being kind to the poor, small children and animals, working hard in your job, but also allows for you to be selfish, hold a grudge, break the law, lie, commit adultery, be self indulgent and racist, then .....Heaven must be just like earth (just without the people you hold grudges against, because of course they don’t deserve to be there). At the same time their view of Hell would be just as much of an illusion. Spending time with friends, being debaucherous, giving Satan (dressed appropriately in his red spandex) high fives.... it’s distressing to realise that there is such a great extent of indifference in the hearts and minds of those who don’t know Christ. Hell is a frightening place. The rejection of God has serious consequences – it isn’t “eternal death” it’s “eternal separation from God”. Death implies the end, whereas eternal separation implies all things opposite to God – darkness, loneliness, torture, fear, confusion, forever and ever and ever. I praise God for the hope which I have been blessed to have in Him. There are some excellent sermons from this year’s Resolved conference on Heaven and Hell. The website is www.resolved.org look for the 2008 messages. It is such a blessed reminder of what we as believers look forward to!