Children of God, Fiery Tongues, and Hell
when i hear the opposite of what's true being stated as truth, i have a hard time remaining silent. so for almost the past week, my insides have been coming to a slow, rumbling boil...call me narrow-minded, call me a fundamentalist conservative, you can even chalk it up to a game of semantics, but we are NOT all God's children. i wish it were so, but we're not. i don't doubt that most who are reading will agree with me on this one, but if you need (biblical) references, please see john 1, romans 8-9, and the entire letter of first john.if we were all God's children, that would mean there is no hell. and the harsh, horrible reality is that there is one. (again, i realize that most of you agree.) i write with tears that several people i love will "live" forever in hell unless they choose Jesus before their earthly lives end.
and isn't this what we should be caring about? isn't this what our focus should be and were our passions should lie? not in passing circumstances or who the next president will be. [as somewhat of a large side note, let us put behind us all these thoughtless insults about both candidates: our tongues have become like wildfires. truly "the tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell" (james 3.6). yes, we should allow others to have their own opinions and express them, but especially during this time, we should be all the more obedient to God's command as expressed in paul's command to timothy in the second chapter (of the first letter): "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." when we resort to threatening that friendships will end over opinions or even over mistakes, i believe that either 1) we may not be exercising godly wisdom, exerting mercy and offering forgiveness (like the unmerciful man in matthew 18 who does not forgive his debtor, i have often been guilty of this) OR 2) perhaps there was never a friendship worth losing. i believe with all my heart, in the particular instance i am pondering, that the latter is not true. is this what we want the world to see? i carefully say that i do not believe we are doing a very good job of letting "all men...know that [we] are [His] disciples," because the way that we show them is by loving one another, as Jesus said in john 13.35. brothers and sisters, let us love one another!]
can we, at least momentarily, forget blog drama and other temporary matters? instead, our thoughts and efforts rightfully belong to our loved ones who are one day closer to spending forever separated from God. when we hear accurate descriptions of hell (essentially the absence of God and all that He is), how can we not weep over our loved ones, nay, our loved ones and ALL living persons who have rejected the Son of God?
Jesus described hell in this way: as being "thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (matthew 8.12). if i had one, i would not wish this on my worst enemy.
PEACE, my friends.
all for now @
11:46 AM
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