It Can't Be That Bad!

         There have been people who have said to me "Oh, it won't be so bad."  They told me this just before I boarded a roller coaster.  For some, the roller coaster is a thing that offers a short period of thrill as it zooms up and down, around curves and plunges almost vertically down to oblivion.  I am not a roller coaster person.  Some may think, "How bad can it be?"  To the person who doesn't go above the third step on a six foot step ladder, it is indeed really bad.  I find that people generally think that most things in life are not so bad.  There are, however, some things that have not been experienced but that are in the future regardless of what we think.   Revelation 20:14-15 says, "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.   And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." 
     We may have a tendency to underrate some things.  Our picture of God is what we often make in our own minds.  Since famous painters have pictured Him as a great grandfather on the ceiling of some chapel, it remains in our mind that He is a grandfather to us.  God, in His infinite wisdom has created a wonderful place for believers to remain for all eternity.  Painters have painted the scene and many have gravitated towards that scene thinking, "Hey, that's not half bad."  What the world has failed to notice is the alternative.  The simple words of the above passage reminds us of the destiny of those who refuse to take heed to God's instructions.  We choose to live our own way, build our own pictures of God's world for us in the future.  Some have even come to their own conclusion that there is nothing after death and so we will just float off into eternity.  The inspired Word of God does mention in detail the fact of eternal punishment for those who simply have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  It would seem obvious that if there is an eternal heaven, there is also an eternal hell.  We know the Bible teaches that there is a narrow way to salvation and a broad way that leads to destruction.  Perhaps, we have put that picture in the back of our mind.  Maybe we think "Oh, it won'd be so bad."  If we think that, we have forgotten the picture of eternal punishment as described in the Scriptures, because the knowledge of that very punishment should be an incentive to help keep people from ending up in such a place.   There may have been times when you have said something in regard to a terrible situation, "Oh I wouldn't wish that on anyone."  That should be our reaction to hell, the lake of fire, the blackness, the eternal separation of God and all that is good.  We may not wish it upon anyone, but we let people go there by not sharing God's Word with them.  We sit idly by with the wonderful message of the Gospel and yet fail to mention it to someone who is slipping slowly from this life into eternity.  God's Word should motivate us to share His message of salvation.  If you are not motivated, then perhaps your heart has grown cold and you are saying, "Oh, maybe it won't be so bad after all."  Guess again!  Praise God for His wonderful, glorious salvation.  Now share it with someone.