Most of us are familiar with the distress signal S O S…Save Our Souls. Recently I have been watching more YouTube. YouTube is full of outrageous things as well as profound insights. I am always fascinated by stories of people who have died and gone to heaven. After all, that is where I intend to spend eternity.
Recently, I read a post by someone who had not only visited heaven but hell also. We read accounts of hell in the bible but somehow the full impact of how horrible it is, is often not realized. I heard the story of what this man experienced in hell and compared it to what the bible says about hell. Luke 16:24 : “And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” This was the request of the rich man who died and went to hell.
It is easy to gloss over this story and think it is just a metaphor. However, now that people have died and gone to hell, they share that it is a place of great torment and heat. While it is not a sin to be rich, riches can cause a person to not seek a relationship with God. It is when we are struggling in this world that we tend to reach out to God. We turn to Him when our problems seem too much for us to handle.
In watching and listening to the stories of those who have visited hell, I thought I would not want my worst enemy to go there. Eternity is a long time to suffer. We who know the Lord and have been born again, need to share with those who are unsaved what we know. We can share our testimony of how we got saved. People like listening to stories. Tell them about the love of God and how important it is for them to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The time will come when it will be too late to accept Him and be born again. We have to be moved by love and compassion to put aside our fear of rejection and reach out to them. It would be terrible to know that I could have directed one person to Christ, so they could be saved, and because I was silent, they did not accept Him.
I remember when I first got saved, I was so excited that I had found the way to God that I stopped strangers wherever I went and told them about Jesus. It could have been in the laundromat, on the bus, walking down the street, it did not matter. I was so excited that I had found the way that I could not keep quiet. Looking back on that, I realize that I need to get back some of my zeal.
Let us be ambassadors for Christ. If we love others, we will be willing to run the risk of rejection, if it means bringing them to Christ. He is the only door to heaven.