Thursday, July 05, 2007

Hell's Splashover


A little bit of Hell's splashover is enough to make one yearn for heaven. I quoted this passage at See Life Differently several years ago, and I just had a great need to revisit it.


"If we had an easy life, we would soon forget that we are eternal creatures. But hell's splashover won't allow that. It persistently reminds us that something immense and cosmic is at stake - a heaven to be reached, a hell to be avoided. Human souls are the battle ground on which massive spiritual battles are being waged. The stakes are enormous. The winner takes all and the loser loses everything. Every day of our short lives has eternal consequences for good or ill. Eternity is being affected. Right now counts forever. Thus, it is only fitting that God should give us some sense of the stakes involved, some sense of the war's magnitude. He does this by giving us foretastes of heaven in the joys we experience, and foretastes of hell in our suffering.

"All the while that we are experiencing such pain, these trials are making us more like Christ. They are refining our character and, thus, winning us eternal rewards. As Paul says, 'Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all' (2 Corinthians 4:1). In other words, by tasting a small bit of hell now, our heaven is becoming more heavenly. Our neighbors and friends are more likely to join us there. And our gratitude for our salvation overflows. 'I deserve to go to hell,' we admit, 'but I'm going to heaven anyway -- no one has more reason to rejoice than I!'

"And twenty minutes of heaven will make up for everything."
(Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes, When God Weeps, 197).

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