The Glory of Hell

“God really isn’t all that important”, or so it would seem by the actions displayed by most of those who profess to believe in Him.
This comes as no surprise really, the people of God have been doing and thinking towards Him this way through out most of history whether old testament, new testament or even today (which is the reason for prophets). God being seen as unimportant is the direct result of our “de- glorify” Him, by this I mean attempting to water down the unchanging, the absolute, and eternal nature of God in order to make our lives easier to live. When it comes to truly doing what I want in my life, God’s a problem, a hinderance, and an inconvenience. When it comes to trying to fulfill my “Jesus obligation” by sharing Him with others, God’s a problem, we want to make the presentation of the gospel easier for the hearer, palatable, non offensive, guiltless, less embarrassing and comfortable, both for them to hear and for us to share; so I “de-glorify” God. 
If I want to avoid making people feel bad about their unavoidable demise unto hell “lest they accept Jesus”, I need to de-glorify God. In order to move a person towards a yes (which is the “just get them to say it” success word) we need to present them with as many “yes” scenarios as possible being careful not to place a land mine of truth in their way, mines like; guilt, sin, condemnation, punishment for their own actions, responsibility, obedience. We deviate from sound doctrine as we de-glorifying God because we’ve determined to purposely alter the image of God in the eyes of the other person in order to make God acceptable in hopes of gaining a convert. We get the person to say yes to an altered image of God, one that has become easy to accept and believe.  

As believers, what we are, what we walk in and what we profess about God must be the exact representation and witness of who God says He is and what He says He’s like. Doctrine gets skewed when we seek to present  God in an image that bests serves us. 

There’s one truth about God that gets skewed a lot and it’s one we must hold and profess as truth in order to maintain the power and fullness offered to us in solid biblical doctrine. 

HELL IS REAL.

Most would want to believe in God void of this truth, but to do so would be to de-glorify Him.

Hell truly exists and it’s function is to serve God in the exact manner it has been revealed by Him in scripture. To maintain the truth of hell being real we need to understand and never deviate from a critical and foundational truth; 

Nothing exists outside of God. 

Everything that is, IS, and exists because of God and by His will. If something were to exist outside of God’s influences and creative powers (not having God as its source), then God is NOT God as He has made Himself known to us, and Another exists which is not dependent upon God for its existence. We then have an entity which too has within itself the ability to exist and sustain itself by its own power, also with no beginning and no end, making each entity no lesser or greater than the other each remaining independent of the other in their being.
This creates a serious problem. 

Everything that exists has as its source God. All that exists is a revelation of Who and how God is, for His glory, and this includes hell. You can’t accept God for who He says He is and deny hell for the two cannot be separated. Heaven and hell both exist as manifestations of God’s glory and each serve to affirm His eternal and perfect attributes, heaven and hell both exist to prove that God is who He says He is.  

Hell cannot exist without a source, it lacks the power to exist on its own. Hell is not an entity, it’s the creative revelation of Another and it must, by design, provide an effective revelation of the One for whom it exists. At the very same time that heaven exists and is found to be in and of God for His glory, so too, at the very same time, hell exists and is sustained by the same power of God specifically for His glory. Hell cannot “be” without the attentive, deliberate, ongoing, sustaining power of God. Hell IS, because of God, and it is BY His power that God causes hell to be. 

As we understand this truth, hell then allows God to be glorified to an even greater degree. Against the backdrop of hell God reveals and offers His grace to us in its most exalted form; as the greatest gift and news the sinner has ever received. Hell allows God to reveal and offer salvation as the greatest treasure of my soul, a gift I would freely give everything I posses in order that I might attain it. Hell causes us to desperately cling to the wonderful mercy of God thus finding an escape from hell’s grip in light of our utter helplessness to escape it. Hell exalts the sacrifice of God in Christ to the rightful place of ultimate love, demonstrated to a world buried in its sin. Against hell God is more desirable and therefore we become more desperate, thirsty, and hungry in our pursuit of Him. God sets hell before us against the backdrop of His Majestic Glory in order to exalt the unlimited witness of Himself to us in the midsts of our horridly sinful condition. Because of hell we desire to drink of Him because we now thirst, we become aware of our need to eat of Him because we now hunger. We seek Him as light because of our darkness. He now becomes our needed shelter, our mighty high tower, our refuge and our strength who is poised on our behalf against hell’s rightful pursuit of us.  

He is our deliverer who justifies and clothes us in righteousness and in Him we are hidden from hell’s relentless demand upon our souls. 

Hell serves to justify ALL that God is, for our sake and for His glory.  

Against hell God is fully seen as the offered gift of righteousness which I don’t deserve and that delivers me from the eternal destruction I so rightly deserve.

Yes I believe in hell, to the exaltation, the glory, and the praise of God!  

Thirty Something

Every so often we reach mile stones in our lives, being sixteen and getting a drivers license, 21 and getting drunk (legally) getting over the hill at 40 stuff like that, oh yeah, being 50. There’s also being married 25 years. This last week my wife and I reached the thirty year mark of being married, we’ve actually known each other thirty five because we met at sixteen and “went together” for five years before getting married. It’s pretty cool to hit that number I guess establishing markers in life that are witnesses to the unfailing word of God in our lives. He’s right in all things, especially marriage. It was a simple, quiet event just the two of us, seems 25 and 50 tend to be the “attention getters”. Don’t know what we’ll do to celebrate 30, more than likely we’ll go somewhere warm (much different from here). Hitting fifty, hitting thirty years, having our first grand baby and moving out of the town I we’ve lived in all our lives. I think I’ll start painting on canvas again something slower and more relaxing, get some cool bifocals you have to peer over the top of in order to talk to people, they tend to make you appear wise for some reason, can’t hurt. Bones and muscles hurt a little more than they used to though.

 

Hhhhmmm? Rice and “Beings”

It wasn’t to long ago I had mentioned that one way to take the Democrats out of the picture for the 2008 race was for the republican candidate to pick Condaleezza Rice as his vice presidential running mate. This would shut Hillary out as a woman and Barrack being Black, not to mention the fact that Rice is seasoned around the world, is a tough negotiator, knows a lot of international leaders and she also speaks several languages, including Russian. Rice has a strong faith I hear which is a good thing I suppose. But let me toss out a look way down the road “what if” scenario that could cause your brain to go, “Hhhhmmm”.

Let’s say Rice does get the vice job through McCain? He’s what, 73? Say he gets elected and a year down the road blows an artery? Rice steps in right? Soooo …. she’s black, a woman who “just happens” to be the most powerful woman on the planet, except for …… Oprah?

Don’t believe for one minute the Big “O” wouldn’t try to exploit her “sisterhood” towards Rice in order to form an unstoppable team of influence in the world?

Really! Oprah and the “black, female, president“, of the United States of America (granted the US isn’t liked by a whole bunch of people so Rice would have to spend some considerable time rebuilding out there, but still……)

Rice would be in a tough spot to turn down offers to “work together with Oprah”. If she didn’t cooperate there are those who would throw out the old “Aunt Tom’s Cabin” thing at her.

This is interesting folks, very interesting.

The REAL Deal

I’ve been in the body of Christ since I was in my early twenties, I am now almost fifty one. During this time it is fair to say that I have seen and experienced a lot. A lot of really great, honest things of God and a lot of crap trying to pass itself off as God stuff. A case in point, I recently received information of the death of a man I truly admired as a brother in Christ, Sevelyuk Taras Iosifovich
In this day of anointings, callings, giftings or whatever label we attempt to put on people in order to validate “their” ministry in the eyes of others, it’s nice to know I’ve had the opportunity to meet the real deal in Taras. I have been witness to many people claiming to be apostles in an attempt to build a ministry around themselves by having such a “calling”.
Taras WAS. I can truly say in my life I have met an apostle, maybe not in the sense of Paul or Peter but by todays standard for sure, no other, just Taras. (okay maybe ONE in Africa). Aside from Taras I would place the other wanna be’s in the catagory of “spiritual car sales men”, sorry guys but you just don’t “got it” beyond the “wheeler dealer anointing”.
There’s a lot to be said about apostleship but one thing’s for sure, when you look out across a persons life and see a vast orchard of trees each producing a harvest of fruit in areas that at one time had laid barren and it represents the labor of that man’s life, that’s one sign of an apostle. There are more signs and Taras was the majority of them.
The apostles I see around me can’t seem to get out into the barren areas let alone make any attempt to sow, there’s  just a bunch of balloons, “hot deals”, circus ploys, and fast talk’n, in an attempt to “close a deal” and “get ya in the door”.
I’m glad and truly blessed that I had the opportunity to meet the real deal in Taras. It’s fair to say that to some degree the glory of God has departed from the temple and the world has become a little bit harder for those of us who remain.

“Hallelujah!”