Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Hell on Earth... or Heaven

Taken from the Preface of The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis:

"But what, you ask, of earth? Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone to be in the end a very distinct place. I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself."

Matthew 8:34-38

34And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

35For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.

36For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

37For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

38For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

Reflections on this:

If our attitude here is to eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die or to work and climb to success and power we will only be disappointed in the end. We will have lived our lives as though earth is all there is. When we find out there's so much more we will realize we've actually lost our souls and squandered our lives to gain only a region in hell. When we die and stand in the presence of the Father and Son in all their glory we will truly understand God's awesomeness and our sinfulness. If we gave up our souls for this world then we will hear the most horrible words ever spoken to us, Jesus will say, "depart from me I never knew you." BUT if we gave our lives on this earth to Jesus we will hear the most wonderful words every spoken to us, Jesus will say, "well done good and faithful servant." We will feel unworthy of those words, but He will be looking at us through His blood and righteousness. We will fall on our knees at the feet of our Savior in all His glory and worship Him completely. As we look back on this fallen world and our lives here we will see a life we lived for Jesus. It was not worthless, but fruitful. It was a glimpse of God's glory. It was a taste of what is to come. So, when life on this earth is over will you look back on it as Hell on earth... or Heaven?

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