Colossians 3 (quiet time observations)

16Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

17Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

I notice that this said "let." We have these things available to us we just need to "let" them rule us. We hinder these things and then ask God for peace when we already have it we just aren't allowing it to rule us. I also noticed verse 17 because who does that. This is one of the hardest things to do ever. I am supposed to do this job in the name of Jesus and give thanks. That point is driven home later in the chapter incase you missed it right there...

22Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

23Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,

24knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

25For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.

We shouldn't even just do it externally so that the men we work for are happy we are supposed to do it with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord! And we are supposed to do it heartily as though it is for the Lord! Good grief. We receive our rewards from the Lord and if we are worried about not being appreciated or someone doing wrong it says that the Lord will give them their consequences just as He will give us our rewards. This is one of the hardest things for me. It's hard to think about doing this job heartily for the Lord and with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord. But hey here it says for slaves to work for masters. Now that's the ultimate command for a slave to sincerly serve a master and serve him heartily. So this point is really beat into us in this chapter.

KNOW God's Will

Some observations from Colossians 1

KNOW his will and redemption is the forgiveness of sins not just the rejection of christ.

In relation to the previous post you can see here that the definition of redemption is forgiveness of sins not just our rejection of Christ. Also Christians often struggle with the question, what is the will of God? Numerous books have been written about how we can know the will of God. But the will of God is not lost or a mystery. He clearly tells us His will throughout the Bible. Beyond His revealed will in Scripture it is up to us to know what He has gifted us with and then to use those gifts for His glory and to make wise decisions in life. If we are walking obediently to His revealed will in Scriputre we will make wise decisions and thus be in God's will. He is sovereign and His will is going to be done even when we are disobedient. It just may have some consequences on our part for our disobedience. We also choose to learn and do His will the hard way sometimes. But the Bible clearly tells us that we cannot thwart the plans of God(Job 42:2, Is. 14:27). A great short book that just takes the Scriptures that plainly tell us what God's will is and then how we live knowing God's will is Found:God's Will by John MacArthur.

Now on to Colossians 1 -

9For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
10so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously

12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

13For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,

Redemtion/Salvation is the forgiveness of sins not just the sin of the rejection of Christ.

14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints,
27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

AND a litte perseverance of the saints, you must persevere if you are truly saved, elect.

yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach--

23 IF indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

Today in Colossains I read something very lovely. It directly relates to a conversation I have been having with a friend regarding the notion/argument that our sins do not send us to hell and cause the wrath of God to be poured out on us, but instead it is merely our rejection of Christ. Well, that's wonderful if you wish to believe an unbiblical statement because you wish for God to be subject to your free will so that life can be fair, wait wait didn't our mothers tell us life isn't fair. Anyway, in a God sense "life isn't fair" takes on a new meaning in that it isn't fair because instead of sending us all to hell as we deserve he showed mercy on some of us and he is God so he can do that however he pleases. Sorry for that rabbit chase but here it is in the bible plain and simple that sin is indeed what sends us to hell. Here Paul is telling the saved to walk with Christ and put their old selves to death.

5Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

6For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.

Now the scripture may indeed, and I think it does but I don't have the reference handy, tell us that our unbelief or rejection of Christ also condemns us to hell. Of course it does because unbelief is a sin(Heb. 3:18-19). Sin is why we are separated from God and sin is why Jesus died and sin is what we must accept Him to save us from so that we can have a relationship with God and go to heaven. Sin is what we need saving from. We have sinned against God and we need a savior. Sin is the issue and has been since Genesis 3. That is where sin began and that is where God first told us their would be a savior to save his people from sin and that savior was slain before the foundation of the world. This world was created so that God could redeem a people to the praise of his glorious grace! Oh my word when you reject this you reject the gospel. These people are taking a hate for a twisted version of calvinism and letting it rule them to the point of twisting the gospel and essentially it isn't the gospel anymore. sad.

A side note of something we discussed a couple of weeks ago that is also dealt with in Colossians 3 is the church being separate from the Jews and Jerusalem. This is covered many times I think, but it clearly says it here as well -

11there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
12those who have been chosen of God.

Once again we see that God's people are the church. God's people in the OT were the Jews, but now God's people are whoever He chooses, greek, jew, slave, etc.

Deep Down Everyone is Good... Right?

WRONG! Could we say anything anymore tragic and unbiblical than this statement - deep down everyone is good? If this were true then we would have no need for Jesus. If everyone is good then we don't need a Savior. If we have the ability to be holy as God is holy then we can work our way to that without Jesus. Some would object and say, no no no I didn't say that. I mean we are good, but not perfect so we need Jesus because we can try and do good, but we can't be completely perfect. So, we just need a little help from Jesus. This reminds me of the worst Christmas Eve service I ever attended. It happened in a Southern Baptist Church unfortunately. The Pastor told us that we were all like Christmas Trees. We were beautiful. But Jesus was the lights and when we put him on we are much brighter and more beautiful than we could ever be without him. Some readers may be thinking it's horrible to say without Jesus we are beautiful. Some readers may be thinking that was a good illustration of what Jesus does for us. If you are thinking that illustration was a good one then you have a serious flaw in your theology. You have a huge misunderstanding about man's sin and his condition before a holy God. You have a very small and sad view of saving grace. If he only saved you from being a little less beautiful than you are, that's some small mercy and grace and also makes his sacrifice unnecessary if that's all Jesus did. God came down from his thrown in Heaven and "made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:6-8)." If you think he did all that just to make some people who are deep down good and decent a little better so that they could make it to Heaven then you can't afford to stop reading...

What does the bible have to say about man's condition before a Holy God. Ephesians 2:1-3 tell us that "you were DEAD in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our FLESH, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of WRATH, like the rest of mankind."

That sounds pretty bad. First it says we were DEAD in our sins. Dead does not mean half alive. It doesn't mean we were in trouble and about to be dead in sin, but we reached out and Jesus came and grabbed our hand before we sank to the bottom. No, it means we were dead lying on the bottom of the pit and Jesus came down and gave us life. We had no hope. We were dead. Who ever brought themselves back from the dead? There's only one, Jesus. No man ever raised himself from the dead. But Jesus raised men from physical death as we see in the story of Lazarus. He had been dead for 4 days. He could not raise himself from the dead. Jesus went to him and called him from death to life. Jesus does the same thing to the spiritually dead. He calls them by his Holy Spirit from death to life. He gives them spiritual life. Then they come forth and follow him. So, we were dead. We are not able to be holy and alive spiritually unless Jesus himself calls us to life.

Next it says we were living in the FLESH carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. In the bible we always see a battle within the saved person between the flesh and the spirit. The flesh is our old sinful nature that wants to do everything to please ourselves. The spirit wants to do everything to please God. (Galatians 5:16-24) But the unsaved man does not have the spirit all he has is the flesh. He lives in the flesh. He makes choices all day long, but they are all sinful. He may do things that we call "good" but God's idea of good is holiness, doing good in order to glorify God. As John Piper states this, "outward conformity to the revealed will of God is not righteousness in relation to God. It is not done out of reliance on him or for his glory. He is not trusted for the resources, though he gives them all. Nor is his honor exalted, even though that's his will in all things (1 Corinthians 10:31). Therefore, even these "good" acts are part of our rebellion and are not "good" in the sense that really counts in the end - in relation to God." In Romans 7:18 Paul tells us that we know nothing good dwells in our flesh. NOTHING good dwells in the flesh. The unsaved man is in the flesh, therefore he has no good in him. Romans 8:7 tell us that "the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed it cannot." The unsaved man is in the flesh which means he is hostile to God and unable to submit to God. Romans 3:10-18 tells us that "none is righteous, no, not one: no one seeks God." It goes on to say that "no one does good, not even one." It continues to tell about man in his sinful state. We see here that not a single person seeks God or does good. We have established that what we think of as good is not good in the holy saving sense that God means. What about people who seem to seek God? We think people seek God. There are tons of false religions out there of people seeking a god. They are seeking something. They are seeking a god in their own image. They are seeking a higher power that suits them and pleases them. They do not seek the True God. God has told us in His word that no one seeks HIM. It says we cannot seek Him because we are DEAD in sin, we are pleasing our FLESH. Indeed we are slaves to sin. Romans 6:5-7 tells us that prior to salvation we were slaves to sin. When we were saved we were freed from being slaves to sin. We were given true freedom to choose between sin and holiness. A slave is not able to set himself free. He must be set free. If we were slaves to sin that means we were not free to please God and do what was holy. We were only able to sin. You think that unsaved people do things that aren't sinful. Once again if it is apart from God it is not good in terms of God. Romans 14:23 says, "whatever is not from faith is sin." If we are not saved then whatever we do is apart from faith in the TRUE GOD and therefore is sin. This is a pitiful state we are in. We are dead, slaves, unable to do good or to please God or to even seek God. What does the bible say about this pitiful state we are all in?

Back to Ephesians 2:1-3, it says that we by nature are children of WRATH. In our original sinful state prior to salvation we are children of wrath. This means we are under God's wrath. If we remain in this sinful condemned state when we die we will go spend an eternity under his wrath. An eternity to suffer the punishment for our sins.

It is extremely important to understand the seriousness of sin. We are completely affected by sin in our entire being. Everything we do even the "good" we do is tainted by sin. Until we understand the reality of our conditoin before a holy God we cannot understand the fullness of His grace and mercy in salvation! How can we appreciate and understand grace and mercy if we think we were good, but God made us better. We were ok, but not quite good enough for God. We needed a little help and a ticket to Heaven. NO! - We were DEAD, we were SLAVES, we were ENEMIES of God, we were children of WRATH. This must be first understood in order to truly fall down humbly before God and thank him for undeserved mercy and grace. We must first understand Ephesians 2:1-3 before we can rightly understand the wonderful, awesome, magnificint, amazing grace in the next verse when it says, "BUT GOD!" Once you understand the horrible sinful state of man ONLY then can you understand how amazing the words BUT GOD are. We were dead and doomed and hopeless and helpless, BUT GOD!

Ephesians 2:4-10:

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Now you can understand God's amazing grace! We didn't do a thing to save ourselves. We had nothing to offer. In fact we could not try to offer anything because we were dead. When we understand that then we see there is no reason for boasting. We cannot boast. We could not offer anything to our salvation. Even the faith we exercised was a gift from God. Salvation is the gift of God by His grace through His gift of faith.

If you are saved I hope you better understand what the Bible has to say about your salvation. What the Bible says you were saved from. What God's grace did for you. Your salvation was solely the work of God. He raised you from spiritual death to life. You were a slave to sin and he set you free. What are we to do with this freedom? We are to use it to do righteousness and glorify God. We are not to use our freedom to please our flesh. We now have a choice to please God or to sin. With this new freedom God tells us to choose righteousness. We are to crucify the flesh daily. Do not gratify the flesh. We are no longer slaves to sin and the flesh so do not return and act like your former self. You have been freed to do good, to please God, to bring God glory, so do it! (1 Peter 1:13-16, Romans 8:1, Galatians 5:13, Romans 6:5-7, Galatians 5:16, Galatians 5:24, Galatians 5:1, Romans 6:22, etc.).

Romans 8:1 - "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me...
I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now, I see." ~ John Newton, Baptist Hymnal 1991

Great Reading and Listening on this subject:

Man's Need of Salvation: Total Depravity and Man's Inability by Brian Schwertley
Click Here

The Apparent "Good" in Natural Man by John W. Hendryx
Click Here

Human Depravity by R.C. Sproul
Click Here

An excellent article concerning the state of the current church in relation to this:
Click Here

What the Christian on the street had to say:
Click Here

And a sermon on the subject by my Pastor, Steve Cobb, Temple Baptist Church, New Bern, NC:
Click Here

WWJD...

Hmmm I was reading JC Ryle's sermon on Holiness and he said this:
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c) A holy person will strive to be like our Lord Jesus Christ.

They will not only live the life of faith in Him, and draw from Him all their daily peace and strength, but they will also strive to have the mind that was in Him, and to be “conformed to His likeness” (Romans 8:29). It will be their aim to bear with and forgive others, just as Christ forgave us-to be unselfish, just as Christ did not please Himself-to walk in love, just as Christ loved us-to be meek and humble, even as Christ made Himself nothing and humbled Himself. They will remember that Christ was a faithful witness for the truth-that He did not come to do His own will-that it was His food and drink to do His Father’s will-that He would continually deny Himself in order to minister to others-that He was meek and patient in spite of undeserved insults-that He thought more of godly poor men than of kings-that He was full of love and compassion to sinners-that He was bold and uncompromising in denouncing sin-that He did not seek the praise of men, when He might have had it-that He went about doing good-that He was separate from worldly people-that He prayed continually-that He would not even let His nearest relatives stand in His way when God’s work was to be done. These things a holy person will try to remember. By them they will endeavor to shape their course in life. They will lay to heart the saying of John, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6); and the saying of Peter, that “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Happy is the person who has learned to make Christ his “everything,” both for salvation and example! A great deal of time would be saved, and a great deal of sin prevented, if men and women would often ask themselves the question, “What would Christ have said and done, if He were in my place?”

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Did anyone else know that this What Would Jesus Do phenomenon began nearly 200 years ago? I wonder if Ryle was the first to pose this question. I wonder if in the 1800s they had little bracelets that said WWCSD? Because his question was not exactly What Would Jesus Do but What Would Christ have Said and Done. Maybe we need to add in the said part, it's pretty important. We can nearly murder people with our words, but feel ok if we didn't actually do anything physical to them. As though that was noble self control. That reminds me of the most absurd thing kids say, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." That is a blatent harmful lie. I would rather be hit with sticks and stones than hurtful words. Hurtful words play over and over in your head for years and years long after little physical bruises have healed. There's an entire chapter in James devoted to taming your tongue... That was just a side tangent on the said part Ryle added to our current WWJD. Anyway, I thought the WWJD thing was interesting.

This excerpt came from JC Ryle's sermon on Holiness which you can read by clicking here I certainly recommend that you do. It's excellent

Is Thy Heart Right?

This is an excerpt from J.C. Ryle's Is Thy Heart Right?

III. I will now show, in the last place, the right heart. It is a heart of which the Bible contains many pictures. I am going to try to place some of those pictures before you. On a question like this, I want you to observe what God says, rather than what is said by man. Come now, and see the marks and signs of a right heart.

(a) The right and good heart is a "new heart." (Ezek. xxxvi. 26.) It is not the heart with which a man is born, but another heart put in him by the Holy Ghost. It is a heart which has new tastes, new joys, new sorrows, new desires, new hopes, new fears, new likes, new dislikes. It has new views about the soul, and sin, and God, and Christ, and salvation, and the Bible, and prayer, and Sunday, and heaven, and hell, and the world, and holiness. It is like a farm with a new and good tenant. "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Cor. v. 17.) Is this heart your own?

(b) The right and good heart is a "broken and a contrite heart." (Psalm li. 17.) It is broken off from pride, self-conceit, and self-righteousness. Its former high thoughts of self are cracked, shattered, and shivered to atoms. It thinks itself guilty, unworthy, and corrupt. Its former stubbornness, heaviness, and insensibility have thawed, disappeared, and passed away. It no longer thinks lightly of offending God. It is tender, sensitive, and jealously fearful of running into sin. (2 Kings xxii. 19.) It is humble and lowly, and sees in itself no good thing. Is this heart your own?

(c) A right and good heart is a heart that believes on Christ alone for salvation, and in which Christ dwells by faith. (Rom. x. 10; Ephes. iii. 17.) It rests all its hopes of pardon and eternal life on Christ's atonement, Christ's mediation, and Christ's intercession. It is sprinkled in Christ's blood from an evil conscience. (Heb. x. 22.) It turns to Christ as the compass needle turns to the north. It looks to Christ for daily peace, mercy, and grace, as the sunflower looks to the sun. It feeds on Christ for its daily sustenance, as Israel fed on the manna in the desert. It sees in Christ a special fitness to supply all its wants and requirements. It leans on Him, hangs on Him, builds on Him, cleaves to Him, as its physician, guardian, husband, and friend. Is this heart your own?

(d) A right and good heart is a purified heart. (Acts xv. 9; Matt. v.8.) It loves holiness and hates sin. It strives daily to cleanse itself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. (2 Cor. vii. 1.) It abhors that which is evil, and cleaves to that which is good. (Rom. xii. 9.) It delights in the law of God, and has that law engraven on it, that it may not forget it. (Psalm cxix. 11.) It longs to keep the law more perfectly, and takes pleasure in those who love the law. It loves God and man. Its affections are set on things above. It never feels so light and happy as when it is most holy; and it looks forward to heaven with joy, as the place where perfect holiness will at length be attained. Is this heart your own?

(e) A right and good heart is a praying heart. It has within it "the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Rom. viii. 15.) Its daily feeling is, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek." (Psalm xxvii. 8.) It is drawn by an habitual inclination to speak to God about spiritual things,—weakly, feebly, and imperfectly perhaps, but speak it must. It finds it necessary to pour out itself before God, as before a friend, and to spread before Him all its wants and desires. It tells Him all its secrets. It keeps back nothing from Him. You might as well try to persuade a man to live without breathing, as to persuade the possessor of a right heart to live without praying. Is this heart your own?

(f) A right and good heart is a heart that feels within a conflict. (Gal. v.17.) It finds within itself two opposing principles contending one with another for the mastery,—the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. It knows by experience what St. Paul means when he says, "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind." (Rom. vii. 23.) The wrong heart knows nothing of this strife. The strong man armed keeps the wrong heart as his palace, and his goods are at peace. (Luke xi. 21.) But when the rightful King takes possession of the heart, a struggle begins which never ends till death. The right heart may be known by its warfare, quite as much as by its peace. Is this heart your own?

(g) Last, but not least, the right and good heart is honest, and single, and true. (Luke viii. 15; 1 Chron. xii. 33; Heb. x. 22.) There is nothing about it of falsehood, hypocrisy, or part-acting. It is not double or divided. It really is what it professes to be, feels what it professes to feel, and believes what it professes to believe. Its faith may be feeble. Its obedience may be very imperfect. But one thing will always distinguish the right heart. Its religion will be real, genuine, thorough, and sincere. Is this heart your own?

Think not to say within yourself,—"There is no need for such questions as these. There is no need to make such ado about the heart. I go to church or chapel regularly. I live a respectable life. I hope I shall prove right at last."—Beware of such thoughts, I beseech you,—beware of them, if you would ever be saved. You may go to the best church on earth, and hear the best preachers. You may be the best of churchmen, or the soundest member of a chapel. But all this time if your heart is not "right in the sight of God," you are on the high road to destruction. Settle down to quiet consideration of the question before you. Look it manfully in the face, and do not turn aside. Is your heart right or wrong?

Think not to say within yourself,—"No one can know what his heart is. We must hope the best. No one can find out with any certainty the state of his own soul." Beware, I say again,—beware of such thoughts. The thing can be known. The thing can be found out. Deal honestly and fairly with yourself. Set up an assize on the state of your inward man. Summon a jury. Let the Bible preside as judge. Bring up the witnesses. Inquire what your tastes are,—where your affections are placed,—where your treasure is,—what you hate most,—what you love most,—what pleases you most,—what grieves you most. Inquire into all those points impartially, and mark what the answers are. "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matt. vi. 21.) A tree may always be known by its fruit, and a true Christian may always be discovered by his habits, tastes, and affections. Yes! you may soon find out what your heart is, if you are honest, sincere, and impartial. Is it right or wrong?.

Think not to say within yourself, "I quite approve of all you say, and hope to examine the state of my heart some day. But I have no time just at present. I cannot find leisure. I wait for a convenient season." Oh! beware of such thoughts,—again I say, beware. Life is uncertain, and yet you talk of a convenient season. Eternity is close at hand, and yet you talk of putting off preparation to meet God. Alas! that habit of "putting off" is the everlasting ruin of millions of souls. Wretched man that you are! who shall deliver you from this devil of "putting off?" Awake to a sense of duty. Throw off the chains that pride, and laziness, and love of the world are weaving round you. Arise and stand upon your feet, and look steadily at the question before you. Churchman or dissenter, I ask you this day,—Is your heart right or wrong?

I leave my question with you, and entreat you to consider it well. I pray that the Holy Ghost may apply it with Almighty power to your conscience. The first step in religion is to know yourself.

If you would like to read Is Thy Heart Right? in its entirety click here

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?