AUGUST 30 "HELL WILL NOT MAKE PEOPLE REPENT"

In the Book of Job today we read, "the godless are full of resentment".  It's a vicious cycle isn't it. The more we disobey God and do things are own way, the worse things get for us and the more bitter and resentful we get against God and the further we stray from Him. While the opposite is true for the sincere Christian. Those that obey spend the rest of their years in prosperity and their years in contentment; thence, drawing them closer to God.   We go on to read "For the godless are full of resentment. Even when he punishes them, they refuse to cry out to him for help".  In the book "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis, a fictional account of life for the soul in the netherworld, C.S. Lewis illustrates the truth of this scripture. Lewis shows that in the afterlife, people/souls will only become more resolute in their convictions. The lost person who dies in their sin, full of rebellion and pride against God will only become more resolute as this God punishes him only reinforcing his hatred for this God. When all is said and the final verdict is pronounced and there is no longer hope for anything good to benefit them, then all the animosity and hatred will pour out of the vile heart.  I remember as a teenager, I did not get along at all with my mother. However, I remember around Wed, Thursday, I would start forcing myself to be nice to her in hopes of getting either the car or some money for the week-end, or BOTH.  Once it was made clear she had no money and needed the car, I immediately turned very hateful towards her. The mask no longer needed to be worn. We naively think everyone in Hell is going to have this repentant heart, seeing the error of their ways and wanting God to forgive them. However our scripture and many other scriptures in the Bible show us that that will not be the case. The place we have to come to as Christians is a completed trust and confidence in this Just and Merciful and Gracious God that we serve. We must trust that those that end up in Hell end up there because there was no alternative. Even if that person ends up being our children, our parents, grandmother or best friend. We must trust that God is Just and all His ways are perfect. We must trust that nobody who is in Hell had a chance at Heaven. I know sometimes we hear, "had you or I witnessed to that person they could have ended up in Heaven, but because of me they are in Hell now". However, as much as that makes the individual look back, it makes God look even worse. Why did God leave into the hands of a lazy or apathetic Christian, someones soul. Now that person who "could have been in Heaven" will now spend eternity in Hell because God left my sister's soul in the hands of a apathetic Christian, my sister, "who could have made Heaven" her home but didn't, Thanks God!"  You have to see the fallacy in this kind of wrong thinking.  That somehow, good people, that would have repented, had they heard, are in Hell screaming today with no chance of getting out. I must trust in the goodness, Omniscience, Omnipotence and Sovereignty of my God above all things. I must trust that those that will wind up in Hell were truly the un-penitent sinner.  I believe, according to scripture that Hell is not full of repentant souls, but full of souls that defy, hate and curse their creator and they are in great company because their leader will one day join them for good, in the Lake of Fire.

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