News Archive
Heaven and hell: places on earth?
On Sunday, HBC hosted a "hot potato" discussion on the topic of hell.
They say that "heaven is a place on earth". I know it is just a song,
but I think I have experienced something of that in my life at
times, when God seems so near you feel you can touch Him, and sense Him
in so many ways.
On Sunday, HBC hosted a "hot potato" discussion on the topic of hell.
They say that "heaven is a place on earth". I know it is just a song, but I think I have experienced something of that in my life at times,when God seems so near you feel you can touch Him, and sense Him in so many ways.
Hell can also be a place on earth too, and there have also been times when I have felt that - the seeming absence of God, and the confusion and raw evil that the world seems so fascinated with and is so often depicted in many modern films.
We need to remember Paul\'s words in Philippians: "Whatever is good, pure ... think on these things". That is surely one of the ways we can begin to taste something of what heaven will be like.
I guess that is what it is really - just foretastes of what is to come. Wow! Imagine the real thing - and the alternative.
It was helpful to be reminded about hell, and the fact that it will be, in the future, not yet; but especially to remember that Jesus has gone "to prepare a place" for us, and that when we rise again on the day of judgement then we will be with Him forever. Not to be complacent and assume that I have a place there, but to continue, like Paul, to run the race and fight the fight.
"Upwards and onwards!" (Check out CS Lewis and The Last Battle to understand that last phrase).