“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” Luke 16:23
“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth? Revelation 6:9,10
Now normally I don’t start off with two seemingly unrelated verses but I promise these verses are some of the most important yet rarely mentioned words in the Bible. To be honest, I have never heard the teachings of the end time warnings taught on, never once have I heard anything preached or taught about how those who do not accept Christ before His return can still be saved.
They can be saved but they will die in that process and you can read more about those things in these past teachings: The Betrothed and The Beheaded each one will explain the blessed state of both the end time groups that will be part of the Kingdom of Christ.
If you notice the parallel of the verses above, you’ll notice something quite interesting. The first is from the story of Lazarus and the rich man, we’ll get into more of that in a bit, but to do a quick relay of it, the rich man had had a great life here on earth, everything he could dream of and never had a care as to where he would sleep or where his next meal would come from.
Lazarus on the hand… well, we’ll listen to Jesus’ description concerning both of these men. “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, fared sumptuously every day (lived in luxury): And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried.” Luke 16:19-22
We don’t have to be rich to be like the rich man. Our world has become so VIRTUAL that we have lost touch with what is TRUE REALITY.
We have so much invading our minds and so much to “occupy” our minds that we often trade out the truth for those lies, and as we know leads to damnation.
Social media and web games, and the host of internet resources now preoccupying peoples time, life, and in my personal belief has become the “god” of many, so who has time ponder the universal questions of heaven and hell, life and death, and more importantly death and the eternal life AFTER this death?
How can they possibly be troubled with the thoughts while there are statuses to post, great selfies to be taken, and of course the never-ending bash posts to spew hatred that they have not courage to say in person nor the common social graces to not make a spectacle of themselves in doing these things.
Please don’t take that wrong, there is nothing WRONG with playing some games and doing some web surfing and I think it is a fabulous tool especially for those who are living alone, or grieving because it does provide a little “escape”.
But when it starts becoming more important than spending time in prayer with God, or attending church, praying for people, and reading and studying the Bible, then it has become much more than a hobby.
And I do know that there are many good uses for technology but we all know the majority of it is not for good.
How can we even hear God when we can’t even hear?
The most profound, life changing message I heard, (excluding the one that got me saved) came one night when I was watching a local Pastor on television and He preached on Tophet and how that the people sacrificed their children, burning them alive, to pagan demons and that their custom was to play drums and “music” to drown out the screams of the children.
That message made such an impact on me, that I just prayed for God to NEVER let me fail to hear the cries of others.
The lost of this world and those who do not even realize that they are being “sacrificed” to the god of this world, through their refusal to acknowledge, or even SEEK Jesus and His salvation because the sounds of this world drown out any whisper they may hear. And that same effect is what I am going for today.
I want to make you think about something, if you believe and have never committed to that belief or if you are an absolute atheist and choose not to believe anything, I have a message on both counts. Refusing to believe does not exempt anyone form the law of God, you are not going to look at Him and use the excuse that you did not believe, because whether you believe or not has no bearing on his existence.
And if you don’t believe you have chosen to drown out the voice in your own soul because even our hearts assure us that there has to be more than this life.
Love, love never dies and the love you have felt, received and given lives on, if you do not believe in an afterlife you are not acknowledging the power of love.
If you have had a terrible life on earth, like Lazarus, doesn’t something inside of you hang on to hope that there has to be something better?
And if you have had a great life here on this earth, why would you want to ever risk an eternal life of misery and torment beyond comprehension because of your failure to acknowledge the one who gave you your very life?
The rich man lifted up his eyes in hell, one moment on this earth the next moment lost for all of eternity.
As the Bible teaches us, we are FIRST natural and then SPIRITUAL, and that is the problem of our own wisdom, we think we know everything and base that arrogant self-righteous thought on our carnal, NATURAL knowledge.
But we CAN’T even begin to understand the truth until we become SPIRITUAL and we must accept Jesus before that can take place and those who are literally making reservations for hell because they DO BELIEVE in the afterlife but believe satanic lies that it will be like the parties here on earth are taking natural to the most unnatural extreme.
The rich REMEMBERED earth, He FELT unquenchable thirst. and he BEGGED his brothers be warned to not “come to this place” and as he was told that they would not BELIEVE even one from the dead, think about it when we refuse to believe that Jesus rose, we ARE being his brothers.
Being DEAD from earth but ALIVE in hell, he still felt, thought, and expressed and was AWARE of both worlds.
Now the passage from Revelation concerning those that had DIED, been murdered, martyred, FROM this earth.
They also are very AWARE of both worlds, they also THINK, FEEL, and EXPRESS themselves and they ALSO want someone to “come” back on their behalf, they want VENGEANCE against those who killed them.
They REMEMBER how they died.
And just as the rich man’s request was refused, they also are told that they must rest for a little while until THOSE WHO ARE ALSO YET to be killed as they were and THEN justice would come. And as Jesus promised to”wipe ALL our tears away” in that faithful glorious day, we will KNOW but we will be made new, all things WILL be made new in that day.
So today, if you have not accepted Jesus, don’t wait another day because we are not promised the next breath, the next day, not one moment of our life is guaranteed.
But God in His mercy and kindness GAVE us these lives, He GAVE us this day, and he GAVE us all the choice, the CHOICE of where our true LIFE will be spent because this place, this earth, is but for a moment and when death comes, then and only then does REALITY truly begin. In that life there is no second chances, it is what it is, but in this life, no matter how bad it has been, Jesus CAN can everything, He CAN give you on this earth a life you could NOT even imagine with joy, peace, and blessings in this world.
And the assurance that you don’t have to fear that moment when all things become eternal. Ask any believer and they will tell you that the single most profound moment in their life came when they REALIZED that it was God’s mercy alone that had kept them and protected them until they came into the truth.
And the realization that truly they had been ONE breath away from being lost eternally, and my dear friends is what make us want to see ALL come to that truth.
So know this, either way, we will ONLY begin when this world ends and either way IT will be forever, so please choose today and choose Jesus, THE ONLY WAY!
Thanks for reading!
Love&Peace from my heart to yours, till next time!
Φλογιζω360 NBJ 2019
For more on these subjects: “Bought & Sold” Riches Untold
Prophets, Prodigals, & Puttin’ it off…….
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