The Bottom Line, Ministries Christian News, Articles, & Poetry 
God is life. There is no way around it.
When you get to know God—through the gentleness, love and compassion of Jesus, His Son—you revel in this truth. Why? Because with God there is no shifting shadow. (James 1:17) He is not a human that He should lie. (Numbers 23:19) His mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:23) Even though we are faithless, we remains faithful, for He cannot forsake Himself. (2 Timothy 2:13)
God gave us life: eternal, forever life. You do not spend your days on earth and then decompose with your body after you’re dead and buried. You live on, either in heaven with God and other people saved by Jesus, or in hell, with Satan, demons, and other haters of God, the truth, and righteousness. You are an immortal soul.
In hell, you beg to die and can’t. Jesus tells us about a rich man who went to hell:
“Now there was a rich man habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades [hell] he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’
But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’ ” Luke 16: 19-26
This is a terrible irony of justice meted out apart from the pardon of God through the sacrifice of Jesus. The rich man who enjoyed his life, indifferent to the needs of others, became the beggar, unable to find relief from his agony. And yet, he remembered. His conscious was a source of torment as he remembered the life he selfishly enjoyed—and the sweet quench of hunger through sumptuous meals, of thirst through spiced wines, and most likely, the satiation of sexual desire that he would never feel again–except the craving for it.
You are immortal. You were given a conscience to know right and wrong as a tutor that would lead you to Christ and save you from the just penalty of wrongs done. God made us so that we would enjoy Him and our existence forever.
The Bible states, ” … no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him,” (Isaiah 64:4). It says that in heaven all tears will be wiped away and we will remember hurts and hunger pangs of all kinds no longer. (Revelation 21:4)
God gave us life and then He gave us Jesus, so we could live in heaven, not hell. We don’t have to be perfect to earn this life; we simply need to believe in Jesus and our words and actions will attest to whether our faith is real or void.
How has knowing God saves the believer in Jesus from eternal agony changed your view of God’s love for you?
