What Is Hell?

Hello Guys and Gals!

What is Hell? First I'd like to explain that there are two 'places' which are translated into the word Hell in the English language: Hades and Gehenna!

Now Hades is the Greek word and Sheol is the Hebrew word for the same place. This place is where the souls of the departed go to stay until the great white throne judgment which happens in Revelation 20:11-15. But there are two aspects of Hades as well. There is Hades before Christ came and Hades after Christ.

Before Christ came, all the souls of the departed were in Hades but divided by a great chasm where on one side were those who trusted and believed in God and the other side for all the others and that no one can cross from one side to the other.

Yet we also know that there was a change in the place where departed believers went from Ephesians 4:8-10. All departed believers are now in the presence of Christ! Yet the non-believers are still in Hades!

Gehenna on the other hand is literally translated to 'of fire', in the Greek language. It also refers to a place in the Valley of Hinnom where, anciently, human sacrifices were offered (2 Chronicles 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31) and where the continuous burning of rubbish illustrated for the Jewish people unending judgment upon the wicked. Jesus used this term as a most solemn warning and described the place where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched'. (Mark 9:48) It is most often referred to as the 'Lake of Fire' or the 'Second Death' referring to the death of the soul!

But what makes Hell truly so bad? The key element in the 'Second Death' that makes it such a horrible place is the withdrawal by God of His presence from those whom He is punishing for their unbelief and rejection of Him! (Revelation 20:14) Please note that this is not an annihilation or total destruction, but eternal torture forever and ever. It states that after 1,000 years in the Lake of Fire, Gehenna, the beast and false prophet are still there, personally existing. (Compare Revelation 19:20 with 20:10) We also see Satan thrown into Gehenna in verse 20:10!

So that is a brief description of Hell. But what about Hell on Earth? Is there such a place? I say that there is and I will give you a simple definition of it. Hell on Earth is when a person does not believe or rejects God! They are not fully separated from God in their sin until tossed into the Lake of Fire, but there is still a separation there.

As we see in Romans 1:28, in reference to sinners who did not see fit to acknowledge God any more, that God has given them over to a depraved mind and to do those things which are not proper. I believe that when God gives you over, that is a form of separation from Him. For God is so holy that sin cannot enter into his presence. Which is the whole need for a sin offering to cover our sins. This is what I believe Hell on Earth to be: living in your sin so that God has given you over to the depravities of your own mind!

How shall we then escape Hell? Even Hell on Earth? There is only one answer: Jesus Christ! Jesus paid the full price of sin and is the only one who truly knows what full separation from God is! In Matthew 27:46 we see Jesus on the cross crying out, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' which is, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?' This was the full punishment of sin! God withdrew His presence even from Jesus Christ so that Jesus would know the full price of sin and take the punishment of it onto Himself so that we might be saved!

There is only one way to escape Hell, that is to have a relationship with Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ is the only way to escape from Hell, either in Hades, Gehenna, or even here on Earth!

God bless you all this day!

Be True To Yourself? Really?

Hello Guys and Gals!

I am writing this post for a friend of mine who is to remain unnamed. Everyone always says, 'be true to yourself!' I don't really like this statement. Let me tell you why. The reason why is that what if you're being true to yourself but you haven't figured out what yourself truly is? Then you might say that you need to 'find yourself!' Again, what if you're not looking in the right places? All these self-help politically correct sayings are just simply bull corn!

The truth is, there is only one thing that works and that is being true to God! If you are being true to God, all them other things in life like being true to yourself and finding yourself come as a result of being true to Him! Let me be clear! I'm not talking about some pagan god like Allah or Buda or even Ra who was the Egyptian god! I am talking about YHWH, Who became flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus Christ! There is only one God! All the other 'gods' of other 'religions' have nothing in common with Jesus! Do you know why? Because He is risen from the dead and no other 'god' can claim that! No other 'god' has eye witnesses to the fact that they walked, talked, ate, and drank among the living after being dead! But in Jesus we have that!

If you seek first the Kingdom of God, then all other things shall be added unto you! Seek God! Seek Jesus Christ! Go and find out who He really is! This means digging into what He said and did when He was among us. This means studying the Word of God and getting to know Him on a personal level. Are you doing this?

Now the person I am writing this for is a very dear friend of mine who is going through a hard time right now. This person has lost something very dear. My message to this person is stay seeking after Jesus. The things that have been taken will be restored again. But you must stay true to God first so that the lost will see integrity when they look at you!

I know it is tough as you walk through the fire of God's cleansing. But it is a purging fire and all the impurities and bad things that you have will be cleansed with His holy fire! I know it hurts. But it also heals! And best of all, Jesus will be right there with you as you go through this pain you are now feeling!

I ask that all who read this post today please to pray for this person who is already doing God's will and that He upholds them in their effort to remain in Him!

God bless you all this day!

To All My Friends Who Do Not Believe!

Hello Guys and Gals!

It has been on my mind that many non believers may be offended by my posts about God or Jesus or what I believe about what the Bible is saying on a particular subject. I want you to know that I am not trying to hit you over the head with my bible in an attempt at bringing you into the Kingdom of God in chains. That is the furthest thing in my heart for what I am trying to do!

I am simply trying to share my joy that I feel because God has forgiven me of my sins and given unto me Salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ!

So please, do not be offended by what I am saying or posting. I will still continue to speak the truth about what I believe. I will continue to do it in a loving way. But it is not my intent to bring you pain.

I love all you guys and gals out there who are my friends whether or not you are saved or not. I will continue to pray for your salvation. But I will also continue to be your friend!

With all the love in my heart, I pray that God shows you the truth about the joy that I feel for myself and for having you as my friend!

Christmas Message!

I have thought long and hard about what to say for Christmas. I thought that I should comment on the Christmas Story, or maybe a truth that not everyone sees. I thought that maybe I should write about something in a plea to you in order that you may find salvation in Christ. I did not choose to do any of that. What I have chosen, is to thank you all for being my friends!

About two years ago God reached down from His holy throne and convicted me of all the sin in my life. He told me that He was tired of my riding the fence of being saved and yet still sinning. So I changed my life and I started with a vow to be a man of integrity, where what I say and what I do are in perfect alignment.

Many of you did not speak to me or were not in contact with me back then. I was not a nice person. Some of you can be witnesses to that very fact of the wretch that I was. But every single one of you gave me a second chance. Every single one of you said that you would be my friend again.

So I thank you today, during this Christmas Season, for being my friend! I love each and every one of you and hope that I can somehow fulfill the hope that you see in me when you look at me and speak good words of me.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

The Truth About Vengeance!

Hello Guys and Gals!

Have you ever wanted revenge on another? I sure have. I have even taken it a time or two.

Deuteronomy 32:35 reads,
'Vengeance is Mine, and retribution,
In due time their foot will slip;
For the day of their calamity is near,
And the impending things are hastening upon them.'

Have you ever wondered why the Lord states that vengeance is His and His alone? I must say that I have given this much thought. I have fallen prey to the weakness of wanting to repay vengeance upon my enemies. I say that I have fallen prey to it and I call it a weakness for a reason. The fact is, we all desire revenge at some point in our lives for what others have wronged us with in some way! Another fact is, we all have done others wrong and rightly deserve any revenge executed upon us!

But why does God not want us to take vengeance upon others?

Is it because He likes to torture others? Not at all in any way!

Is it because He is doing to them what they rightly deserve? I don't think that is it either!

I believe sincerely that He wants to protect us! For in us is a desire to HURT others for what they have done to us. And giving in to that desire brings us into a place where God does not want us to be. We see them suffer at our hands and we eat their suffering and take it into us like a poison. Now we either vomit up that poison and learn our lesson through our own self inflicted suffering because we willingly ate that poison by our execution of revenge upon another; or after we take the poison into us, it becomes a part of us and we willing embrace that part of ourselves that goes down the wrong path!

Either of these situations is not pleasing in God's eyes. And I believe the second one leads us further into sin where the first one is like a stop sign on the path to further sin. In both cases though, we have already stepped into sin!

See, God knows us. He knows how we are built. He knows our temptations and weaknesses. So the reason God states that vengeance is His is very simple; He does not want us to suffer like He knows we will if we try to enact vengeance upon another. But vengeance, as we see it, is simply judgment as He has the right as our Creator to enact upon ALL who act against Him and His ways! And a more righteous judgment does not exist. If you think you have the ability to judge better than Him, alas you are mistaken and already on the path to sin. Please turn away from that path and return to a wonderful and life fulfilling relationship with Jesus, Savior and King!

God bless you all this evening!

Refuting the Lie that Paul was not an Apostle!

Let's look at what an Apostle is. An Apostle is one who has been chosen by Jesus to spread the message of the Gospel. So at the time Jesus was alive, there were twelve. So Judas then betrayed Jesus and was no longer counted among them. And in Acts 1 we see the eleven choose another to be counted among the twelve. I do not know if this man is truly an Apostle and have my own doubts about that because Jesus did not personally choose him. But it is not for me to say.

However at Paul's conversion, he was blinded for 3 days. But the Lord spoke to a man named Ananias and told him to go lay hands on Paul and pray for him. It is true that no one was named at the actual conversion on the road to Damascus. But Ananias was a well respected man of the Christian community. He is a witness to the Lord speaking directly to him and telling him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” Acts 9:15-16. And when Ananias laid hands on him, scales fell from Paul’s eyes and he was filled with the Holy Spirit! So the fact that there were no witnesses that were named may be true while Paul was on the road, but it is not true of Paul’s conversion.

Even later, Acts tells of how Barnabas, who was also well known and respected in the Christian community, took Paul to the Apostles who listened to his story of conversion and that he moved freely in Jerusalem with them speaking boldly in the name of Jesus.

Later on, we see Peter, also known as Cephas, of whom Jesus said, ‘upon this rock I will build my church’ being reprimanded by Paul in Galatians 2 and Peter accepted that reprimand and changed his ways. Also, the Acts of the Apostles, what we now know as Acts today, which was written by Luke is mainly about two people: Peter and Paul! Most of it is about Paul.

So I say that there are a great many witnesses to Paul’s conversion and the fact that Paul had the Holy Spirit with him during his missions! So anyone that preaches that Paul is not an Apostle or that he wasn’t converted as so many gave testimony that he was, is preaching a gospel that is not of Jesus Christ. Be careful here for all of you who are listening to anyone who says Paul is not an Apostle. Those who Jesus chose before his sacrifice clearly knew that Paul was chosen by Jesus Himself on the road to Damascus and they did not doubt that Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit which is another testimony to his calling. Anyone who is listening to people who change the Gospel are in dangerous territory!

God bless you all this day!

Do you know? And does it scare you?

Hello Guys and Gals!

It's been a while and I apologize for that. I have had a lot going on medically and RL stuff so please forgive me.

So tonight I'm asking you a question. Do you know what you're capable of doing? And does it scare you?

I sometimes watch movies or TV shows where people or soldiers or criminals push the limit on what is acceptable behavior. While watching them I sometimes catch myself rooting for the bad guys, or the good guys, or the guys with nothing to lose. I think I always root for the guys most who have nothing to lose and they're risking it all on some gamble they're making.

The thing is, when watching those people in those situations, I know that I am capable of doing every single thing they've done! I know this because when the poo hits the fan, my blood turns to ice. What I mean is, when trouble is happening, my conscience goes away and is locked up inside me and I do not let it out again until the situation I'm in is over. I become very cold and calculated and very 'get this done no matter what it takes'!

And this scares me!

In the very depths of my being, I know that I am capable of doing ANYTHING it takes to fix a situation. I shut off all emotion, pain, and even mercy.

If you wonder why I try to have a good relationship with each and every one of you, it is because I have seen what it is to hurt someone in the very depths of their soul and not care about it. When I finally do let out my emotions again, I break! Literally break inside me! My very heart hurts with the pain of the things I have done! Even now as I write this, I remember and tears fill my eyes! I don't like to hurt others. I have done it way too many times! And even the faded memory is way too much for me to bear.

Jesus is my Lord and Savior for one reason and one reason only. He loved me when NOBODY else did! He came to where I was and He put his arm around me and walked me out of that desolate place! Some may think that I make it up when I tell people I've seen Jesus, literally, walking beside me at my most painful times in my life. This is not a lie. It is truth! One time He even took me in a dream to the foot of the cross with Him hanging from it. And you know what I saw? I saw a broken man in severe pain, struggling for His every breath, and He looked down on me and then all I saw was love in His eyes. His love for me. When He hung on that cross, He did it solely for me and me alone and He told me it was worth the price!

If you do not know Jesus this way, then fall to your knees and pray that He helps you to come closer to Him as He helped me. This is my Jesus, my Lord, my God, my Savior! He is the holy, holy, holy one of Israel and He died so that you may have life. I'm not talking the life of desolation and shame that you now live, but the life of being freed from sin's embrace. Free to love and cherish others as He loved and cherishes you.

Remember always, it doesn't matter how far down the path of sin you have gone. All you have to do is repent, literally turn around, and you will find Him there ready to take you back to the path of His righteousness!

May God draw you closer to Him this very night through the love of His Son, Jesus Christ my Lord!

I Know My Fate!

For many years now, I have seen what my fate is to be coming clearer and clearer before my eyes. I did not want to accept it. I knew what it was supposed to be and yet I resisted.

I cannot point to any given thing that has emphatically told me in precise words that this is my fate. Yet it seems to me that God has always spoken to me through many outlets such as His Word, Pastors, Evangelists, other Christians, Non-Christians, even animals and the very things that make up Nature! They have all pointed to me and told me what my fate will be. And yet still I resisted.

So I lived the life of a sinner. A Liar, Adulterer, Blasphemer, Drug Dealer, Thief, Slanderer and many, many other sinful things was I. Those of you that know me, know some of those things about me. Those of you who do not know me, you are more than welcome to go through my blogs on here and find out what you may.

I bet many of you are curious as to what that fate actually is. Well, I'll tell you. My fate, as I know it to be, is to give my very life for Jesus Christ! I'm not talking about living it to Jesus. I'm talking about standing up against all that is against Jesus and speaking the Truth about Jesus, not giving a single inch in my stand, and having my life taken because of it! The life in this very body extinguished! I know this to be a fact that will happen. Again, I cannot point to any one thing that has told me this, but I know it to be a fact none the less. I take it on faith. The faith I have in God, in Jesus, in the Word of God to accomplish that which I have been told is to come.

I surrender to my fate completely! I surrender myself and the very breath of my life to this fate knowing that God's Will will be furthered along with my last breath! I surrender it into your hands my Lord and Savior, into your hands Jesus Christ, into your hands Lord God Almighty!

I know that I may not die tonight. I know that I may not die tomorrow. I know it may not happen next month or next year. I simply know it will happen. But then, it has already happened in one sense as well. The sense that I had to die to all that I desire in my life in order to accept all that God wants for me in my life.

I had to come to realize that my life was nothing but vanity. I had good looks once. I had a fit body also. I had brains. I had a good job. I had a loving wife. I had great friends. Then God showed my the truth about my life. He let me ruin myself in order to show me that my life was nothing but vanity and even that which I did have, I could lose through my vanity. I lost my good looks. I lost my fit body. I even lost my ability to think clearly. I was without a job. My wife divorced me. My friends no longer talked to me. I had even lost my will to live. I truthfully did not think of any reason to go on living. The thing is, the more I thought about what I had lost, the harder I tried to find just one reason to live. I failed in that quest!

God was with me even then as well. He had never left me. I just had turned away from Him and was ignoring His attempts to get me to turn around and see Him once again. I came to the end of myself. When I mean the end, I mean there was nothing left of me. All that I had valued and cherished that I had accomplished through all my efforts was gone. I no longer had any reason to go on living.

I prayed that I would die! It hurts me even now to admit that. But I prayed and prayed and prayed that God would snuff out my life so that I would not feel the pain of all that loss any more. He heard me. He heard what I was praying for and He answered me. He took my life. I willingly surrendered it to Him. Then He said, 'Not yet!' and He started to transform me. He restored my intellect. He restored my friends. He restored my faith in Him. He took this ruined husk of a shell and He poured Himself into it and started transforming me into an image of His Son, Jesus Christ. I am far from complete. But He is still pouring Himself into me. He keeps pouring and pouring and pouring.

As I now live His life, not mine anymore but His, I find that all those things that I thought I had accomplished of my own will, they were never mine to begin with, but His! And now He is putting them back into my stewardship and guiding me on how to care for them. I can't tell you how much He has restored to me. My life has meaning again. But then, it's not my life anymore, but His!

The Jay that all of you knew from before is dead! The Jay that lives now is not the former Jay, but instead, Jay is the Jay that Jesus has made. This new Jay lives for the sole purpose of doing the Will of Jesus Christ. And the best part of all you ask? The best part is that my life is better than it ever has been before! I cannot tell you of the joy and peace and everything that comes from Him.

I wish for each and every one of you to know Him like I know Him! Do you live for yourself? Do you live for someone else other than Jesus? If you do, then stop and die because the life you are living is dead anyway. Go talk to Jesus! Right here. Right now. Ask my Lord to be your Lord. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. And all those people who you were formerly living for, they will be better off with you having Jesus Christ as your Lord and them being second in your life instead of first. They will know joy and peace like never before.

Yet I still know that the death of this body is to come. I even know that this body will die in defiance against something that will be assailing me for the sole reason that I have Jesus Christ as my Lord. When that will be I do not care. I do not care if it happens tonight. I do not care if it happens thirty years from now. The only thing I do care about is that I give it willingly for Jesus!

May my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, reach out and touch your heart this very moment and let you know that He loves you!

Amen and Amen!

Can you go too far?

Hello Guys and Gals!

For most of my adult life, I was a hedonist. I did things simply for my pleasure and that was my motivation for doing anything. During this time, God was working on me. He called me to follow Him completely and I never did. Even my own family and friends kept telling me I needed to grow up and start taking responsibility for my life. I was told time and again that I needed to be a man and correct the bad things in my life, you know, grow up!

Now that I have committed myself to God completely in all that I do, and I'm speaking His Word, spreading the Gospel, and standing up for the Truth, relying on His strength for my integrity, I ask the question, 'Have I gone too far?'! Can you go too far in following Him? Is what I now am distasteful to others because I follow Him so completely? Now I'm not saying that I'm perfect or even close to it, but I am committed to Him and doing His will in my life and the lives of others. But have I gone too far?

I remember posting about how if I lost everything, including family and friends, and if I still have Jesus, then I have the world and more because He is all I need! Well, I believe now that He tested me in this. When I have a confrontation with my brother, I was tested in how I would react. I did the right thing and stayed calm. When my brother got violent, I called the police and let them handle it. During this event and the following conversations with my family, I learned that my brother lied to my family about many things concerning that event. He has also told many others that he will catch up with me one day and then the score will be settled. I spoke the truth to my family, the police, the District Attorney, and even the Judge on the stand at court. Yet my brother has bragged to people that my family has essentially disowned me and how pleased he is by that. My family says they haven't, yet none of them call me. The only one who does is my mother every couple of months or so.

I stood up for the truth and did not lie even about how I was feeling during the time of the event and after. I was called a liar by many in my family. This hurt me very much. Even now I can feel the pain of it all. I had to tell my mother that so long as my brother intends to do me harm, that I will have nothing to do with either him or anyone else who associates with him in any way. This was very difficult for me to do. But then, there was only my mother calling me at that time anyway. I fear that my brother will somehow find a way to find out where I now live and other ways to cause me harm.

But through it all, every single second of it, Jesus stood by my side and gave me His strength to handle this trial I am going through right now. Jesus lets me know every single day that He is by my side as I struggle with everything that I am struggling with. Even through all of this, my life has improved. My health is getting better, even if it's doing so slowly. My finances are improving. My home life with my friend Corey is awesome. He's one of the best friends I have ever had. And even my devoted time to Jesus and His Word has improved by so much it cannot be measured.

But again, let me ask, did I go too far? I don't think I did! I am relying on God more than ever before and He has proven Himself to be faithful again and again...oh yeah, even again after that! Jesus, you are my true Lord and I happily get down on my knees before you every morning. You are my savior and I am forever thankful that you loved a wretch like me enough to pull me out of the hell I was living in and restore to me all that You have. You are my God and I will forever praise you saying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty!

Here is the whole point of this post, you can never go too far when you're going towards Jesus! The simple truth is, no matter how far you do go, He is always with you and encouraging you to come even closer to Him. Even when I am living in His holy city, being every day in His presence for ten thousand years, He will still be challenging me to come even closer to Him! I love him so much that my heart literally aches at the thought of being able to walk up to Him and fall to my knees before Him and thank Him for being Him!

If you feel that Jesus is challenging you to come closer to Him, then take up that challenge and see what He has in store for you. Yes, I am still struggling with this issue in my life and I pray daily for restoration of my family, but just having Jesus is still more than enough for me! I pray that you also find this kind of relationship with Him in your life as well!

May God give each and every one of you a special blessing this day!

I Still Have Jesus!

Hello Guys and Gals!

I have been thinking about what if I lost something. It has been mulling over in my mind for a while now. One of the things that I hold most dear is the knowledge I have. My intelligentcia if you will. But what would I feel like if I lost my ability to think clearly? To analyze? To even understand?

Well, I have come to a conclusion about this. If I lose everything, my intelligence, my health, my ability to walk, to talk, to process thoughts, if I lose it all and I still have Jesus, whom by the way can never be taken from me, then I have still won! I win salvation which is a free gift from God through my faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. This means that I will never suffer of the Second Death which is the death of the soul. I will never be cast into Gehenna, the Lake of Fire. I will never know what total separation from God is. And this means I win life eternal with Him!

Thank you Jesus, my Lord, my Savior, my God, and my friend! I love you!

If you do not have this kind of a relationship with Jesus Christ, and you would like to know God personally as I do, please contact me here, by e-mail, by phone, or just come over and talk to me. I will not judge you. I have probably done worse than you could ever do. If Jesus can save me, then He certainly can save you as well. God loves you! Jesus loves you! He wants you to have eternal life and even better life than what you are now experiencing. He wants to give it to you freely. You only have to reach out to Him and ask Him to come into your heart. You can do this alone, or with someone else, or with me. Either way, or whatever you do decide to do, please seek to find out what God wants for you.

I love all of you guys! God bless you this day!