Heaven and Hell: A State of Being

Jesus did speak of such a place, Hell, and the Greek word used was Gehenna (which translated to English is Hell). It's a place that the folks of that time and culture understood perfectly. Jesus used this place to aid in illustrating His point, that those who make bad choices and don't put God first wind up in a place such as this. People who worship false gods or set stuff like money as a higher priority that God ultimately end up in a Gehenna.

From the sermon/message of my pastor Rob, when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, anywhere you have a condition where people are suffering (starving, sick, death, disease, greed, lust, etc...) there is a Hell or Gehenna on earth.

Now, the flip side of this is of course Heaven. At the very core to His kingdom of Heaven is love. I've concluded and confirmed that love is the decision to put others first. When I say "I love you" to my wife, I'm telling her that she matters more to me than I matter to myself. The best and loudest example of His perfect love is Jesus on the cross. Jesus is saying that we matter more to Him than He matters to Himself. Yeah, He just loves us sooooooooooooooo much! In here is a condition of Heaven on earth. Jesus taught us to pray saying to our Abba that His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. So yeah, bring Heaven on earth. So who aids Him in this...we do! Yes, the church! We help bring up there down here. The church is a force in this world, so where there are hungry...we bring them food. Where there are sick, we bring them healing/medicine. In a nutshell, we extend the love of God around this world with such acts. God enables us to do so. So we, the church, have it within us by His grace and power to charge at the gates of Hell and tear them down!!! While many may run from these gates, the church runs at them.

It's really a state of being contingent upon our choices. IF we so choose, we can be in Heaven (by Christ's love and power, of course). Or, if we choose we can be in Hell. C.S. Lewis wrote it that basically God doesn't send anyone to Hell. Nope, we get there on our own. So choose wisely...choose Jesus.

I'm praying for us all and may the grace of God abound in us all.