Wednesday June 22, 2011

Read 2 Peter 2:10-22

Yesterday we were comforted with the truth that God knows how to rescue godly men from trials. The flip side of the coin is quite scary. God knows how to judge the ungodly.  God has placed the sinning angels into Tartarus to hold them until the day of judgement.  He judged the men and women of the ancient world. Only 8 people were rescued from the worldwide deluge.  Lot and his family were the only ones to be rescued from Sodom/Gomorrah. The rest were punished.  God knows how to hold the unrighteous for the day of punishment.

Being punished by God is not something to take lightly. The Word of God describes God’s eternal punishment as a place of eternal torture (external pain) and eternal torment (internal pain).  It is a lonely place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is a place of ongoing punishment and pain, a place of eternal fire that burns and scolds for ever.

But the picture only gets worse. Look at the words of vs 10. This is especially true, says God, for those who chase the passions of the flesh - for those who think that drinking and screwing around is the sum and total of life. It is especially true of those who despise authority - those who make sport of people in authority, those who snub their nose at anyone in authority, those who wantonly flout the rules and use people and things for their own pleasures, those who want nothing to do with God in this life. God knows exactly what he is doing in holding them for eternal punishment.

Is this you? If it is, I pray that you are given a huge wake up call by God Himself. I wouldn’t wish hell on anybody.  A young girl once persisted on telling me how she’s looking forward to life forever in HELL. As I was barbequing some steaks I asked her if she wanted to know what hell was like. She said, ‘Yes’ so I invited her to put her hand in the flames of the bbq and to leave it there for a month or two. She was horrified. I explained that hell is much worse than that and can never end. There is no cure or medicine to remove the pain of hell.  But she came to realise (and I pray that you do too) that God takes no joy in sending people to hell. He wants you to repent (change your mind about your life and about God) and to believe in Jesus, his one and only Son. God wants to be your friend now and He wants to welcome you into heaven one day with arms open wide. God is there waiting for you, ready to forgive and to love you freely.

If you are already a believer let me encourage you to think about the people you love that don’t yet know Jesus. Whether or not they are good people (I’m sure they are) is not the issue. The above judgement is facing them as well. But, praise the Lord, you have the opportunity to share with them the good news of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. God has promised that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Prayer:-

V Pray for the youth in your congregation that they will have opportunities to reach out to their friends and invite them along to youth group.

V Pray for the leaders of all youth groups that they will be able to encourage and support the youth as they  grow in Christ.

Developing Godly Habits #3

To walk in victory we need to learn to see the signs of temptation before they get a hold of us.  We need to know when we are most likely to be tempted and by what means we are usually tempted.

Once we figure out the strategy that temptation usually

uses, we can take evasive and protective action. We can make changes to our lifestyle and actions that ward off temptation before it hits us.

The man, for example, is tempted to steal at the shops can take action if he knows it. He can avoid going shopping alone. He can shop online as much as possible. He can wear clothes that are impossible to hide things in when he shops. These are all proactive ways to fight off temptation.

Knowing how the enemy works is vital if we are going to achieve victory.  Most serious fighters, sports teams and    competitors spend hours watching their enemy to know their game plan. Do you know your enemies’ game plan? Do you know when temptation is most likely to throw a punch at you? Can you foresee where that punch will come from? As you start seeing patterns and regularities you’ll be able to dodge, duck and weave before temptation can hit you.

God will be greatly glorified as you fight the good fight and avoid temptation.