"You're Going to Hell if...."

"You're going to hell if....."  Now how many of us have heard that statement before?  If you live in the South, no doubt you've heard that statement many times.  "You're going to hell if you don't quit smoking", "You're going to hell if you don't quit drinking.", and "You're going to hell if you don't go to church on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night." rank among my favorites.  If you've read my posts prior to this one, you've no doubt read my comments about the differences between "church people" and "Christians".  My Pastor, Dean Herman, speaks of this difference on nearly every service.  There is such a difference, the main stream media even had fun with "Church People" back in the 1990's with the Saturday Night Live sketch, "The Church Lady".  What most Church People choose not to see, is that in God's eyes, sin is sin.  Now don't freak out, because the same God that recognizes that sin is sin, is the same God that loved us enough to send his Son to die for us. 

God isn't some all powerful Greek God-like being that is sitting on the high throne with a baseball bat waiting to whack us in the head every time we mess up.  God does have a plan for each us that is designed to prosper us and not to harm us (Jeremiah 29:11).  I know I do my share of messing up; makes me wonder if God looks on me and shakes his head from time to time as if to say, "Dang boy, you really thought that one through didn't you?  But remember, sin is sin.  Any sin in our lives separate us from communication with God since God cannot look on sin (which by the way is why he sent his son to die on the cross for OUR sins).  There is no such thing as big or little sins.  God DOES NOT have a grading scale for sin; it is what it is.  The fact of the matter is, the only thing that will send us straight to Hell, is not accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior (This is what Church people call, "Being Saved"). Everything else are things that, in my words, hurt God's feelings.  Romans 6:23 says, (I like the New Life Translation for this one) "You get what is coming to you when you sin. It is death! But God’s free gift is life that lasts forever. It is given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ."  The God that has so richly blessed us with so many things, only wants to have a relationship with each of us.  And when we sin, WAIT! Let me tell you what sin really is!  Sin is things like lying, cheating, stealing, overeating, overworking, neglect, disrespect, being a dead beat dad or mom, gossip, lust, hate, bad attitudes, and many more! Did I mention GOSSIP?  Anyway, when we sin, it's like slapping God in the face and saying, "Thanks God for letting your son be starved, tortured, and then murdered on public display, but I've got an image to keep..."  I mean, how long would it take us to dump a friend or spouse if they treated us the way we treat God?  Good thing he doesn't measure us with expectation the way we measure others.

If you've managed to read this far, I hope you find my blog useful.and encouraging.  My challenge to myself and all of you, is to work on forgiveness and compassion for the coming year.  My goal is to love everyone around me just as Christ has loved me!  After all, how can we ask God to love and bless us, if we're not willing to do the same?