Stop Thinking of Death as the End

A few months ago Aly sent me (McKenzie) an inspiring Tik Tok explaining life in the form of a jump rope. The man in the video used one of the ends as the now (life on earth), and he used the rest of the rope as eternity. Google defends eternity as “infinite or unending time.”. Because nobody has ever been FOREVER (because there is no end). From the time we are conceived, we will always be. Whether on this earth or not! I don’t think we as humans completely understand how long eternity actually is.

Pain vs. Peace

Ok, while we live on Earth we don’t get to choose to live in peace or in pain 24/7. Ask yourself. If you could pick... Which would you choose? I’m assuming you said peace, right?! Well if you would want to live in peace in this small part of your being (the end side of the jump rope), I bet you would definitely want to live in peace for the rest of the jump rope part of your being. What would you do if we said you could? Would you believe us, or would you just click off of this blog post? Well…. That is exactly what we’re gonna say! DON’T CLICK OFF YET!! Please just hear us out! Why did you want to click out?! Is it maybe because something inside of you is telling you that this is your chance. Does that scare you? Why would it scare you? Maybe it frightens you because you know what we are telling you is true you just don’t want to admit it. But I mean maybe it isn’t true! Maybe you were right! That may just be a feeling and nothing more. Hey, but what if it’s not…. If we’re wrong about eternity, then we’ve just spent our whole lives in peace knowing we are in God’s hands. What is there to lose?! But maybe… we were right… then you’ve wasted your eternity. Remember? Eternity is forever! 

Hell

“Hell is probably the most hated truth in the Bible. Many people are afraid to preach on Hell, but Jesus was the greatest Hellfire preacher ever.”- Fritz Chery (from the Bible Reasons) Do you know why Jesus preached on Hell? Because it’s real. Jesus loves you! Read that again! Jesus doesn’t want you to go to Hell. In fact, It’s His will for EVERYONE to go to Heaven! Jesus doesn’t send people to Hell, people send themselves to Hell. Our society makes Hell sound like a big party. Some musicians and artists promote Hell as if it’s a good thing. News flash! It’s not! “...there are a lot of folks deceived by Hell. Folks don’t believe in Hell, preachers don’t preach on Hell, we’ve got to the point where we are calling Jesus Christ a liar. We are saying the Bible is full of error. We’ve got our own ideas, our own falsifies, but I’m here to tell you the God who created the universe says there is a Hell..” -William Blackburn 

So What Is Hell? 

Growing up, Hell just kinda seemed like a place full of fire. Sure, It’s terrifying, but Hell is so much worse than just a bunch of fire! “Hell has no exits.”- Leonard Ravenhill

Once you are in Hell, you can’t get out. It’s never too late to turn to Christ… until it is. God separates himself from evil (Isaiah 59:2). Jesus told this true story about “The Rich Man and Lazarus”. If you have a Bible you can look in Luke chapter 19, verses 19-28 (If you don’t have a Bible then here is a free link! https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ ).

We really encourage you to go read those passages yourself. It totally changed my (Mckenzie’s) perspective on Hell. For now, we’ll kinda explain what’s going on. There was a wealthy man who died and went to Hell (not because he was wealthy! Because he didn’t accept Jesus as his savior.). Then there was this poor beggar named Lazarus, who died and went to Abraham’s bosom (not because he was poor! But because he did accept Christ as his savior. Although back then, before Jesus died on the cross, you would have accepted him differently than you would have today. That’s another blog for another time ;) ) Before Jesus died on the cross, we couldn’t go to Heaven. Still, Jesus loved us (them) so much, He didn’t want anyone to go to Hell. He made a place called Abraham’s bosom, for souls (people) that accepted Him as their Savior, to go instead of Hell. People in the old testament like Job, Noah, Queen Esther, and so many more people we don’t even know about went to this place. The rich man could see Lazarus in the bosom from Hell. Now, this part is what changed my perspective. (KJV verse 24) “And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”... Wow... He was in so much agony, he thought that just enough water on the TIP of Lazarus’ finger would satisfy him enough. Let’s keep reading! (KJV verse 27) “Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father (Talking to Abraham, not God. Remember, God separates himself from evil), that thou wouldest send him (Lazarus) to my father’s house: (verse 28) For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” He wanted his brothers to hear about this terrible place (Moses and the prophets ended up telling them) so they would accept Christ and never find themselves in Hell. If we look in Mark, we know that the man and so many more souls are still feeling the same amount of agony and torture as they did when they first left this earth and went into Hell. (Mark 9:43-44 “... the fire that never shall be quenched: (verse 44) Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”.

Heaven

(Revelations 21:4 KJV) “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” This verse gives all believers (people who have accepted Jesus as their savior) SO MUCH HOPE! The fact that the God of the universe is going to “wipe away all tears” is so humbling! Those who have accepted Jesus into their hearts WILL go to Heaven when they leave this earth. So if you have accepted Him then one day you will go to live with God. What a glorious day that will be! “What A Day That Will Be” by Heritage Singers is a great song that reminds us how amazing it will be in Heaven. If you haven’t (or even if you have!) heard this beautiful song, we would love for you to go look it up. Although for now, we want to share with y’all two stanzas that will (prayerfully!) help y’all better understand God’s home. 

“There’ll be no sorrows there 

And no more burdens to bear

No more sickness and no more pain 

No more parting over there

And forever I will be 

With the One who died for me 

What a day, glorious day that will be

What a day that will be 

When my Jesus I shall see 

When I look upon His face 

The One who saved me by His Grace

When He takes me by the hand 

And leads me to the Promised Land 

What a day, glorious day that will be”

So What is Heaven?

Despite Belinda Carlisle’s song, (Yes. We had to look up her name)…Heaven is not a place on earth! In fact, it’s far from it. Although we don’t know everything about Heaven or what will happen there, the Bible does give us some insight into what Heaven is like. Heaven will have a beautiful street made of pure gold (Revelation 21:21), Heaven won’t have a sun for light because God’s glory will be able to light up all of Heaven (Revelations 21:23)(That is how glorious our God is! ), and  WE WILL SEE GOD’S FACE (Rev. 22:4)! How marvelous is that?  If you are someone who likes to look into things a little further, you should go read Revelation chapter 21 and 22 after this (btw! If you do, the KJV, and possibly other versions of the Bible, refers to Heaven as the “new Jerusalem”. ;))!

Jesus Dying on the Cross and Rising Again 

1,986 years ago, in 33 AD, the most important event in history occurred. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Right now, this might not be making much sense, but you’ll understand it soon. Jesus was a perfect image of God. He never did anything wrong. (You can read more about this in the next section.) At age 33, it was time for Jesus to do what God put Him on this Earth. Jesus was put on trial, where He was found guilty. Next, He was furiously beaten with a cat of nine tails. This is a type of whip that holds a variety of rocks, glass, and other things. Not only was He beaten with these, but He was beaten with these by multiple people, hundreds of times. Next, He was brought among the people to see what would be done with Him next. The people shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” They wanted to cause a sinless man to die one of the most painful deaths possible. The Roman soldiers shoved a crown of thorns on His head to mock Him; for they did not think that He was the king of the Jews. Next, He was forced to carry the cross that He would die on hours later. While He was carrying His cross, many mocked Him, but His followers were deeply saddened. He was beaten as He was walking up the hill to Calvary. Once He got there, He was nailed to the cross alongside two thieves. One of the thieves mocked and scorned Jesus. Much like the soldiers, he did not believe that Jesus was our savior. However the thief on His right hand believed that He was the Messiah. Just before he died, Jesus told him, “...Verily I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43 KJV) Soon after, a dark sky fell over Calvary. This was the exact moment when Jesus had the sins of the world laid upon Him. Since God separates Himself from sin, (Isaiah 59:2) He could not be looking upon His son at the time that He had the sins of the world on Him. Soon after this, Jesus died. The soldiers stabbed a spear into His side, to make sure that He was dead. Mary, His mother, and many others took Jesus to His grave. This may seem like a sad story, but IT’S NOT OVER YET! Three days after Jesus was buried, some women went to the grave to spread spices over His body, and He wasn’t in the tomb! There was an angel on top of the grave who told the women “He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come see the place where the Lord lay.” (Matthew 28:6 KJV) Then, Mary Magdalene saw Jesus! She even saw his nail-scarred hands! He is risen!

How to be Saved, and the Romans Road

Though all of this may seem confusing right now, getting saved is a very easy decision. Accepting Jesus is the best decision you’ll ever make! But maybe, you’re asking, “How do I become saved?” Well, it starts by realizing that you’re a sinner and in need of a savoir. This means that we all have done things that are wrong, and in need of Jesus to save us from Hell.  We’ve all done or said things that hurt others or ourselves. We can’t be with God for this reason, (or in His home in Heaven) because He is perfect and without sin. The Bible says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23 KJV) This means that everyone has sinned, but Jesus Christ will forgive these sins. No matter who you are, or what you’ve done, He will forgive you. Jesus died a painful, agonizing death on the cross for you and me. He was an innocent man, who God sent down from Heaven to die for OUR sins. “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 KJV) You may ask, “How was Jesus sinless if we all sin?” As I said before, God sent Jesus down to Earth. Though He did have many temptations, He never sinned. If He had sinned, He would not have been able to die for us. “Just as a drowning man can’t save a man from drowning, a sinning man can’t save another man from his sin.” The next thing that you need to know is that Jesus had to die on the cross in order to save us from our wrongdoings. There had to be a sacrifice of a sinless man in order to pay for our sins. No one else could have made this sacrifice, because Jesus was the only perfect person to ever walk the Earth. Despite what we may believe, we all have done something wrong in one way or another. That is why Jesus had to come. We have all sinned, even if we don’t realize it. But it is okay because the third and final thing you must know about salvation is that God is 100% willing to forgive every single one of our sins. Not only is He willing to forgive them, but He WANTS too. God wants to live an eternity with His creation. This is how He intended for life to be, before sin entered the world. So like we said before, Jesus wants to forgive our sins. How do we ask Him to do this? Well, it really is that simple! You just have to ASK Him! You must truly believe and ask God to come into your heart, and He will! Romans 10:9-10 KJV says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

More than just Heaven and Hell

Although we wrote a lot on Heaven and Hell today, accepting Christ is so much more than just that! We first off want to thank you so very much for reading our blog post! Whether you were saved by God’s amazing grace before reading this or not, we pray that you took something from this post. If you have a question on what we talked about or need more information on this topic, please feel free to contact us through any of our social media accounts ( @_girlsforjesus_ on Instagram or on our Girls For Jesus Facebook group) or by email (girlsforjesus@gmail.com). Whether the question is on salvation or you are just curious about something, we would be thrilled to get you the answer! No matter who you are, we promise to take your question very seriously, and without judging.