Believe in hell.

I've been thinking about hell a lot, recently. I don't really know why; I just have.

I mean, it is a good thing to think about. It's quite real, and quite a lot of people are on their way there.

Perhaps it's because of a sermon I was listening to about missions - about how every single individual in literally hundreds if not thousands of unreached people groups are going there. Yeah. Every individual. Because you need to believe to be saved and hear to believe.

So for instance, every individual that's part of the Nung people, who live in the highlands of Vietnam - every one of them is on their way to hell.

Sobering, isn't it? And yet we've got things like 'Red Letter Christians' now. "We've got to pay attention to all these commands to take care of the poor," they say. True, true. Of course they're forgetting why those commands are there to begin with... to point us to our world's dire need for a Rescuer...

Or the emergents, who say we have to 'reach' the culture by getting them to 'experience' God - always of course outside of the means he's told us to use. And beyond that, reach them with what? So they can have a spiritual experience... and still go to hell?

Or the doctrine hounds, who attack everyone 'til there's no one left to attack, then turn on their own - if not for a trifle of bad doctrine, then for a trifle of bad ministry philosophy. I think forgetting that their own philosophies and preaching is imperfect...

And then there's me - am I moved to love the people who surround me? Who scan my food at the grocery store? Who I see at the gym? Who I'll sit next to on a plane ride? Who I pass on the way to the parking lot of my apartment complex? Am I moved by the fact that they'll get - save for God's intervention in Jesus - precisely what I deserve... forever?

Am I praying? Am I speaking? Am I loving?

Am I forgetting that it's insanely unloving to help take care of what someone feels like they need without trying to help them escape hell?

Am I moved by a love for God that longs for his name to be adored in every corner of the world?

Do I think, live, and feel like he deserves that? And that that is the great goal of all creation?

God showed us what love is by rescuing us. Now he calls us to fill his role as lovers of this hellbound humanity.

O my God - that we would honor you and show your love to a rebellious world! Not simply because it's right - but because you're worth it and have caused us to desire that all glory be given to your name!