Recently we were trimming shrubs and cleaning up the flower beds at Church. Yes the Heat Index was expected to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but we had to get it done before school started. Much of our work was Brother Bob wielding hedge clippers and Caleb and I cleaning up what he cut off. We also dug up weeds and cleared out flower beds. Brother Al was helping, but he was called away to care for his sick wife. The heat and humidity, along with manual labor, drained our strength and left us soaked in sweat. It was tough working out in “the heat.”
We paced ourselves and drank lots of water, but the heat made my face flush and Brother Bob kept asking if I was ok. He said “I don’t want you dying on me” and I joked “If I do I will send a note from Heaven that what we believe is true.” My joking must have reassured him, because Bob worked us another hour before calling it a day. We all went inside, where the cool air and more water refreshed us. We were so happy we didn’t have to stay outside in “the heat.”
My corny joke got me to thinking about what kind of message I could send to reassure people that Heaven is real. JESUS told of a rich man, who was in Hell and asked Abraham to send Lazarus (the beggar) back to warn his five brothers. He reasoned, “if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.” Abraham replied, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:27-31 KJV). There was no indication that the rich man’s brothers believed the WORD and repented, and so the five brothers most likely joined their brother in Hell. It doesn’t matter when that story actually took place, because they will be tormented in “the heat” forever.
The story does tell us how a message from Heaven or Hell is passed to the living. It is passed through the WORD of GOD. The rich man and his brothers had Moses and the Prophets and we have “the rich man’s testimony of Hell” and the rest of the WORD in the Bible. We are told how “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV) and “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8 KLV). We don’t have to endure “the heat” of Hell.
If we don’t believe GOD’s WORD and those He sent to tell us, the final messenger is the HOLY SPIRIT. Maybe that is why blaspheming the HOLY SPIRIT is unforgivable? The HOLY SPIRIT is our last call to believe, repent and be saved from “the heat!”
Don’t reject the Good News of JESUS CHRIST! Don’t wait, like the rich man, until you are in the fire to believe, “now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2 KJV). GOD has so much more for you, if you will only believe His WORD today. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 KJV).
Wayne Lance (2019)…