Visiting Hell

What do you think you are doing in Hell?

You know how it is. You are sitting there just chilling and the Lord interrupts you with a real startling thought. The Lord did that with me this thought this morning – “What do you think you are doing in Hell?“ I had to step back for a moment and ask Him if He really did say what I think He said? “Yes, I did say that,” came the response. “OK, Lord”, I said, “What do you mean by that please?”

We have often enough heard this expression as What in Hell do you think you are doing? in secular films and plays, but I have never heard anything like it in the context of God’s perspective. That is the way the Lord invited me to view it - What do you think you are doing in Hell?, from God’s perspective. It is quite interesting – well it is interesting to me anyway.

Sometimes, as we journey through life, we have to deliberately step into hell in order to pull someone out of there. However, there are also times when we seem deliberately to step into hell in order to look, feel, or actually abide in the world’s systems. That is when the Lord asks us, What do you think you are doing in Hell? More precisely, He asks us ‘what do we think we are doing in hell when our place is walking with Him?’

And how do we manage to step into hell? Oh that’s very easy to do – I seem to manage it quite frequently. That’s when I have to repent and get out of there. Any activity we undertake, any language we use in any circumstances, that Jesus Himself would not do or use – that’s when we are stepping into hell. Even for a nano-second, if we play with the fires of hell we can get burnt. Yet God is so good and His mercy endures for ever. When we truly repent, he forgives us - and here’s the best bit – “He remembers our sin no more.” (Heb 8:12)

What a wonderful God we serve. Amen ??