On Sunday at our worship gathering we we talked about how when the Spirit of God lives in you, you become aware of “the coming judgment” and therefore live your life with a sense of urgency. Before you get all worked up, however, I’d like to contextualize “judgment” for you. We defined hell as the absence of God’s presence. If God is good, if God is love, if the results of following God are qualities such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control then hell would be a place that is void of those qualities. So the worst judgment, then, that could befall us would be God allowing us to choose not him, letting us choose our own way away from him.* And if hell is the absence of God then heaven would be the continual presence of him. Heaven would be a place that is characterized by the qualities and nature of God: love, joy, peace…So as followers of Christ, aspeople filled with the Spirit of God we are walking around in constant communion with God, we are living in a piece of heaven now! That also means that some people are experiencing a piece of hell now too! I could tell you story after story of hell on earth, where people are living and experiencing things that are contrary and opposed to the love filled, good, and holy nature of God.

Those who were there on Sunday were commissioned to go out and allow the Spirit of God to bring you a greater awareness of the presence of hell in this world, the reality of judgment, of pain, suffering, fear, loneliness, greed, abuse, etc. Those who were there on Sunday were commissioned to go out and love people, bring people a slice of heaven that we carry around with us daily. Those who were there were commissioned to stop hanging out with Christians, stop ‘going to church’, stop praying, and start spending time loving people who need hope, heaven, love…Jesus. Jesus promised that the gates of hell won’t be able to stop us. The gates of hell may not stop us, but you know what will? Church activities! We can’t storm the gates of hell if we’re too busy talking about Jesus in our holy huddles.

So if you’re reading this, I challenge you to live differently. If you see your neighbor outside, go get your mail and talk to them! If you notice that your neighbors lawn isn’t mowed, then mow it! If you see someone who needs a meal, feed them! If you’ve got a coworker who is experiencing tragedy, buy them flowers! Stop telling people things and start asking lots of questions! If you don’t know about hell int eh world around you then you need to ask more questions! Let’s start caring, lets start listening, and lets start urgently loving hell right out the door.

* This must be balanced with the mystery that Jesus has been to hell and back, that Jesus dwells with those who experience and choose hell. While we may choose the absence of God, Jesus has chosen to find us there and wait for us to begin to choose better things. What a great God we serve!