I pushed my lawn lower around in my yard this afternoon until I was pretty sure I was about to die from the heat. I went in and got a quart jar of water and ice, and here I sit getting rested up for another bout with the grass in my yard. The expression, “Hotter than hell” has been around for awhile, but nobody really knows how hot hell is. Jesus tells a story about 2 men who die, one of them ends up in hell, and in the story “he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.” The devil is often portrayed as the captain of hell, but he is just one of the residents,

Revelation 20:10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

But the Bible also says that people who are not followers of Jesus Christ will end up in this “hot place” as well.

Revelation 20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

I was in a store this morning waiting for my cell phone to get fixed, and there was a “Harry Potter” movie playing on a big screen, and I listened in as a customer and a salesman were discussing the merits of the movie. Another customer, chimed in, “I don’t watch movies that are fantasy“. The salesman asked, “why?”, and the response was, “because they mess with your brain so that you don’t know what is real in life from what is fantasy“. That pretty much ended the discussion about Harry Potter.

Most people think that hell as a place of eternal punishment and torment in intense heat is fantasy, and as a result do very little serious thinking about their eternal destiny, and how to control the location of that destiny.

Many of those who would acknowledge the reality of heaven and hell think that they just have to wait and see if they were good enough to make it out of hell. The Bible teaches clearly that no one is good enough and no one can earn their way into God’s presence. Heaven is a free gift given to those who believe in, love, and follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Well, here I go, back to the “hot place” my yard pushing a lawn mower. I am looking forward to going to the “cool place”, heaven, one of these days soon, no lawn mowing there.