“I am a stranger in the earth.” Psalms 119:19

Beloved, we are strangers and pilgrims in the earth, as all our fathers were; our days are as a shadow, and there is no abiding. We are born from above and are bound for glory. We are distant from home, where our kindred, our treasure, and our hearts are found. Here we have no fixed residence; nor should we have any fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. We are called to submit to many inconveniences. The Bible is our light, our food, our joy, and our directory. We want a guide, a guard, a companion, a comforter; but Jesus has engaged to fill each of these offices. We should pray for the peace of the country where we sojourn; we should not be meddlers with its concerns, but keep ourselves detached, we should be thankful for every advantage, but set and keep our affections on things above; we should neither be impatient nor reluctant in reference to going home, but submit to our Father’s will; we should consider ill-treatmentas permitted to do us good; and contrast the present with our own beloved country and home.–James Smith

There is my house and portion fair,
My treasure and my heart are there,
And my abiding home;
For me my elder brethen stay,
And angels beckon me away
And Jesus bids me come.

“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” – Matt. 25:41

Pastor Greg Laurie wrote: Often whenever the subject of judgment and hell comes up, so does this question: If God is all-loving, then why would He send people to hell?

Answer: because He is a God of love and justice. Hell was invented, if you will, for the devil and his angels. Do you think the devil deserves to go to hell? Of course he does. And if a person ends up in hell, it is because they have rejected, through their lifetime, the offer of forgiveness through Jesus Christ that required the death of the Son of God on the cross. They rejected it again and again. It is not that God sends them to hell as much as they go there voluntarily.

J. I. Packer said, “Scripture sees hell as self-chosen. . . . Hell appears as God’s gesture of respect for human choice. All receive what they actually chose, either to be with God forever, worshiping Him, or without God forever, worshiping themselves.”

Also, C. S. Lewis wrote, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: Those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in hell, choose it. Without that self-choice, there could be no hell.”

Heaven and hell do exist. And in that final day, if you are a believer, God will say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant….enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”- Matt.25:21, 23

But if you are not a believer, God will say, “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:23).

Everyone will meet Jesus Christ one day. It is inescapable and unavoidable. And if you don’t meet Him as Savior, then you ultimately will meet Him as Judge.

“And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:”–Luke 18:9

The author and humorist Mark Twain was not a Christian, and his disregard for faith and the things of God were well-known. One of the things that Twain hated the most, and that helped turn him away from being saved, was the hypocrisy of professing Christians he knew. Though that does not excuse his refusal of salvation, it should serve as a warning to all of us that our conduct does have a great impact on those around us. It is said that on one occasion a prominent businessman who claimed to be a Christian but was known for unscrupulous dealings told Twain, “Before I die I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I will climb Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud at the top.” Twain responded, “I have a better idea. You could stay in Boston and keep them.”

The temptation to feel like we are doing well—or at least better than those around us—is so comforting that we often find ourselves giving in to it even though we should know better. When we evaluate our lives by the measure and standard of the expectations and commands of a perfectly holy God found in His Word, we quickly realize that we fall far short. God uses the metaphor of a mirror to describe the Bible. “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was” (James 1:23–24). Instead of looking around for others to whom we can compare ourselves so that we feel better, we need to allow the Scriptures to perform their cleansing and correcting work in our lives. (Daily in the Word)