Storm Warning

Jesus said, “No, go home to your friends, and tell them what wonderful things the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.” Mark 5:19

In Pass Christian, a small tourist town, Police Chief Jerry Peralta drove up and down the highway, stopping at every door. “Evacuate!” he cried. A hurricane was headed their way. Some listened. Others laughed.

At one apartment complex, a large group gathered for a hurricane party. When the storm hit, a wave three stories high crashed into the apartment building. The building was torn apart, and the dead bodies were spread across Pass Christian. The next day one little five-year-old boy was found floating on a mattress—the party’s only survivor.

You might have experienced this attitude when talking with someone about his or her need for God: “Well, if I’m going to hell, then that’s all right because all my friends will be there and it’ll be a party!”

But hell is not a party. Here’s a glimpse of the “hurricane” of hell:

• Hell is like a dungeon, a prison. “God did not spare even the angels when they sinned; he threw them into hell, in gloomy caves and darkness until the judgment day” (2 Peter 2:4).
• Hell is like burning sulfur, a night-and-day torment forever. “Then the Devil, who betrayed them, was thrown into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).
• Hell is pitch-black darkness so miserable that people cry. “Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30).
• Hell is agony so horrible that people grind their teeth. “Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. And his subjects ground their teeth in anguish” (Revelation 16:10).

You are like the police chief, running to warn people about the coming judgment and to tell them about God’s way of escape.