Jesus sends people to hell – LIE

When it comes to vacations, we have far too many options. The online travel site Expedia explores all the possibilities, all the times and prices available to a person to go anywhere they want. You want to go to the Swiss Alps? Grab your hiking boots. Antarctica? How about a luxury suite? Travel by train across Canada? All aboard. How about a guided tour of Machu Pichu? It’s not a problem.

I love a good vacation, but I hate the work that goes into a vacation. As someone with some responsibilities in my life, I have to make sure everything will operate flawlessly at The Summit Church when I go. My staff makes it easy, but still, I put in hours of extra work to cover all the potential problems. I need a vacation just planning for a vacation!

But I have no one else to blame for that anxiety and extra work than myself. I made the choice to take a few days off.

We tend to think Jesus is to blame for sending people on their torturous, eternal exits from this earth. We visualize Jesus on the throne as each dearly departed person humbly approaches him and he looks us in their eyes, assesses their attitude then gives a thumbs-up or thumbs-down like a power-drunk Caesar. We think Jesus decides if we can join him at his vacation paradise.

That’s a LIE. We decide if we want to book our all-expense paid heavenly AirBNB “mansion” that Jesus prepared for us in John 14:32. You see, Jesus paid the price so we can get the permission to go to heaven, but we have to choose whether we want to go or not.

Some people actually chose to go to Florida in August where the heat index this year reached 100. We were not made to exist in that kind of weather. We were created to live with God for eternity in the stress-free perfection of heaven (which I believe the temperature is 75 degrees—my wife disagrees). God wants each of His creations to live with Him forever, but He gave the final choice to us, as the rich man discovered in Luke 16:19-31.

He sent us an honest vacation brochure (the Bible) telling us what to expect and how to book a reservation. We have to read it, understand it and agree to it. If we want to choose our own journey, Jesus politely agrees, but sadly, there’s only one other destination on the itinerary. Hell. Our choice.

Say “yes” to Jesus’ offer. He’s waiting for you to join him and you don’t even need to pack a suitcase.