“BOY IT’S HOT!”

Yes, it has been hot! It is these kind of days that brings to my remembrance a certain hot summer day in which I was helping a good friend load the moving van. The van collected and intensified the heat, and the absence of wind made the extreme condition a memorable one. Eventually, one of the other helpers exclaimed, “Boy, it’s hot!” To which my friend’s father-in-law commented, “It makes you appreciate hell, doesn’t it?”
That comment often comes to mind on days like these. Difficult situations do make us think. “If this is unbearable, I certainly do not want to be in any situation which is far worse–and that, never ending!”
Hell is described as a furnace of fire–”and shall cast them into a furnace of fire” (Mat. 13:42). There is probably no pain more acute than for one’s body to burn with fire. Can you imagine the excruciating pain of having your own flesh in flames? The word for furnace (kaminos) is an oven or kiln used for smelting metals (Rev. 1:15). If you are familiar with a kiln, then “enough said!” No wonder the rest of the verse says “there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Yes, a furnace of fire is worse than our summer’s day, isn’t it?
The sun will set and the day’s heat will subside; this summer will pass and cooler weather will come. But, the fire of hell never lets up. It is an “everlasting fire” (Mat. 25:41) tormenting “for ever and ever” (Rev. 20:10). Standing near a kiln, you might trip resulting in your hand accidentally entering the orange-glowing furnace–but you speedily remove it; but can you imagine being dropped into a “man-sized” kiln–never being turned off; never able to escape; never coming to an end?
Yes, days like this make us think. So think!! Ignoring the summer day doesn’t make it go away; but you can get under the air conditioner. Likewise, ignoring God’s un-lying warnings concerning an everlasting furnace of fire won’t make it go away; but you can presently do something to avoid going there. You can see for yourself in the following places out of God’s own Word: Luke 13:3,5; Romans 10:9,10; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rev. 2:10. [I’d suggest you put this off no longer than you’d put off calling an air condition repairman if your a/c broke down at high noon!].
Gary Henson