Daily Devotional for Tuesday July 2, 2013

Nobody Really Wants to Go to Hell

(Romans 10:9, 10:13; John 3:18; Isaiah 59:2; Hebrews 2:3)

***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, my Mom has fallen off the wagon after doing pretty good for awhile now. Do you think alcoholism is the same as drunkard and keeps people from Heaven?

ANSWER: The only thing that will keep you from Heaven is rejecting Jesus. However, a bondage like alcoholism can easily cloud someone's mind to the point they have no desire for a relationship with the Lord and thus die in their sin. I will pray for you mother and God's deliverance.

Several years ago, I was asked by a man to go visit his 87-year-old father in the hospital. His health was failing fast and the doctors did not expect him to live more than a few weeks. This man told me his father had refused to go to church during his life, didn't want to hear "religious talk," and stated often that he didn't care what happened to him after he was dead.

I went to the hospital and spent about 20 minutes with this elderly gentleman, talking to him about Christ's love and about how God desired to have an eternal relationship with him. He was fairly polite but very adamant about letting me know he lived his entire life without God and had no desire to start believing in some "invisible man in the sky." He asked me to leave and let him die in peace. Sadly, I deal every day with people like this man whose hearts are so hardened they simply don't want to hear anything about the Lord.

I got a call a few days later from the man whose father I had visited. I could tell he had been crying and he had a difficult time telling me that his father had passed away the previous night and wanted to know if there was any chance his father was in Heaven. I told him that if his father had decided in the last moments of his life to accept the Lord into his heart by faith, then yes he was in Heaven. However, if he had continued to deny Christ's love and died in his sins, then sadly he was lost for all eternity. One of the most difficult things I have to do each day is tell people that if their loved one dies without Jesus, they will spend eternity in hell.

(This is why I tell you often what we do every day here at Liveprayer is so critical and why we are constantly being attacked by the enemy. We are literally warring with satan 24/7 for the eternal souls of men!)

My friend, what drives me each day is the reality that every second of every day people are dying and going to hell. Hell is a place that was NEVER intended for man. It was created for satan and the fallen angels that followed him. God's desire is that ALL come to repentance and that none be lost. Let me clear up a misconception many people have. God doesn't send anyone to hell. Let me say that once more. God doesn't send anyone to hell. The only way you can get to hell is to CHOOSE to go there. The only people that go to hell are the ones who make the choice to spend eternity there with satan and the fallen angels.

Let me tell you something. After 2 decades of evangelistic ministry, I can assure you that very few people actually want to go to hell. For most people they either don't believe there is such a place or nobody has ever told them how they can avoid ending up there. VERY FEW PEOPLE REALLY WANT TO SPEND ETERNITY IN HELL. With the better percentage of two full generations having never even gone to church, we have more people than ever who are dying and going to hell simply because they didn't really understand that when they died they were either going to spend eternity with God their Creator in Heaven, or be eternally separated from God their Creator in hell.

That is where my passion comes from to use the power of the Internet to reach millions of people all over the planet each and every day with the hope we have in Jesus Christ. That is what keeps me getting up night after night to do the "live" TV program using secular television to reach the lost and hurting masses with the message that Jesus loves them and that without Christ they will die one day and be lost for all eternity.

I do what I do each day because I know that if your dad or mom, your brother or sister, your husband or wife, your son or daughter, your neighbor for friend, your boss or co-worker, the people in your life die without knowing Jesus, they will spend all eternity in hell!!!

I love you and care about you so much. I love you enough to give my life every day to bring you the Absolute Truth of God's Word and the love of Jesus Christ. My heart breaks when I get the emails from people who have lost loved ones and friends. It breaks even more when I find out their loved one or friend didn't have a relationship with Jesus since I know that this special person in their life is in hell for all eternity. We get so caught up in so many things during this life, but there is nothing more important than telling people about the fact that Jesus loves them and without putting their faith in Christ they will die and be lost for all eternity.

You can't force someone to get saved. That is a choice they have to make for themselves. But you can certainly make sure they know about that choice and how critical it is since what they do with Jesus will determine their eternal home. What they ultimately choose to do is something they have to decide for themselves. However, if you love and care about the people who are in your life, you will love and care about them enough to tell them the fact that if they die without Christ in their heart they will spend all eternity in hell.

The great evangelist DL Moody stated one of his greatest regrets in life was the night of the Chicago fire. He preached that night and instead of giving an invitation, he told the audience to think about his words and come back the next night. I submit to you today, that a man or woman of God in a church service, or in any type of meeting or conference, or in any media appearance, who doesn't use the opportunity to tell people how to accept Jesus as their Savior is committing spiritual malpractice!!! The only thing we can really offer this world is Jesus, and there is no excuse to not use every opportunity we have to tell people how they can know Jesus as their personal Savior.

Let me be blunt. You can do all the "seeker" services you want, think outside the box and use every creative means possible to reach people, but if once you have reached them you don't use that opportunity to tell them how to be saved, you have accomplished NOTHING. The fact is, people die every second and if they die without Christi in their heart they are going to hell for all eternity. THAT IS A FACT. How can any man or woman of God know that fact, have a group of people assembled, and not use the opportunity to tell them how to be saved?

People deserve to know the truth and to not tell them is no different than if you knew a building was going to blow up in 10 minutes and sat back and didn't tell everyone to get out. In the end, you can't trick people into getting saved, you can't play games to get them saved, you can't hope they figure it out for themselves, at some point you simply have to be blunt and tell them that they will die one day and at that moment if they don't know Christ as their Savior their soul will be lost for all eternity!!!

The Bible states that when a person comes to faith in Christ, the angels in Heaven rejoice. As I look at the salvations reports from the Internet and TV program each day here at Liveprayer, I know that each person is someone's mom or dad, someone's husband or wife, someone's son or daughter, someone's boss or co-worker, someone's friend or neighbor. The fact is, the people you love and care about in this life will die one day and at that moment they will either be in Heaven with the Lord or forever in hell. Please don't neglect to tell them about Jesus and His love for them.

I can promise you today that with whatever breath I have left in this life, I will continue to spend each waking moment doing everything I can to reach the lost and hurting masses throughout the world, including your loved ones and friends, with the message that Jesus Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life, and that nobody comes to the Father except through Him !!!

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ,

Bill Keller