For the next few days I’m on the road at a work conference in Huntington Beach, California.  I had the chance to get out and drive around a little this morning.  Here is what I saw.

This area is undeniably beautiful.  The skies above me are a gorgous shade of blue, the surf is up (HB is “Surf City” of Beach Boys fame), and the place I’m staying is an absolutely fantastic place – a resort & spa.  (Not to mention that it’s free!)

But opening the patio door reminds me of what’s going on just 5-10 miles away.  The hills are an inferno.  Santa Ana winds are whipping fires up hillsides and destroying everything in their path.  While the skies above are blue, just a short distance away it is as dark as night.  I could see great columns of smoke miles wide rolling away from me.  Hundreds, if not thousands, of homes are gone.

A mobile home park was destroyed.  On TV they are amazed at the way the fire made an “arc”, passing over some homes and turning the others into ash.

This reminds me of a terrible truth and an awesome opportunity.

There are millions of people here in this area.  Many of them will face a never ending torment in a lake of fire.  They will be eaten alive by horrible demonic beasts, ripped to shreds by beings that would, if we could see them, cause our very hearts to freeze in fear.  Just as surely as many people are swimming in the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean right now, many of these same people will swim in molten earth, their pain never coming to an end, their tongues melting in their mouth, and their bodies devoured, yet not consumed.

We sing the verse, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years…”.  Consider your friends, your family members who might be in hell for two billion years, and looking forward to nothing more than the very same torment for the next two billion years, and 9 billion beyond that, and trillions of years beyond that.

May God grant us a vision of the reality of hell and an all consuming love that motivates us to take a chance to warn – to plead with – those we know and love so that they may turn from sin, find faith in Jesus, and be delivered from the wrath that is to come.

Open your door.  Do you smell smoke?

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