HELL’S CORRIDOR
“…JUDGE NOT LEST YE (YOU) BE JUDGED...”
(Galatians 5:o KJV).
*
William listened as the young millennial
told him her story. It was hard to hear with all the weeping and gnashing
of teeth, especially, when the
D-elevators would open. Belinda told him she was once a Christian, but, in the last days of her life upon earth, she
had chosen to depart from her Christian Faith.
Ten years ago when she was 16 she thought
her Christian lifestyle was set in stone. She thought, for sure, she loved
Jesus. Belinda saw miracles of healing and people get saved. She wasn’t
perfect, but she desired to be faithful to the biblical principles.
She never thought anything could make her
depart from her beliefs or take her away from the God of her faith.
In college, Belinda, met people from
different faiths. Their faith, also, taught them to be good, do good, and other
faith principles that encouraged ethical behavior or manners toward others.
They were also taught to worship God too
and that he was the supreme power above all others. They taught principles of
love, equality, as well as brotherly and sisterly fellowship.
The problem was, the people were authentic
and seem to whole-heartedly experience their faith. Growing up, in the Christian
Faith, she saw lots of evangelism, but now it was more of a memory.
The lively, evangelical, and loving part
of her Christian faith had vanished. Belinda FELT there was nothing to prove
the Christian God was the right God above all the rest.
Many faiths were similar in that they
believed in treating people kindly and with respect. Many believed in ONE God
too.
Belinda begin to think Christianity wasn’t
an UNIQUE religion at all. She decided she was tired of the ancient biblical rules
and regulations that made her feel guilty or confused her about some of her
behaviors or lifestyle choices.
Belinda’s fierce commitment to her
Christian Faith begin to weaken. She was on a journey to be anything, but a Christian.
She said it wasn’t the influence of
college, her close friends, her regular church attendance, the mainstream culture,
the boring bible studities, or that she begin to think of Christianity as
another common religion.
For Belinda, it was the lack of authenticity
she saw in Christian folk. She thought: “...Why
should I be a Christian?...” She saw abusive clergy, rampant sexual
immorality, unhappy people following boring religious routines, molesters,
fakes, pretenders, and an accumulation of lost souls.
She began to wonder if an authentic
Christian faith even existed anymore. She could witness other people’s
religious beliefs, but could find no one, among her own faith, who had
genuinely let Christ transform their lives.
Other religions seem to be producing
people who were much more loving toward others and much more ALIVE.
Christianity was no longer producing
people she wanted to emulate, but they were producing people she DIDN’T want to
become. She truly thought: “...Why be a Christian?...”
She forgot the bible said to follow others
AS they follow Jesus Christ.
Yet, she continued to judge that Christianity
didn’t change lives and it wasn’t changing hers either. Belinda longed to be a
part of a LIVELY faith. Christianity had become like a polarized country club
for the self-righteous. Belinda didn’t want that. She was looking for something
REAL and AUTHENTIC.
The Jesus Christ, she grew up knowing,
went around doing good and healing all. He was anointed to preach, deliver,
heal, open up eyes, and save lost souls. Jesus’ ministry was EXCITING!
When
did she take her eyes off Jesus and stop following him? When did she start
following flawed people INSTEAD of Christ?
The world was full of lost souls that
needed a LIVELY faith that offered real hope and could make a DIFFERENCE in a
person’s life.
While Belinda was still upon earth, she
thought other religions got in the battle more than Christians. They seem to be
making MORE of a difference and were becoming witnesses, for the hurt and needy
as well as the examples of the answer to their life’s problems. People were
going to those OTHER religions.
Belinda wanted the right answers and she
wanted to give her life to something authentic, and in her heart, she stopped
believing Jesus was the answer. She rejected him.
She started judging Christianity based on
the people’s actions and not Jesus’. She
let their actions influence her belief that Christianity could not actually
transform lives, alter behavior, influence
righteous character, or make a difference for the lost.
She judged Jesus too. She judged him by human
standards and humans beings who CLAIMED and PROFESSED to follow Christ, but did
not.
She wanted to experience the supernatural.
She wanted to be a witness for a more exciting and lively God, that the
Christian God.
Thus, she choose to judge God, the Holy Spirit, based on flawed, finite
human behavior. Somewhere along the way, she decided there was no unique God or
unique religion.
Belinda left the Christian Faith along
with a diaspora of other millennials. Most of them had the same attitude that
she did. They JUDGED Christianity, merely, on the behaviors and characteristics
of those, in their limited sphere, who were claiming and professing to be
followers of Christ.
Yes, Christians are to be WITNESSES of
Jesus Christ, but they are NOT JESUS.
Christians ultimately FOLLOW Jesus. They
only follow others WHO are also FOLLOWING Jesus. They KNOW God’s followers by
their FRUIT; spiritual fruit.
Belinda took her eyes off Jesus and
started LOOKING at flawed, finite human beings. She JUDGED Christianity from
their behavior and decided God was NOT a part of the Christian Faith. She
JUDGED Christianity because of what a small group of people DID and not because
of what Jesus had already DONE.
That was her excuse for leaving
Christianity. She rallied and advocated with many other millennials, who left
the Christian faith and collectively agreed that phoniness, judgmental-ism, anti-homosexual-ism,
and boredom was the major reasons for their diaspora and LACK of interest.
At one time, Belinda’s heart was with
Jesus and she wanted to do some of the things he’d done upon earth. However,
she lost her focus.
She blamed and judged Christianity based
on the people, who claimed to represent him. Thus, she, willingly, left the
faith and went elsewhere looking for a MORE LIVELY experience.
Now she found herself standing in HELL’S
CORRIDOR. Belinda had been to the registrar’s office and had watched her life’s
VIDEO too. All through her life, she saw God’s love for her and every attempt
he’d made to help her, personally, to repent and return to an authentic
Christian faith.
She learned, during the video, she’d
joined the millennials because she didn’t want to truly observe the teaching of
Jesus.
Blaming others helped her mask her
heartfelt desire to do good, act good, and or be an ethical person on her own
terms. She didn’t truly want to observe ALL the teachings of Jesus Christ, so
she choose to “BE GOOD” in other WAYS.
Now that she’d SEEN the VIDEO of her life,
she KNEW why she was in HELL’S CORRIDOR in the line for the UNREPENTENT.
No matter what her opinion or the opinion
or judgements of the millennials are or had been, while she was upon earth,
Jesus is THE WAY.
There are MANY proclaimed truths. Those
truths often interchange and overlap with biblical truths and appear similar,
but ARE NOT. Jesus is “THE” only TRUTH.
There are MANY things that appear LIVELY
and EXCITING, but none as GREAT as the SPIRITUAL LIFE that can dwell within a
Christian. Jesus is the source of “THAT” LIFE.
No matter what Belinda had witnessed in
the character and behaviors of those proclaiming and professing Christ, he has
the POWER to transform.
Jesus produces spiritual fruit in the lives of
HIS people and they are distinctive from ALL others because of THAT fruit.
Belinda had SAW the fruit, in the lives of some of God’s people, but she
ignored it.
Belinda had judged the Christian faith by
complaining, criticizing, and gossiping with others that Christians were
hypocritical, anti-homosexual, boring, judgmental, and too country club-ish.
However, she’d met some LOVING Christians,
but she negated them. In her life’s VIDEO she was surprised at how many loving
Christians she’d met along the way.
Belinda saw, with her own eyes, Christians
who lovingly and humbly served God, by choice, and had extended that love
toward her.
She had JUDGED Christians for not adhering
to biblical truths and JUDGING her age group (millennials). But NOW she was
being JUDGED by the biblical truths she didn’t adhere to either and NOT the
people she’d judged.
Humans had NO heaven or hell to separate
you into. Your life choices are YOUR life choices and NO ONE else’s. The
consequences are CLEAR in the Holy Bible.
Standing in HELL’S CORRIDOR, Belinda
realized, too late, that there were MANY religions upon earth but ONLY ONE
offered SALVATION through Jesus Christ.
They all appeared to do good, be good, and
have principles of conduct and respect, but none offered a covenant
relationship with God, the Holy Spirit.
None offered salvation for which mankind
could be given an opportunity to have direct access to the God of creation.
None offered the opportunity for spiritual
life and true transformation through the
indwelling Holy Spirit.
God attempted to reach Belinda, before she
came to HELL’S CORRIDOR. She choose NOT to LISTEN and stubbornly followed her
OWN way.
HELL wasn’t a place really, but it was an
EXISTENCE without the God of creation. His presence was nowhere to be found.
She
cried out: “...Why didn’t I listen....”
Belinda began to WEEP and GNASH her
teeth. William P. Parson joined her, WEEPING and GNASHING, as he watched an elderly man get into line
behind Belinda.
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