What Do Hell and a Sandcastle Have in Common?

Have You ever been to a beach and built a sandcastle? We live outside the Seattle area and the opportunities to build sandcastles are far and few between. We have been to the coast with the kids and done it, but its not an every day activity that's for sure.

 

I can remember one time when I was at the beach as a kid and was building a sandcastle with my brother. We were in Hawaii at the time and took great care building the largest sandcastle that either of us have ever built. It was huge, and took us many hours to complete.

 

At the end of the build, we stood there and just kind of looked at it and wondered what to do next. I mean, its a sandcastle, so no matter what you do, you can't take it with you. Sandcastles are temporary in nature, they always go away. As we were standing there admiring our handiwork, a huge wave came in and washed over our creation.

 

It was lame. I had worked on this thing for a few hours and now it was destroyed because of some waves. As a kid, I was a little upset. I didn't want to see something that I had created be destroyed. I had tinge of sadness.

 

I was thinking about that this morning when I came across this verse- "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”- John 3:17. It made me think about some people who are out there that have this idea that God created people with the plan to send them to Hell.

 

According to the Bible I'm created in God's image, which means that I share kinship with God, and when I create something, I get sad when I see it destroyed. Even a small sandcastle has value to me. I wanted to see that thing live forever.  If I feel that way about the value of a sandcastle, how much more value does God place on me?

 

Here's the deal- God loves you. He wants relationship with you. He did not send Jesus into this world so that He could ensure that the most people possible would be sent to Hell. Quite the opposite in fact. The plan in sending Jesus to this world was so that everyone in the world could live for eternity if they would come to Him.

 

I know this is a deep blog this morning, but its important. There are scores of people who believe that God created some people just so they could go to Hell.

 

I don't agree. God's hope for all creation is that we would all turn from evil deeds and turn towards Jesus.

 

You have value. You matter. God doesn't want to destroy you. He wants you to live.

 

Be blessed

matt

Posted via email from Faith and Victory Church Blog