THE Choice

I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior and Lord at the age of sixteen.  I remember the event vividly, though I could not tell you the exact date or time, though I know it was early evening.  From that time on I have hungered for more of God.  I started taking my Bible to school with me, not so I could preach at people, or even in order to testify of God's grace in my life, but simply to have it on hand should I get opportunity to read it.  I received that chance at lunch frequently, because the majority of the time I sat alone.  That is another story.
There was a boy in a math class I was taking that didn't like the fact that I was a believer.  He would tease and taunt me.  For the majority of those times I simply ignored him.  It wasn't easy.  He sat directly in front of me.  One day he turned around in his seat and asked this question (a common one with those determined not to believe) "If there is a God and He is all powerful, can He create something He cannot destroy?"  He was very smug about the question.  That smugness was rewarded, because I had no answer for him.  I wish I could speak with him now.  I would tell him the following:

Yes, God can and has created something He cannot destroy - at least that He will not destroy in the sense of annihilation - completely wiping away its existence - you!  When He created you, He made you for all eternity and then He gave you a choice.  Choose life by accepting His free gift of salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection and spend that eternity in His presence, or choose death by rejecting it.  By death I do not mean the end of existence, I mean eternal separation from God.  This is true death.  Without God's presence there is absolutely zero good, zero hope, zero light, zero faith in anything, zero enjoyment, zero anything of value.  However, there is fear, pain, suffering, anger, resentment, blinding darkness, being totally alone, hatred, and any and every other evil thing you can conjure in your imagination.  These things will never be destroyed, but they WILL be contained.  God will take Death and Hades and throw them into the lake of fire for all eternity.  
Know this, Hell was not created for you - earth, which will one day be cleansed and reborn to perfection was.  Hell was created for Satan and his dominions, but if you choose to follow Satan there, that is your choice.  God will give you every opportunity while you are still alive as you know it to choose eternal life over eternal death, but once your body passes into death, you have made your choice and He will honor it - for eternity.  "The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent."  II Peter 3:9 
I will pray for you that you come to understand what I have just told you and that you turn to Him and receive His free gift of eternal life.

God created us in love, watched as we turned our backs on obedience and embraced sin as our way of life, agonized over us in love so much that He gave His own life through His Son Jesus' death on the cross and then rejoiced in our deliverance the day Jesus rose from the grave in victory over sin and death. Hell is real, but God has done everything there is to be done to keep us from having to go there.  However, He also gave us free choice.  If we choose by our own stubbornness and desire to hang on to what we want to do and believe or not believe, He will not deny us that choice.  He cries out to us every moment we are alive in this world, "Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!"  Deuteronomy 30:19
I choose life!  My prayer is that you make the same choice today.