Gratuitous Suffering?

Is there any such thing as gratuitous suffering or evil?  Since God is the One and only Alpha and Omega, He is the only One who could say whether there is or not.  To think we could presume to know the beginning from the end of our existence on this earth is pretty amazing.  We would have to in order to say that there is such a thing. 
The definition given by Webster for gratuitous is: 

1. Uncalled for; lacking good reason; unwarranted.
2. Given or done free of charge.

The definition itself determines that there can be no such thing.  Why?  Because we, according to Romans 6:23, are deserving of nothing short of eternal death - not ceasing to exist, but eternally dying.  There is only one person that never sinned and that is because he was not only 100% human, but was also 100% God, and that person is Jesus Christ, who gave his life so we wouldn't have to die eternally, but could spend it instead with Him and his Father God, be gifted with his Holy Spirit from the moment of salvation and begin eternity while still in our sinful flesh.
I am not saying that God causes suffering and evil because of our sinful nature.  Rather I am saying that suffering and evil came into existence due to our choice to heed Satan, believe his lies and serve him at the fall.  When Adam (male and female) chose disobedience to God's instruction, they gave Satan their birthright - authority over the world and its contents. 
Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground." Genesis 1:26
Therefore, the world came under the curse as well as us and we are the ones who placed it there.  We need to take responsibility for our actions and admit that we inherited sin nature, have listened to and obeyed it more than frequently and then repent-

1. To feel remorse, contrition, or self-reproach for what one has done or failed to do; be contrite.

2. To feel such regret for past conduct as to change one's mind regarding it: repented of intemperate behavior.

3. To make a change for the better as a result of remorse or contrition for one's sins.

and seek God's forgiveness.  We also need to accept His free gift of salvation through the blood sacrifice of Jesus' life for ours and desire to follow Him.  When we do so, we are placing our lives back under God's control and we gain back the authority that we threw so willingly to the wind.

(Jesus said) "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

We have allowed suffering and evil, and there is a part of us deep inside that knows this, hates the fact and wants to be rid of it so badly that we blame it on the one who offers us the answer - God himself.  Christians are every bit as guilty of doing this at times as the rest of the world.  We get angry with God for not doing things our way, as if we have the all-knowing wisdom needed to run this world.

I pray for wisdom and understanding for all God's true children, that they might come to understand the depth, width and height of his love for us and begin to walk in it, rather than walking in distrust any longer.

 

Treasure in Heaven

^{I Timothy
17} Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸ Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. ¹⁹ In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Matthew 6
¹⁹  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  (spoken by Jesus)

As I read an article regarding a pastor's thoughts regarding the passage in Matthew, I realized he was simply making comparison statements of what others thought, neither indicating agreement nor disagreement.  Then something sparked inside me and made me become very attentive inwardly.  That warm feeling you get when you know the Lord is speaking directly to your heart and you need to listen came over me.

My heart had questioned, "Just what are these treasures in heaven?  (Besides crowns)

 

• Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4:8 To all who have kept the faith and longed and loved for His return
• Crown of Rejoicing 1Thes. 2:19 To all who have helped bring others to Christ
• Crown of Life James 1:12 To all who endure temptation & are faithful through trials and to those that love Him
• Crown of glory 1 Peter 5:1-4  To all that serve and shepherd God’s people
• The imperishable or eternal crown 1 Cor. 9:25 To those who have had self-control in all things and subdued the old sinful nature.

We evidently have a storehouse of some sort in heaven, or Jesus would not have spoken of it.  These rewards just well may be more than I had ever really considered before.  It always amazes me that God can speak to our heart without using actual words.
It hit me that I suddenly was understanding a portion of this storehouse that I hadn't before.  True treasure is found in Jesus, so the more we get to know Him, the greater the reward.  (That part I knew.)  Our storehouse fills up with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  As it fills we have it to make "withdrawals" from when needed.  The catch is, if we are not filling our storehouse, we will not have anything to spare. 

How do we fill it?  By partaking of the fruit given us by the Spirit at salvation.  It's there, we just have to put it to use.  If we do not, it doesn't grow.  I now wonder if this is what Jesus was talking about with the master giving talents parable.  When we invest our time and energy in service, our fruit is multiplied, just as planting, watering, and caring for fruit trees produces more fruit than planting and forgetting about it. 

Look at the parable of the fig tree.  If it doesn't produce fruit, it withers away.  There are many withering people out there.  They want to go to heaven, but they don't want to follow Jesus.  We cannot have it both ways.  Following Jesus isn't easy, neither is it difficult once you do it a while.  As a matter of fact, the more you do it, the more you want to do it.  If we could simply remember the simple statement Jesus gave us to help us on our way: You reap what you sow.  So may we sow the Fruit of the Spirit and reap it in harvest and have a storehouse running over!!

Blessed Are....

As I spoke with my neighbor yesterday, I made the comment that when I think about watching my Momma and my husband's mom getting seemingly weaker as each day passes, I get very weak inside and grieve.  It is then that I must look up to Father God and cry out for help just to get the things I need to accomplish finished.  Later the same day I was talking with one of my sisters.  She reminded me that we have eternity with them and it brought a smile to my face.  I admitted to her that I found letting family in Christ go was easier than watching them suffer in the transition.  She agreed.  Knowing that our moms will spend eternity with Christ doesn't make the suffering here any easier to bear, but it does make the thought of its eternal reward quite joyous and even brings a sigh of relief to my spirit man.
Lest anyone get the idea that either of us wishes them gone, that is not anywhere near the case.  Our selfish side wants them to remain here with us as long as we can possibly have them.  I know that I feel I still need their advice and wisdom to guide me and probably always will.  We were simply in agreement that, though it brings us heavy grief and longing for them when they are gone,  we know they will be healthy and happy and no longer in any kind of pain as they wait for us to join them, because they too are children of the King. 

Trusting Christ doesn't mean we suffer less.  A simple quote found on page 365 of If God Is Good.....Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.  It is almost humorous to me that this statement even need be written.  When studying the things Jesus had to say to us regarding suffering, it almost appears to me that we are promised more.  The beatitudes found in Matthew 5:3-10 seem to me to make it pretty clear:

The Beatitudes

He said:
³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

vs.3 - Here, "poor" is translated from ptochos, which literally means "to crouch or cower as one helpless." It signifies the beggar, the pauper, one in abject poverty, totally dependent on others for help and destitute of even the necessities of life. (Bible Tools)

vs.4 - we mourn many things, including our personal losses, losses of those around us, world-wide losses such as those in a hurricane, sin in our lives and those we love and the list goes on.  We don't have more to grieve, we simply recognize more of the things that needing grieving over.

vs.5 - Meekness is patience in the reception of injuries, the reception of injuries with a belief that God will vindicate us, and produces peace.  (Barnes notes on the Bible)

vs.6 - The more we get to know Him, the more we want of Him, so our hunger and thirst grows in direct proportion to how much we are fed by Him.  In order to be fed we must want to be and cry out to Him as a baby bird cries to its mother.  They do not stop until they are satisfied.  As they grow, they need more and cry louder still.  This should be us.

vs.7 - In order to give mercy, we must have received a wrong. 

vs.8 - Being pure in heart is a daily battle, where fears, pride, prejudices, anger, jealousies and more all try to rush in not even daily, but moment by moment.

vs.9 - If we are to be peacemakers, we must be in the middle of the battle.  Those who sit on the outskirts are ignored.  It is the one who jumps in the middle, refuses to be ruffled, is willing to give their all that is listened to, but sometimes it means literally giving our all in order to be truly heard.

vs.10 - Persecuted - this is the one we try so very hard to hide from.  We don't want ridicule, hatred, lies told about us, injury or any other form of physical, mental or spiritual anguish.  We try to avoid it at all costs, yet hasn't Jesus made it clear in all the above verses that we will suffer in one way or another?  So why not for righteousness?

With all these marvelous promises of suffering, why would anyone choose Jesus?  Because He didn't stop with the pain of suffering.  We may have temporary pain and suffering now, but all of it works toward our spiritual growth, maturing and ends with our receiving the greatest gift of all - eternity with Him!!  When we look closely at each verse we see the promise of eternity in every situation.  The kingdom of heaven is ours now - in our spirits - and for all eternity.  Comfort, satisfaction, mercy, a name (each of His children is given one), heaven and earth are ours forever as they shall become one in perfect unity and we shall dwell in them AND best of all, WE WILL SEE GOD!!  This promise of seeing God is not simply futuristic, though its completion is. We get to see Him now through the eyes and actions of brothers and sisters in Christ, the miracles we witness on a daily basis (though I am convinced we overlook the majority of them), in creation and in our very own lives as He works to do His will in us.

There is an old song that asks the question, "Why do you serve the Lord?  Is it just for heavens gain or to walk those mighty streets of gold, or to hear the angels sing?  Is it just to drink from the fountain that never runs dry, or just to live forever, ever and ever in that sweet by and by?"  I absolutely love the answer, because it is so extremely true: "But if heaven never were promised to me, neither God's promise to live eternally, it's been worth just having the Lord in my life.  I was living in a world of darkness and He brought me the light.  You know He's been my closest Friend down through the years, and when I cry He dries all my tears.  Yes, it's been worth just having the Lord in my life, cause I was living in a world of darkness and he brought me the light."

Jesus is the Light that opens our eyes to see the suffering that we had overlooked before, gives us a heart that cries out to Him for help for each situation, helps us see our own hurt and need and delivers us from the evil that would consume us in grief, destroy us in anguish and despair and delivers us hope and victory.  The wonder of it all is that He didn't stop there.  He could have, but He loved us so much that He also offers us eternal life with Him.  He will not force us to choose life, but He does cry out for us to do so.

Well, Shut My Mouth!!

" God never tells Job to shut his mouth; but after seeing God's greatness, Job realizes he must."  (Randy Alcorn-If God is Good)

There was a time, not so long ago and yet ages ago, that I was giving God a diatribe on why He should speak to Michael about being so messy.  "He shouldn't make a trail when coming home from work by dropping a sock, then another, then his pants, then his shirt on down to his underwear as he walked into the bathroom for a shower.  I then had to pick up each item and reclean the floors due to the mud that was inevitably encrusted on each item."

 

That was over 30 years ago, but I remember the conversation well.  As I walked into the middle bedroom and began cleaning. God gently spoke these words to my heart: "Michael gave his life for you."  He didn't have to say anything more.  My mouth had to shut.  I had been so VERY wrong.  

 

Michael had given up his dream of playing in the Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass band, an around the world trip with the youth national band (I cannot remember the name of the group, but he had been chosen for it and it was an extremely great honor) and was now working in a position that required (and still requires) him to work with water in sub-zero temperatures in winter, dig deep holes by hand in above 100 degree temperatures in the summer, trust the electric, phone, sewer, cable and gas companies to mark their lines correctly so that he doesn't strike one and become injured or killed, work in  pouring rain, sleet and even hail, etc.  and he was doing it all so that he could have me as his wife!  I was and am not worth it.  Who is?  Yet here he was and is doing so virtually every day of his life.  As I write this he is working another water main break.  He worked all day yesterday, got two and a half hours sleep before getting called in to work, got home at 7:30 am just as the phone rang with another call to work another break.  This is the one he is working on now.  (Let it be known that Michael no longer drops clothing around the house, but is very careful to place them in the hamper.  He does laundry, cleans the kitchen, scrubs the shower, takes care of the trash and vacuums as well, and I didn't have to ask him to do any of it.  One day he simply took them over, but that is another story for another day, perhaps.)
 

When he left, I was feeling sorry for myself that he had to go yet again.  I should know better.  All that does is makes him feel badly that he has to go.  He called me after checking things out to say that it indeed was another main break, but that it was already marked by the other utilities, so they could start right away and he hoped to be done by 11:30 so he could take me shopping !!  I wanted to cry!!  I am ashamed to have made him feel the need to tell me this.  I don't care about the shopping, I just miss him!  So, I sat down and spoke to God about it.  I type many of my prayers and this is what I wrote:
"So, Lord, I started this morning off by feeling sorry for myself and for Michael. Forgive me and help me learn to trust You more. When You said that the woman would crave her husband, You really meant we would simply crave him personally, didn't You? .... it is the simple thing of being with him, talking with him, sharing occurrences with him, laughing and crying and holding him...these are the things I crave most. When I am in his arms, the world fades away, just as You meant it to. I cannot thank You enough for allowing me to experience this. I know the reason for this experience is to give me a foretaste of eternity with You. I cannot fathom why anyone would want less!!"

 

I really enjoyed this analogy:   "Ignorant beings often feel unhappy and confused because of decisions made by wiser and more powerful beings.  Like my (Randy Alcorn) dog Moses thinks I don't "get it" when I hush him late at night.  I'm cruel when I refuse to let him eat the steak he smells.  Of course, he has no idea that his barking wakes up the neighbors, or that a whole steak wouldn't be good for him (he had one once, so this is not a theory), or that there are beings more important than he (perish the thought).  Given his world view, he may feel certain I am not demonstrating goodness and love.  But Moses is simply not in a position to grasp my reasons.  They transcend his understanding." 

 

Moses and I are a lot alike.  We have difficulty fully grasping this verse:

"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."  Romans 8:28

This verse has been misunderstood and even taught incorrectly by many.  It isn't that God turns everything into good, but rather that He makes them work together like a jigsaw puzzle or a tapestry to become a beautiful piece of artwork for our good.  It may take years before we can see the big picture, or it may even take until eternity for us to grasp even a small portion of it, but we can rest assured that God always, always, ALWAYS keeps His promises.

Overcoming Weariness

Let us not become weary  in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Galatians 6:9

Somehow I have always divided this verse up in my mind without even realizing it.  Perhaps you have done the same.  Whenever there has been much work I need to accomplish, I have thought about the "Let us not grow weary" portion.  On days like last Sunday when no one showed up for Sunday School, I think of the other half.  Today as I studied, they were finally made into a complete thought in my reasoning.  Amazing how that happens.  I have been reading and memorizing verses such as this for the vast majority of my life, yet each day I can learn something new.

As I read this verse and others that go along with it (Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.  Galatians 6:7, Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.   II Corinthians 9:6) and a few others, I started thinking about this past year's garden.  There were several opportunities for our garden to have been ruined and non-productive.  Michael could have decided it was too much work to cultivate the garden area.  I could have allowed the weeds to take over and rocks to remain embedded in the soil.  Michael could have decided it was too costly to water twice a day and I could have easily decided that it was too hot and dry to harvest.  Because we fought against such thoughts and made ourselves suffer the aggravation of hard work, we yielded quite a large crop of vegetables. 

There are times in every person who gardens life when they wonder if it is worth the effort until the day that first flower blooms in full array, or that first green bean plant pokes its head above ground.  Suddenly rejoicing takes place!!  Then another time comes when the flower fades and needs trimming so it can bloom again.  We have to remind ourselves that the reward will come if we do the work.  As for green beans, we have to pick and replant in order to get the full harvest.  Is it worth it?  It depends on your point of view.  Perhaps you hate gardening.  Then you need to think of something you love to put it into perspective.  Do you love playing a musical instrument?  It takes hours upon hours of work to be able to do so, yet if you love it, somehow that's okay.  Do you love your children?  Think of the work that went into bringing them into this world.  The hours of labor and pain, but when you see those little fists and toes and that tiny wrinkled face, you fall in love and the pain is much more than worth it.  However, that's not the end of the work.  Do you want your child to grow up knowing right from wrong?  There is another huge job waiting, but when they grow into godly men and women whose sole delight is to serve the Father, the work is more than worth it.  There are many more comparisons I could make, but you get the idea.

So from now on I see this verse as one complete thought.  In my heart it will read something like this: Don't allow yourself to give in to weariness, because when the time is right you will reap a harvest - IF you don't give up.

As Christians it is easy to become weary.  We are constantly bombarded with negative news, negative thoughts, negative actions of those around us, and work seems to pile up no matter how much effort we put forth.  The world screams at us as Job's so-called friends did to him, "Give up!!  You're fighting a losing battle!"  and sometimes the temptation is so great, we almost do.  But then God will remind us of the coming harvest and we can hang in there.  We must remember all we have to look forward to and be grateful that we have the opportunity to do so.  God could have handed out justice immediately and wiped mankind out long ago, as He proved at the great flood.  But His mercies are new every morning and great is His faithfulness to His promises.  So He does not grow weary in doing good, even to the part of creation that continually turns their backs on Him.  He keeps going because, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."  II Peter 3:9

Sing praises to the Lord Most High!  He has delivered us from the powers of evil and set us on the high places.  He renews our strength and helps us to soar as the eagle!!  He waits patiently for our repentance.  He grieves over those who reject him and die in in their sins.  He rejoices over every one that comes to receive His free gift of salvation AND He never grows weary!!  Praise the Lord!!

The Miracle of Delays

Last night my daughter and I went shopping.  It was a very enjoyable time together.  As she was driving me home, a deer finished crossing the road.  She calmly said, "Well, hello deer!"  I said, "Thank You, Lord."  The deer had crossed on the steep hill right at a curve, so that if it had still been in the middle of the road, we would have seen it as we hit it.  Instead, we saw its hind feet kick up in the air just as it hit the ditch on our side.  I was able to see its rear end and the white under its tail through my window.  I couldn't help but think how God may very likely have intervened on our behalf by delaying us just a bit so that we did not hit it.  We had found 3 of the four shoebox sized containers my daughter needed, so had to go back to the front of the store to get a fourth.  I told her to go ahead and get one while I stayed with the cart.  A couple of seconds after she left, I saw a fourth one down the next aisle on a shelf and went and got it.  I wondered at the time why I hadn't seen it before so she wouldn't have had to go back.  It would have saved us time if I had just looked ahead.  When I saw the deer I felt wonder at the thought that perhaps THIS was why we had to be delayed.  At the time it had seemed frustrating, but looking back it seems miraculous. 

What if God has held back 99.9% of the evil that would have happened in our lives by causing or allowing delays, mishaps, arguments, etc. that seem so frustrating to us?  What if He hadn't allowed those things to happen and we hit a deer on our way home instead?  Which is worse - being later than you wanted, or hitting a deer and possibly dying in the process?

Perhaps we need to learn to be grateful for the minor frustrating occurrences in my life, for they may be the very things protecting us from disaster.

But, we wonder, why does God allow disasters in the first place?  God allows disaster first and foremost because human beings choose to make them happen.  It is humans that rape, murder, steal, etc., not God.   We have free choice and have chosen unwisely. Also, however, because we actually would be completely unfeeling without it.  If nothing ever went wrong there would be no need for hope and therefore we would not see a need for God.  This is really the crux of the issue.  We do not want to have to believe in and trust God.  We want to believe in and trust ourselves.  If we can get rid of the need for God, we are free to do as we please.  However, then we are right back to where we started, because what we want to do is sin without punishment - thus the reason we want to not believe in God.  But then things become disastrous again and we start seeking answers and come back to, "Why doesn't God?'  What a vicious cycle we place ourselves in!

"Suppose we rated all pain (and suffering) on a scale of one to ten, with ten representing the worst and most intense pain, and one describing the unpleasant, but quite tolerable.  Say, 'engulfed in flames' got a ten rating while a 'mild sunburn' received a one.  If God eliminated level ten pain, then level nine pain would become the worst.  God could reduce the worst suffering to level three, but then level three  now the worst, would seem unbearable......." pg. 330 If God Is Good. 
We tend to change our views according to what is allowed.  No matter what God does or doesn't do, our desire to be our own god will always make us criticize Him.

CS Lewis wrote, "Imagine a set of people all living in the same building.  Half of them think it is a hotel, the other half think it is a prison.  The half that think it is a hotel might regard it as quite intolerable. and those who thought it a prison might decide that it was  really surprisingly comfortable."

Those who have learned to trust Jesus realize they deserve imprisonment and death.  They also know our physical bodies are imprisoned more or less on this earth, so it doesn't seem so bad.  They recognize that it could be much worse, so are grateful that it isn't.  They also know the day is coming when they will be free from the effects of sin and death and look forward to that day with great joy.

Those who trust in self and believe this world to be the end all have difficulty seeing the beauty of God's original creation, because they tend to only see the devastation that has occurred instead and wonder why their hotel is so uncomfortable!!  

"I (Jesus)  will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."  Matthew 16:19 

The keys are sitting there in His palm waiting for us to reach out and accept them.  When we do, our circumstances here may not change, but our view of them will and our situation in eternity is changed completely forever!!

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.