I don't get it

I know a man who would do just about anything for anyone.  If you need something and he has it, he's always the first guy to loan it out.  He's the last guy to ask for help.  He's funny, articulate, and a good guy. With just about the darkest side I've ever seen in a person.  He's cynical, defensive, and can be down right mean.  And he's OK with the fact that he's going to hell.  I mean that.  He does all these good things, has this good streak in him.  Helps out people.  And then, he knows he's going to hell and doesn't care.

That's so sad to me because I see the good things in him, the good side he has, then I hear him say things like that and I wonder to myself "Why?"

He's married so it's not like he's out chasing girls or this big womanizer.  He's kind of a my-way-or-the-highway kind of guy at times, but he's so giving too.  I don't get why he wouldn't accept the Good News.  I really don't because so much of what Christ asks from us, he gives on a regular basis.  And he's going to hell.  That's sad and I don't get it.

I've never asked him why, but some day I'm going to.  I would really like to know why he doesn't want any part of God's promises, Jesus' love, or saving grace that promises to bring us hope and forgiveness.  I don't understand why that's not a good deal.  Why it's not attractive.  I don't get it.  What is there worth hanging onto that everlasting damnation makes it that good?  

I know it's odd for me to be saying things like this.  My pastor could testify I gave about the lamest reason for why I didn't go to church.  Someone hurt my feelings so I decided ALL Christians were that way.  Then I tried to put God in a little shoebox in the closet, only turning to Him in prayer when I wanted something or someone was sick.  I believed what I wanted to about God which had absolutely nothing to do with God.  I believed in something that wasn't God.  I believed Jesus Christ was the Son of the living God but couldn't have told you if I wanted to exactly what that meant.  And I certainly didn't live my life in any kind of reverence or fear of God.  I did what I wanted and it was working out, so I figured it must be OK with God.

I didn't get it.

God doesn't fit in a shoebox.  Or any other box for that matter.  And it took a lot for me to figure that out.

He didn't change when I woke up this morning.  It's not OK that things are going on in our country and world that God does not approve of.  Again, if there's nothing to this whole thing about God being the creator, about Him being our Heavenly Father, then a whole lot of random things have sure happened in my life and the lives of others I'm close to in the last year.  To further the point, and I know I asked this the other day, why does His name get used the way it does; why do people use the name of our Blessed Savior and Lord as a curse word?  Why just these two names if there's nothing to this?

What turns you off from church?   Why wouldn't you want the things that God promises?  Think about this, will you?  Seriously?  Ask yourself what's holding you back from God.  What's so important that you can't give it up to live a better life a better way.  As I heard recently on the radio:  Christians don't believe in eternal life for Christians.  We believe everyone is going to live forever.  It's WHERE you're going to spend eternity.  Doesn't an eternity with God sound so much better than an eternal damnation?

What's stopping you from making the best decision you'll ever make?  Seriously ask yourself what's so important you can't make a decision for Christ.  I don't expect an answer on the blog, but I hope you'll give the matter some serious consideration.  And while you do, think of the guy I started out the story with.  His good works are meaningless because he's heard the Good News that Christ, who was without sin died on the cross for ours.