Do You Think You Can Tell ....

And the song continues .... Heaven from Hell?  Do you think you can tell heaven from hell?  I am pretty confident that I could answer yes, but hold out 100% certainty for risk of being too confident and not on guard enough, lest I be deceived by something false.

I am not sure exactly where the thought for this post came from, but the line above comes from a Pink Floyd song, Wish You Were Here.  I guess the other day it sorta popped into my head which is strange since I haven't heard it for many mucho many years .... maybe it was that I was playing, or at least trying to play, Hotel California by the Eagles on a borrowed guitar and it had a line it about heaven and hell, and an similar thought questioning the ability to tell the difference.  Nonetheless, here I write about heaven and hell.  

Both are realities and they couldn't be farther apart - one bringing an eternity of sadness and pain and the other bringing an eternity filled with joy, hope fulfilled and absent of tears, pain and suffering.  I think both can be experienced here on earth, but far short of what they are really like.  I also think many are confused about what they look like and are seeking their own versions, trying to shape truth to placate themselves.  And the enemy of our souls is quick to jump in and help with the twisting of truth, attempting to convince that the present and future should be filled with blessings that are deserved or justifiably ours. The truth is we, I, don't deserve what God freely, out of love, offers - a future, filled with hope and a home in heaven, to be with Him forever.  Part of me wants to delve into what I am looking forward to, but I know better .... it will be far too long of a post and come up way too short of how wonderful it will be so I will stop at only saying it will be far greater than we can comprehend.  

As I mentioned above, I do think we can experience some of what it will be like ... for instance when I give myself over to caring for others above my own needs or when I am lost in worshiping our Great and Mighty God, I experience a joy that is unexplainable.  I experience love that goes beyond myself.  I also think we can get lost in the sadness and pain here in this sin stained world and experience a taste of hell and in reality we all have apart from Christ, just many are fighting the truth of the matter.  I hope and pray that this brokeness, this poverty in spirit was or will be used by God to lead you to Him.  The truth is that apart from turning to Christ and the hope He has secured , a person is left with only two sad choices.  First is to focus on the drowning pain being experienced and the other is to seek a substitute for the pain, offered by the world and the Father of lies, which only takes one further away from the love their Creator desires to lavish upon them.  

I believe I can tell a difference, but pray I will always be found looking to and following the Word of God and trusting the Holy Spirit to lead me in Truth.  And so I sing as the song goes, How I Wish, How I Wish You Were Here .... in a sense of I wish the Lord was returning to bring us home now, but until He does I will sing How I am glad, How I am glad Lord, that You  are here, here with me now and forever with me.

How about you?  Do you think you can tell?  If not try crying out to you Father in heaven who loves you with and unending love, He is waiting to lavish His Grace upon you.  Call out to Him and ask Him to show you great and unsearchable things, His love is truly beyond comprehension, but it is nonetheless oh so real and it is unmistakeably discernable when seen in the light that is the Light of Truth.  If you're not signing the lines I've written, I pray you would seek Him - He is waiting with an open invitation for you to approach His throne of grace and if you are singing with me, the invitation is, of course, open for you to approach the throne as well, with thanksgiving in your heart and on your lips.