Wednesday Bible Blurb “Fire in Your Heart” 1 8 2025
It was June 1977 when I was 18 years old that I landed a great job with the construction company building the new subdivision and the homes in Pacific Palisades. I lived on the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Pacific Palisades about 1,000 feet from the Pacific Ocean. This was my summer job as I worked my way towards going off to college in August. I was up at 3:45 A.M. every workday to drive up Pacific Palisades Road to water the hillsides around all the new homes where the new grass and shrubbery had been planted. Working from 4 A.M. to noon five days a week was tiring but it left me afternoons to spend time at the beach and enjoy living by the Pacific Ocean.
January 2025. Today, fire is raging and consuming this beautiful neighborhood. The pictures are gruesome and bring back many memories for me. Not just memories of the beautiful hillsides and homes but of the gorgeous Southern California weather, sunsets on the beach and the hustle and bustle of the Sunset Strip where I lived so close to the ocean. Another memory arises for me, a memory about my father, Los Angeles City Fire Captain Gordon P. Wallace who fought many brush fires in Los Angeles. When I worked at the Pacific Palisades construction site my dad had passed away from cancer only months before.
Reality is sometimes hard to swallow, as I watch the homes burn and still mourn the loss of my father. There is, however, a bigger picture for us to consider. What is the final fate of humanity? Are we to burn in hell fire for eternity or does God have something else planned? This one question of hellfire and eternal torment has intrigued and plagued mankind for answers for thousands of years. What does God have to say about it?
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD.” (Rom. 6:23 [NKJV]). Since the wages of sin is death, we must look at what “sin” is. John the apostle and friend of Jesus gives us a very direct answer as to what sin is. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” (I John.3:4 [KJV]). When we break God’s immutable just law (The Ten Commandments) we sin and are therefore punishable by death. Death are our wages not an eternal hell fire punishment in agony as promulgated by the poem Dante’s Inferno. On the other hand, God’s gift to us is eternal life when we do not break His laws. By living His way (not sinning and breaking the Ten Commandments) He is going to give us something we do not have-eternal life.
At the final judgement, known as the white throne judgment, we are told, “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Any anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20:14-15 [NKJV]). Eternal death without perpetual torment is the fiery end of life fate for those who sin and disobey the commands of God. The prophet Malichi, speaking for God says, “For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” Says the Lord of hosts, “That will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet On the day that I do this,”
Says the Lord of hosts.” (Mal. 4:1-3). Dead, gone and trampled under the feet of the saints. This is the fiery end to those who do not obey and follow God.
We all have a choice to make, follow God or die. “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments… [If you follow other god’s] “I announce to you today that you shall surely perish:…I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore chose life, that both you and your descendants may live…” ( Read all of Deut. 30:15-20). May we all choose life!
Fire in the heart of Pacific Palisades and my father the fire captain is in my heart. Let God rage like a fire in our hearts as we follow and obey Him. Let us keep His law and be granted eternal life with Him as He has promised.
For further information on the topic of hell go to: www.coscog7.org, click on Studies and the Biblical perspectives. Search for the word “hell.”
