"...they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth." Isaiah 38:18b
The Truth about God: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent." (John 17:3) The presence of Hell is the absence of truth, including truths about God. We can never know Him in any way on this world or in the next if Hell is our primary disposition (and consequently our primary end). A life bound to Sin is a life bound to Hell. Such a life is not life at all; it is a living death, a dead man walking. It is a life with the absence of God; and where God is not, there Hell is. We can never know Him in this life of the next when we are in the pits of Hell: we are cut off from the intimate communion of His presence. We can never know the wondrous rapture of that dance when Hell is within us, and us within it.
The Truth about Ourselves: "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me." (Psalm 139:1-6) There is only one person Who knows us in every aspect and element of our being, and that is God. To be in the pit is to be cut off from Him, and to be cut off from Him is to be cut off from all knowledge of self. God is the source of self: He designed it, He knows it backwards and forwards, and He knows the extent of the effects of Sin upon it. The only way to "know thyself" is to get back to the source of our self. As long as we are in the pit and the pit is in us, we are in a constant confusion about ourselves. We fly this way and that, trying to "find," "discover," or "reinvent" ourselves. There is only one Who knows us the way we wish to know and be known, and to be cut off from Him forever is darkness forever, and Hell indeed.
"Thy Presence
Is the freedom of Thy Truth.
Lead me into Your Light,
And keep me there..."
-Jon Vowell
The Truth about God: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent." (John 17:3) The presence of Hell is the absence of truth, including truths about God. We can never know Him in any way on this world or in the next if Hell is our primary disposition (and consequently our primary end). A life bound to Sin is a life bound to Hell. Such a life is not life at all; it is a living death, a dead man walking. It is a life with the absence of God; and where God is not, there Hell is. We can never know Him in this life of the next when we are in the pits of Hell: we are cut off from the intimate communion of His presence. We can never know the wondrous rapture of that dance when Hell is within us, and us within it.
The Truth about Ourselves: "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me." (Psalm 139:1-6) There is only one person Who knows us in every aspect and element of our being, and that is God. To be in the pit is to be cut off from Him, and to be cut off from Him is to be cut off from all knowledge of self. God is the source of self: He designed it, He knows it backwards and forwards, and He knows the extent of the effects of Sin upon it. The only way to "know thyself" is to get back to the source of our self. As long as we are in the pit and the pit is in us, we are in a constant confusion about ourselves. We fly this way and that, trying to "find," "discover," or "reinvent" ourselves. There is only one Who knows us the way we wish to know and be known, and to be cut off from Him forever is darkness forever, and Hell indeed.
"Thy Presence
Is the freedom of Thy Truth.
Lead me into Your Light,
And keep me there..."
-Jon Vowell
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