If there were no heaven....

[missourimary]

Originally Posted by Digging4Truth

I live things that I don't think send people to hell and, to tell you the truth, I am currently not real sure about our concept of hell.

So... I would live for him like I live for him now. But I don't know if I could have gotten here without beginning in fear and learning to love Him for his wisdom and my love for his excellent ways.

I was thinking along the lines of the question you pose today. I have seen people live and preach standards of modesty and holiness. And then when they got out of a church that preached these things all went out the door.

I have seen people live and preach against the holidays but as soon as they were out of a church that preached it these things went out the door. I think they were convinced that these were their personal convictions but an opportunity to circumvent them proved otherwise.

I don't agree with the fire and brimstone concept of hell, and I don't agree with the literal gates of pearl and streets of gold concept of heaven. So I can't think I'd change the way I lived if the promises of heaven and hell didn't exist. I'd be happy living the way I do even if I didn't believe in God, much less heaven and hell.

D4T, there was a time that I preached and lived standards of modesty and holiness. I thought those were absolutely right, and judged others by them. I don't follow some of those outward standards now, but it wasn't because I had the opportunity to circumvent them. I was at the store, and someone from my former church ripped into a clerk. The clerk was near tears; she had only been doing her job. When I stepped up to the counter, she glanced at me and pulled away with fear and hurt in her eyes, thinking I'd have the same nasty attitude that she'd just been subject to and had probably seen many times before.

If what I wear hurts my ability to reach out to people who are lost or hurting, even if it's considered "holy" and "modest" in an ultra-conservative environment, is it pleasing to God? After a lot of prayer, discussion, and study, I decided that in my situation it wasn't.