Drive Bys

It's been about five months now since the family and I went on vacation to the beach. I'm ready to go back. It's still hot, and if I'm going to have to be hot anyhow, I might as well be on the beach enjoying it. :)

Shortly after our trip, I wrote an article and drew an analogy between our vacation and how it relates to change in our lives. If you live in Alabama, you've probably at least heard of Gulf Shores. Most Alabamians have been there a time or two, (or a hundred, lol). I'm looking forward to Heaven one day, but Gulf Shores will do, at least for the time being. :)

On our way back home from Gulf Shores, we went through a little town called Bay Minette. It's about 50 miles north of the beach, and sits on the main highway down to the coast. While traveling, I've been known to read the street names going through the smaller towns. Some of those roads have really creative names, and I wonder who comes up with them, somebody with a vivid imagination and maybe too much time on their hands... Anyhow, something did grab my attention while traveling back through Bay Minette. As we drove by, there was this little church facing the highway, and it had a road alongside it named "Styx River Road". I thought that was sort of ironic the name of the road beside this church was "Styx River", a place in mythology which is supposed to be the river which went to Hades, or the underworld.

Growing up, I always thought Hades and Hell were one and the same. I did some research online about it, but I get different perspectives about those two terms. Some say that Hades and Hell are one and the same place, while others say that Hell is just a part of Hades. Another website said that Hades will be destroyed at the end of time, and that only Hell will remain. Whatever the case might be, the Bible tells us that Hell is a place of torment and it involves fire (See Luke, Chapter 16). I don't know about you, but it's too hot here in the south during the summer, and I definitely don't want to be anywhere that's going to be hotter.

As we drove back home, I started thinking about how the local folks there probably travel that road a lot and might drive by that little church every day, never giving it a second thought to go to church there, or to church anywhere else, for whatever reason. In doing so, they're traveling down "Styx River Road", in more ways than one. They're really traveling down a "spiritual road" to Hell, also. Now...I'm not going to say that church will necessarily save you from Hell. Accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior is the only way mentioned in the Bible to escape Hell. Church is good, and God commands us to go to church to worship with other believers, but it can't save you, in and of itself. There are some people who go to church every Sunday, and have never made a commitment to Jesus Christ, and are no more saved than someone who doesn't go to church. You can send yourself to Hell, though, by refusing to come to Christ, and a lot of times that involves refusing to go to church. It hasn't been that long ago (just a few years) where I was in that same situation. I didn't want to go to church, and no one, I mean no one was going to make me go. The more you refuse, though, the more hardened you become to the idea of going, and you can, in effect, send yourself to Hell. You can continue driving by churches day after day, and be slowly "slip-sliding" away to Hell. You'll be traveling down "Styx River Road", and you won't necessarily have to be in Bay Minette, Alabama, either.

If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior today, it's not too late. Get off "Styx River Road", make a u-turn, and turn to Jesus. He loves you more than you'll ever know!