cast out

Lewis tells us about the truly horrific thing today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

He talks about those people who, one day, might hear the worst words a human can possibly hear. "Depart from Me, for I never knew you." And, as Lewis eloquently points out, those people find themselves in a place where God isn't, even though He's everywhere, and forgotten by the One who knows everything.

This concept is horrible. It is beyond our human grasp to understand. It is a place beyond hope or redemption. It is not a place where anyone would want to be.

This is why I hope and pray that everyone finds Jesus. Because no matter how evil a Hitler or a Jeffrey Dahmer might be, the thought of banishing them to a place where they will never... NEVER... have hope again... is too horrific to imagine.

We know there will be a place called the Lake of Fire, and that anyone not found in the Lamb's Book of Life will be cast into that Lake. But my hope is that every human being finds his name in that Book. Will it be so? We will find out. But I truly hope that no human being ever has to hear the words "Depart from Me, for I never knew you."

God, thank You for Your mercy, without which none of us would have hope of salvation.