I posted this last Friday after blogging through 2 Thessalonians chapter one. I have been thinking about the judgement of God all weekend.
It is a judgement we all deserve, yet some are pardoned. What do we have hope in if we continue to fail God and sin? It is only by continually throwing ourselves on God's amazing grace, our faith working itself out through love. 

Nothing else matters. Nothing we do earns God's favor. It is His love poured out into our hearts. 

God is Absolute Love. 

I prayed and thought about this passage for a long time. How could there be some who say there is no hell, there is no eternal punishment, that God's love is just a free pass. 

Some say that all will be party and rejoicing. Some say it doesn't matter what you do only believe. But what kind of heaven is there when there is no repentance that goes along with forgiveness. What kind of perfect world is there if evil is welcomed. 

I don't read my Bible or the truth of this life in that way. There must be an Absolute. An Absolute Love. That says here it is, here is the standard. I will not allow it to be compromised or impure. 

Yes God is a God of joy and love, but it seems love must include justice related to an absolute standard. 

So there is silence in heaven for a half hour. Have you tried to be silent in a group of people for half an hour. I imagine it would be a sight only seen in a group who are both deeply awed, deeply saddened and profoundly filled with love. I think of someone in a civil war coming across a loved family member who fought on the other side, dying and close to death. They are enemies, yet have a bond to one another. This might be the feeling we sense when judgement falls on others and we are pardoned through god's grace. 

2Th 1:5- 10  "This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering-- since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you,  and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels  in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,  when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed." 

Rev 8:1  "When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour." 

We will all marvel at Him when He returns at the glory of His might.