And anyone who was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.  Rev. 20:15.
 
    How does God feel about the destruction of the wicked"  Is it "good riddance" along with a sigh of relief?  Or is this the most difficult moment in the history of the universe?  The following story gives me a sense of the answer.
 
    Shirley was a high school guidance counselor when the phone rang one day.  A student was on the line.  "Jen says to tell you that maybe you should check on Todd.  He may need you pretty badly.  She broke up with him at noon."
 
    Todd was Shirley's son.  She hurried home to find an empty medicine bottle on the kitchen counter and a message on her son's computer: "It's hard to know what to say when you face death, but I thought I must say something....Suicide is not the answer, but maybe it is a better way than life....I want everyone concerned to know I love them--especially Jen.  I love you so much that love has taken over my intelligence."  Todd was all of 16 years old at the time.
 
    Life had always mattered to the young man before this.  As a student he was at the top of his class.  At a convalescent center he had always been a responsible worker.  Shirley slammed her fist down on the taunting computer.  That morning a happy 16-year-old had left home with a rose and a poem he had written for his girlfriend.  He had never threatened suicide or been unduly depressed.  Fitting in with his peers, he didn't drink or take drugs, had none of the classic symptoms of a suicide.  Although Shirley had counseled others, she had no chance to counsel her own son.
 
    Her husband had rushed Todd to the emergency room.  The staff there pumped his stomach and put him on an IV drip.  Thanks to rapid intervention Todd received another chance at life.  Some time later he and his mother finally had a quiet chance to talk.  The words gushed out in gulping sobs: "Mom, I didn't mean to hurt you!  I didn't mean to hurt Jen!  Why can't she love me?  I begged her not to leave..."
 
    "Cry, honey, just cry," his mother said.
 
    "Mom, have you ever knelt and begged someone to stay, and they just turned and walked out?"
 
    "No, son, I haven't."
 
    Todd whispered softly, "God has--every time one of us walks away from Him."
 
Lord, I sense a bit of the aching pain You feel every time I walk away from You, even if just for a moment.  I know that an even greater pain is coming on that day when sin and sinners are eradicated from the universe.  You have always been there when I needed You.  I want to be there for You on that day.

 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and everyone was judged according to their works.  Rev. 20:13.
 
    Buster was a fairly ordinary cat.  Of no breed in particular, he was a delightful combination of the two characteristics that make cats so much fun.  On the one hand, he was all cat.  The mice, chipmunks, squirrels, moles, and birds in the area were all intensely aware of his presence whenever he ventured outside.  The "mighty hunter" strode through his domain with an air of conscious superiority.  On the other hand, when he was with children he was as gentle and affectionate as if there were not a violent chromosome in his whole genetic makeup.  He was greatly loved.  And he was never gone from the house for more than 12 hours.
 
    One day he disappeared.  We found no trace of him for 72 hours.  Our worries and fears increased by the hour after the first day or so.  After three days the family gathered for a special prayer session.  I can still hear my wife praying, "Lord, even if he is dying somewhere, please bring him back so we can know what happened.  Send your angel to carry him back if You have to.  We need to know what has happened to him."
 
    The next morning my wife was having devotions by the front window.  Suddenly she screamed, "It's Buster!  It's Buster!  He's back!  He's in the yard!"  We all piled out of the house in various stages of dress and undress to greet the beloved wanderer.  Our cat had a large hole in his side, filled with flies and maggots.  With both tears and joy we realized that God had answered my wife's prayers.  Buster had come home to say goodbye!
 
    With broken hearts we gently carried him back into the house and called the vet.  When treatment failed, the family went to the animal hospital to say a final goodbye.  Seeing us enter, Buster struggled to his feet to greet us, then collapsed back to the floor of his cage, barely able to breathe or open his eyes.  We knew that it was over.  With loud wailing and two buckets of tears, the five of us expressed our love to him one last time.  Although we walked out of the hospital into sunshine, the day seemed so dark.
 
    It is comforting to know that death's days are numbered.  One day we will be reunited with our loved ones, and separation will forever be a choice instead of something imposed on us.  Will Buster be there too?  I don't know.  I know that nothing is impossible with God, but I don't know if He will preserve little pet personalities for eternity.  Yet this I do know.  If Buster isn't there, it is because God has something even better in store for us.
 
Lord, I long for the day when death "gives up."  Until then, let me cherish every moment of this precious life You have given me.

 And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.  And I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before the throne.  Books were opened, and another book was opened, the book of life.  The dead were judged on the basis of the things written in the books, according to their works.  Rev. 20:11, 12.
 
    This scene is quite scary on the face of it.  Everyone on earth--great and small, rich and poor--will one day be called to account.  Nothing ultimately occurs in secret--all things will one day come out into the open.  It is a powerful incentive to right living.
 
    What we are talking about here is accountability.  Accountability involves allowing others to help you keep watch over yourself.  It means never having to face your problems alone.  Someone else is there to encourage you and to help keep you straight.  God is constantly available for this purpose.  But for many people, accountability to God isn't incentive enough.  They need a real flesh-and-blood person watching over them.
 
    Such accountability can take many forms.  One type is a sharing group, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, which requires everybody to tell the truth and accepts them in their telling of it.  A fascinating thing happens in such a group.  As you learn to share your faults and struggles openly, you begin to find strength to deal with issues you were unwilling to face before.  Knowing that you must give account to the group provides a check against your natural laziness or immoral behavior.  As a result, accountability is a great motivator to right living.
 
    Here is a suggestion for the few and the brave.  Do you have a hard-nosed friend?  Someone you trust, who loves you and cares deeply about you?  An individual who would never want to see you hurt?  Go to this friend and share with him or her your desire to make changes in your life.  Tell the person that you will be completely honest and that you expect honesty in return.
 
    That is scary, isn't it?  Well, I couldn't live without it.  I have three close friends in addition to my wife (one is a White American, one is and African-American, and the third is Hispanic).  I know that these three men love me.  Trusting in their love, I have given them the right to confront me about my faults anytime they see something negative.  Whenever we get together, we have accountability sessions.  We go out to eat or take a long walk and open up the deepest recesses of our hearts to each other.
 
    The Bible suggests that nothing can be so precious as the wounds of a friend (see Prov. 27:6).  And no friend is so true as the one who loves enough to tell the truth.
 
Lord, I want to be accountable to You in all things.  Use my friends to keep me focused on Your purpose for my life.

And the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, where also the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.  Rev. 20:10.
 
    A 10-year-old boy named Robert needed serious confrontation and ended up better for it.  He was wild and uncontrollable.  When a dentist ordered the boy into the dental chair, he refused repeatedly, finally threatening to take his clothes off if the man made him get into the chair.
 
    "Take 'em off," the dentist replied.  The boy took off everything but his pants.
 
    "OK, son, get into the chair."
 
    "You don't understand--if you make me, I'll take all my clothes off!"
 
    "Son, take 'em off," the dentist ordered.  The boy complied and got into the chair, naked as the day he was born.  When the dentist finished the procedures, Robert asked for his clothes back.
 
    "I'm sorry, but we'll be keeping them for the night.  Your mother can pick them up tomorrow."
 
    You can imagine the shock in the waiting room and the parking lot as the boy left with his mother.  The next day the mother returned for the clothed and reported, "Robert has been blackmailing me about his clothes for years.  But you're the first person to call his bluff.  You have no idea what an impact this has had on him.
 
    Our text for today contains strong and disturbing language.  Some sincere Christian thinkers take it to mean that the lost will literally undergo torment for an eternity of time, never dying, never having a break, never released from their suffering.  But this is a misunderstanding of the Hebraic concept of "for ever."
 
    The language of fire and sulfur recalls the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which thoroughly destroyed the cities and their inhabitants but did not leave them endlessly twisting in the fire like a chicken in a rotisserie (Gen. 19:24).  Jude 7 tells us the "forever" fire (same Greek word as Rev. 20:10) destroyed Sodom.  The language also recalls the destruction of Edom, which was to be burned "forever" (Isa. 34:8-10), yet one finds no inferno there today.  "Forever" in Hebrew is not so much an indication of time as it is an indication of thoroughness.  When God confronts evil the last time, He will make a full end--it will never return.
 
    Many people today would prefer that language like this didn't appear in the Bible.  But evil will not go away quietly--it must be confronted.  The universe will be a better place for its destruction.
 
Lord, I realize afresh that I can make no compromise with evil.  Send the fire of Your Spirit to cleanse me today.

 And when the thousand years have come to an end, Satan will be freed from his prison, and he will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, whose number is like the sand of the sea, to gather them together for battle.  And they marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints, the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and consumed them.  Rev. 20:7-9.
 
    Ragged ruins jut like broken teeth from the fractured earth.  Splintered remnants of uprooted trees, long since petrified, protrude from between blackened boulders.  Sterile and still, the whole earth is a vast, cratered graveyard.  Not a green thing trembles in the hot wind.  Not a breathing thing stirs.  Until, incredibly, living bodies begin to materialize out of the craters and the ruins.  Bodies almost without number, varied beyond description.  They range from strapping giants, seemingly in the prime of life, to hollow-eyed beings ravaged by age and disease.
 
    Is this the opening scene of the last sci-fi thriller?  No, it is the scene implied by the sweeping story of Revelation 20.  The 1,000 years have finally finished.  It is time for the second resurrection--the resurrection of the damned at the end of the millennium.  Why has God summoned these lost souls from sleep?  Why not just let them remain in oblivion, since they refused to change?  God does this to bring closure to the conflict between good and evil.  He does it for the sake of the universe.
 
    The wicked from the nations rise from the grave just the way they died, with the same kinds of thought, feelings, and passions.  One last time they face the temptations of Satan.  Again they fall for his deceptions.  Doing what comes naturally, they attack the saints, who have returned to earth in the beloved city, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2).
 
    Many find themselves wondering about a divine justice that saves some while allowing others to be lost.  To human eyes, many of the saved will seem defective, and many of the lost will come across as righteous.  Some wonder how God could judge between humans that appear so much alike.
 
    But the events at the end of the millennium demonstrate that little acts of "harmless" selfishness have transformed the characters of the lost.  Their minds and hearts have become quietly twisted to the point that nothing will turn them away from sin.  Faced with a clear and public choice between repentance and destructive action, they once more choose the latter.  In the process they verify God's judgment.  The lines have been rightly drawn, and no doubts remain.  History can now come to its sudden and final end.  Sin, suffering, and death will disappear forever.
 
Lord, I see that little things have big consequences.  Help me be faithful in the little things today.