LETTER TO GENERATION X

So I sat down sometime last week watching one of the major local T.V stations in the country as they discussed Project X.

We've had an interesting couple of weeks with this issue being a major focus of the media; on radio stations, on T.V, on Instagram, on Twitter, on Facebook... it has been everywhere.

I have sat listening, watching and seeing all the drama around it unfold and I decided to write a letter to the young people of our generation and just share with them a little bit if what I've learned about it from the word of God and what He has been teaching me.

So here goes...

Dear Generation X

I hope as you read this you are well and enjoying your day as it is.

I write this letter with great concern in my heart as I look at what has been making rounds in the media regarding your generation and the interesting activities that are being made available to you.

As I listen to some of you speak, I am amazed at what you consider as good, what you do not mind engaging in for your own benefit. I guess I can bring in that recent survey that was done with you guys on what you consider as corruption and whether you mind engaging in it.

So let me get this straight... You do not mind being corrupt so long as you do not get caught??? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of theft being good for you to gain wealth... well, so long as you do not get caught stealing.

I remember growing up being taught that in all things God sees us... that even when I cover myself with a blanket, or get under the bed, it still doesn't matter, God is seeing me. Has that changed? Has God stopped being that great and mighty God who sees us in all our nakedness and sees all the way into our hearts?

I know we all want the good life; drive the best cars, live in the leafy suburbs of Nairobi, take holidays to the best destinations you can imagine... I know I want it too. But unlike what the world says, the end does not justify the means, it does matter when you sin to get yourself there. 

"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." Philippians 4:12

The Bible asks us to be content in our different situations and  live in the knowledge that God plans for us are good and He always wants the best for us as He says in Jeremiah 29:11.  

Then there's the next big thing; the elephant in the room... Project X. 

I really don't know where to start with this one... alcohol, sex, fun... really??? Now what makes it worse is to hear people justify it all and say it's all good. Since when did we accept sin and say its all good and we can engage???

First thing is sex... So sex has become the order of the day in our generation, we have all hear the myths of how sex before marriage is good, move from one bed to another, call it fun and lots of enjoying, getting a hang of things before we settle for one person... I bet you've heard it all and I also bet many of you have given thoughts to it and maybe tried it. 

But the honest truth is this; it is all a lie... it is all the devil's schemes to cause us to throw our life into sin and it hurts me when I see so many of you young people accepting sin and letting the devil have a laugh. There's a lot the Bible says about our sexual purity, and one of my favourite bloggers has covered it in her article It's Just Sex... But here's one that covers it all...

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

I beg you dear loved ones, to uphold purity, honour God with our bodies, serve God with every morsel of your being, let God look down at you and have a smile on His face. 

I have experienced God's faithfulness, and especially with the knowledge of God's faithfulness and the fact that when I'm content in Him, He is able to provide for all my needs. 

Then comes alcohol; the fun and joy we all want to have as young people. I have spent 4 years at the University and I often hung my head in shame as I saw young people indulge. I don't think I'll ever be ashamed to tell it as it is... it is a sin. 

"Let beer be for those who are perishing, wine for those who are in anguish!" Proverbs 31:6

I see young people  perishing every single day as they continue to engage in alcohol and claim there's all good things in having their drinks. I beg you dear Generation X, there's nothing more in those brown bottles than death, there's nothing more in alcohol than perishing. I have made up my mind that I will not sit back and see you throw your lives into perishing and do nothing about it. 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16

I always pray for you, Generation X, that the devil will not convince you to indulge in sin since you will walk your way to the grave, you will walk your way into eternal damnation and that is where the devil will find his joy. I always pray that you will find your way back to the cross of Christ and find all good things in Him. 

It is with love that I send out this letter to each and every one of you, with love that I make a prayer for you every day and with love that I ask that you turn away from worldly ways and hold on to Christ as your joy and source of salvation. 

Yours sincerely, 

From a fellow brother in Christ. 

MY FEAR OF MARRIAGE- OVERCOMING MY FEAR

 

Marriage... precisely 2 years ago, I wrote an article on My Fear of Marriage. 

I expressed my great concern for the institution that is marriage, how it had been made into a joke, a carnal union not based on our Christian values. I remember ending the article by making a prayer. I trusted God that He was going to lead me to the institution of marriage and that I was going to honor Him through it. 

And two years down the line, I have seen Him take complete control of my relationship matters. I remember sitting down and declaring that a time would come that I would love a girl enough to go down on one knee and ask her to marry me. 

As I was writing the article, I was still single... by choice. And in terms of relationship choices, I have learned so much to get to the point that I am at right now. I've had the desire to share a little bit of how the journey has been so far, and with so much effort, I am here asking God to help me find the right words to share just how much the journey has made an impact in my life and what God has taught me. 

1. Knowing God's Will

This for me was the starting point of my decision to stay single. I had made my own decisions for so long and I always ended up where I was, what I was doing and who I was. And it never ended well.

Many times, we want to be the ones to decide on our relationships; I have to confess that so many times I never really asked God if I should be dating the persons I dated before, and it never ended up progressing. I never dated for more than 3 months... maybe close to 4 months, but never getting there. 

This time it was different... God told me to wait and I decided I was going to listen to Him... and I waited. I remember making a vow to go down on my knees and pray to God to bring a girl my way, and He did

Interesting thing is, at the time I wrote the article, I had not held more than 5 conversations with my now fiance, and I never imagined in my wildest dreams that it is her I would now be planning to marry. But every step of us being here now has been led by God. 

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Letting go of my own desires was the starting point of meeting Enid and I never regret it one bit. Getting our plans aligned to what God desires for us is the first step we need to take. If we are not in God, how else are we going to know the good plans He has for us???

2. God has sustained us this far

I sit back and look at where Enid and I have come from, from the first time we spoke on phone, to the first time I met her and to me noticing her... Our relationship has just flowed... I don't know how to explain that. 

How hard is it sometime to get a girl's number? At times you see a girl and you walk over and ask her for her number, and she has no motivation to give it.  I never had that challenge, she called me. I look at our first date... she did not say no or give me a hard time. God had built us, one step at a time, to a point of building our friendship enough for us to sit and have coffee together so many times, even before I asked her to be my girlfriend. 

The Challenging times we faced are when we each tried to create concerns and questions as to whether we were in the right place, when other people said things and it sounded like this relationship was the wrong one, when we compared each other to people outside the relationship and thought they were a better option. There were times that we both were just about to end the relationship, because it seemed the other person was not all in.

But there was always God's voice telling us to stick right there, reminding us that we did not get ourselves there and that it was He who did. 

"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

He reminded us, in our separate situations, that it is He who had brought us together and that He was able to sustain it. Sitting here right now and reminiscing on the journey so far, He really is the one who has got us to where we are right now. 

As we got into the relationship, God reminded us that, the most important thing, is that we need to honor Him even in our relationship, to keep ourselves pure and to glorify God in our relationship. I know Enid has taken time to write a little bit about some of the decisions we made in honoring God. I know we'll be writing more on this bit, but you can see her article here.

So let me put it this way, God led me a girl, I got a best friend and I fell in love with her, He has sustained us this far and we continue to trust that it is He who will get us to the end of our courtship and into marriage. And I know He will still continue to teach us and lead us to growth in our relationship.

God did answer one of the prayers I made in my article 2 years ago... that I'd go down on one knee and ask a girl I love to marry me, and that, with tears in her eyes, she'd say yes because of the love we have shared. And just like I had prayed, it happened. If I had doubted God's ability to answer prayers, there is no doubt now that He really does. 

Two years down the line, all I can say is that God has done it for us this far... and it is He who will continue to guide us.

RAGE

 

So as I sit down writing this, I am from a point of seeking peace and calm. 

Anger, rage, frustration... these are 3 words that simply explain what I was feeling a while ago and many times what many of us feel so often. 

Just a few moments ago, I had someone walk into my office with rage and anger and it took lots of grace not to get to the point of having an argument. I could feel anger building up inside, I could feel every muscle in my body aching to just erupt and let go of all that piling pressure, I could feel my breathing get heavier by the second and the rage building up inside. I wanted to shout, I wanted to get angry, I wanted to be heard... 

But it took way more grace to walk away, it took way more strength to hold back and find a quiet and peaceful place where I could sit and have some time with God. And seated there in silence, I asked God to forgive me for what I had just felt, I asked God to take that away from me because certain that it was not from Him. 

And as I sat there, God sent me this word; 

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:12-14

Just breaking this down helped me ask myself a few questions as I meditated on the situation I had just experienced... According to v. 12, there's 5 things listed that I should clothe myself with; 

1. Compassion
2. Kindness
3. Humility
4. Gentleness
5. Patience

I had to take time to ask myself if I had shown these 5 attributes in my time of anger, realizing I had not was the first thing and seeking forgiveness from God because I had gone against His will.  

I can assure you this, it is not always easy to find theses 5 attributes in certain situation, but Paul reminds us that once we are clothed in this at all times, then even as these situations come our way, we'll easily find these attributes in us, enough for us to control ourselves. 

Paul then goes on to talk about forgiveness; and for me, I needed to seek forgiveness for what was sin and to forgive for the situation I had found myself in. You see, when we want to take control of situations around us, it gets very easy for us to sin... against God and against our brothers and sisters. And forgiveness then becomes key... and it's forgiveness, just as Christ forgave us. Find it in your heart to forgive. 

Above all these is love, it binds all these other things in perfect unity. If we have love in our hearts, there's just no room for anger and rage to build in us, whatever the situation. Paul just caps it all up in a way that reminds us all that, if we follow and live by, then we'll put away all the discord, anger, rage etc that causes us to sin and separates us from God. 

I think writing this was more for me, to find peace and to find an answer to my current situation... but I do hope it provides peace for you as you read it and share it with those around you. 

Love one another!

Prayer

Dear Lord of love, please forgive me for the times I have been angry at my brothers and sisters; may I find it in my heart to forgive them. Lord I pray that you clothe me in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience all these capped in love that is from You. Tank you for listening to my prayer, in Jesus name I pray, Amen!

GOD'S PLANS????

 

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

I got to listen to one of my colleagues last week as we had lunch as she shared with us about a few people she knows who would rather give sexual favors to get jobs than wait for one that they get the right way. I have a feeling a good number of people seated reading this article would probably do the same thing. 

I had an interesting experience last year when God told me to quit my job... yes, quit my job!!! One of the things I really battled with was what did He want me to do next. I prayed so hard, asked Him over and over again, what am I to do after that??? But no answer came, the only thing God kept repeating was that He was asking me to quit my job. 

So, very reluctantly, very unsure of what next, like running straight into a brick wall... I quit my job.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was to try and fit God into my plans, trying to direct Him to what I thought was the direction I would should have been taking. I pursued jobs I thought would fit who I am, make more money than where I was before. It just felt like I knew what God wanted for me instead of listening to what He was telling me. 

Many times we are all like me... Trying to guide God into what we want for ourselves yet we do not ask God what He wants from us; where we should go, what we should do, who we should be in a relationship with...

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10

And many times we forget this simple truth... God knew exactly what He had planned for us way before we came into this world. Nothing that happens in our lives ever comes as a surprise to Him. In my anxiety to change my situation, I forgot this and began to rely on my on wisdom, or lack there of.

And just last week I sat in a restaurant and for a moment, I have to admit, I forgot it again. I became so focused on a very big part of my future and all that went through me was worry, fear, anxiety... I went back to that point of thinking of how I was going to achieve it all in my limited capabilities and I forgot about the God who knows all this about me, I forgot about the guy who says He knows the number of hairs on my head.

Have you ever been there, beginning to look at your abilities... rather your inabilities, and letting them cloud your mind? Ever ask yourself why those times come into our lives?

Here's one thing that I have learned through it all, God reminds me that I am weak but He is strong. How can I experience His strength if I do not realize I am weak? How can I see Him take control of all my situations without getting stuck and letting Him take control? How do I experience comfort in Him without experiencing discomfort in the situations around me?

"Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" Matthew 11:28

God is assuring us today that when we can find our way back to Him, he takes us in our situations, in our worries, in our pain, in our joblessness... in all of that, and He gives us rest.

So back to my jobless period of 2015... there I was, trying to make things happen away from God. When I did realize I was trying to make things happen without finding God first, I changed and started asking where He wants me to go. One more thing He taught me was that I am not the source of my daily bread.You see, that big worry when He directed me to leave my job, that issue of how I was going to earn my living became a reality. But every day He made it clear to me that it is He who sustains me.

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" Matthew 6:26

This happens to be one of my favorite verses, yet so many times I forget that it is He who sustains me, not the monthly salary that I get. So being away from a job reminded me to rely on Him and to turn away from my worry. And last year I worried, I depleted every coin in my savings... but not a single day passed with me feeling like I was out, He took care of me one day at a time... and that last question became a reality, I heard Him repeat it to me over and over again... "Grey, are you not much more valuable to Me than the birds of the air?"

I remember one of the other significant lessons He taught me was that I got the feeling of being in need. Have you ever been there... at the place where you have nothing and you seriously want to move out of it? Need a job? Need success in your examinations? Need a Godly relationship? What is it that you are in need of? what is it that you need and you are seeking God for... or at times not going to God about it. Here's what the word of God says...

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to be in plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." Philippians 4:12

And He just told me that I need to find peace in Him, I need to be satisfied in Him... whether I have a job, whether I am jobless, whether I am full or hungry or dating or single. It just does not matter the situation...I need to be content in Him.

I thank God because, out of Him taking time to get me away from my comfort; He took 6 months to remind me to send my cares to Him and find rest in Him, to always find my comfort and contentment in Him, that I am of greater worth than the birds or the air.

He loves you and me so much!!

The most significant lesson was this, the confidence of going to Him in prayer;

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:16

Are you at a point of need? With all the confidence you can master, go to Him in prayer, and you will receive mercy and find grace.

I write this having completed 6 months in 2015 learning from God in my time of want and need; learning that He planned it all out for me in advance, having found out where He wants me to go, what he wants me to do, and seeing Him place me exactly there. I know, I am confident that even you can find that place, by just finding Him first and He will place you exactly there.

Prayer
Thank you Lord for the lessons we learn through our times of need, want, worry and despair. Forgives for when we forget you at those times and we focus on our own weaknesses and forget your almighty strength. May your word remain our foundation that we may seek you and find ourselves in your will. Amen

CONNECTED

 

One of the best things about starting 2016 was that I got a watch as a gift; and it was from a very special person, so you can only imagine what it meant to me. Having had the same watch for almost 7 years, I have to admit I was quite attached to it, so a new one was going to be one to adjust to... but I loved the feel of a new one.

I however had one challenge though... Its battery. I got a new one for it as soon as I could, but a few days later it was dead. I couldn't tell why because in my mind the new battery was still good. The watch was new, the battery was new... No way it could be a fake. It was quite disappointing, though I still continued to wear it. 

I visited a watch shop and the information I got is that the battery was a fake... A fake! Really!? And he was right. I bought a new one again, and the watch is still ticking along and I'm all about the time piece I got as a gift. It's a memory of the person who gave it to me... One that I wear proudly and think about every time I check the time. 

And this experience reminded me of a few life lessons... 

Now, the challenge I had was that my lovely watch was that it was not connected to a power source, hence even if I wore it every day, it still did not serve it's purpose. 

Let's think of a different situation. What car do you fancy? Yes, think about it... You're sure that's the one, the one you're thinking about... Yes, that one.  Imagine you had the chance to own it, but with one thing missing... Its battery. Remember this, it's a car. It's meant to be driven, to move from point A to point B. Let the whole world see you in it. But without a battery, how will that happen?? There is no way you are showing that off. 

I bet you have a mobile phone in you're pocket right now...maybe it's on your desk, or that's how you're reading this. If you take out its battery, or even it's Sim card, then you are no longer connected. What then becomes the point of you having that phone? 

I was reading an article somewhere recently on the most annoying things in the world right now. And somewhere near the top of that list is slow WiFi connection.

Yes, connection... That's what we are talking about today, connections. 

Everything in this world needs to have a connection to serve it's intended purpose... My watch, that car you dream about, your mobile device, your laptop, radio. It's all about the connection.  

Our lives have the exact same principle... Firstly, we have a purpose, one that our maker says He intended for us even before we came into this world.  

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" Ephesians 2:10

Yes, way before you were born, you had an intended purpose. Before every device in this world was created, the inventor sat down and thought about what that device would achieve once it was created. So did our Maker... He knew the reason He made you, the reason He chose everything about you, your family, your job, your school, your life partner... everything was designed for you in advance. 

But...the tricky bit is, just like the connections we talked about, our lives as well, need to be connected to a power source so as to achieve their intended purpose. 

So what is your connection??? Here's a hint... 

"Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." John 15:4

The connection we need to achieve our purpose in this world, is a connection to our Maker. How else do we know who we are if not by knowing Him who made us?? Just like a manual is the guide from the creator to an end user of an appliance, we have our Maker who knows us and knows why He made us. 

We battle so many times with why we exist, we battle with why things go the way they do and we find anger and disappointment creeping into our lives. We get so lost trying to find ourselves, yet we have the answer right in our faces... get connected to God!!!

BATTLE GROUND

 

"War, its been a part of humanity in every age. We fight for power, for riches, for rights or for freedom. there always seems to be something to fight for."

I start this blog post with the introduction of War Room, because today, its all about getting to know that we are at war, and we need to understand this battle.

I got the chance to watch the movie a while ago with some friends and it pushed me to make radical decisions in my life. It reminded me of the really important things and the not so important things that I make a priority many times. It showed me how much I have made God secondary yet He is The Primary aspect of my existence.

It reminded me a lot about my childhood. I loved watching movies... romance, action, comedy, thriller; it was dad, sis and I... mum could never do movies.

Of all these, I think action movies had quite the impact. I don't know if it was because of the way my friends narrated how the "starro" would get beat up, just to the point of death and just when it seemed impossible, they would 'resurrect' and beat up the bad guy and take the day.

These movies just got me as a kid... Rambo, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then there was the damsel in distress that they all had to save, come to think of it, how come there had to be a beautiful girl involved??? Enough of that...

Combining all these with studying the book of Revelation has reminded me.. actually not so much of a reminder, but a realization... that the devil is real, that evil does exist, that the devil will do all he can to take us away from our focus of God.You see, we are that 'damsel in distress' Christ is the 'starro' and the devil is the bad guy.

Getting to read through Revelation 12 and I realize, the only difference is, we are dealing with a bad guy who was already defeated... but we give him the chance to take control of our lives, we allow him to terrorize our lives yet, according to Rev. 12:9, he was already beaten up by the good guys... yet we still let him have his way with us. Now his only strategy is to come down to the earth and attack the closest thing to God... you and I.

Now back to War Room... what does it take to beat this bad guy in our lives, what does it take to get us from the point of letting the devil out of our lives?

Just like Miss Clara starts by saying, every war needs strategy. To beat the devil away from our lives we need to have a strategy. The biggest strategy we have for battling with the is being connected with the one who has already beat him... our God.

Our human nature has caused us to turn to the world seeking joy, seeking all the good things that the world (read the devil) can give us, yet we do not realize that it will lead to our destruction. We are forgetting to include God in our relationships, we forget God at work, in every single thing in our lives... and the devil occupies that room. He leads us to sin in every situation of our lives, he brings strife, anger... he sucks away all good things that Christ has given to us freely. And guess what... we are the reason he stays, we keep him in our lives.

But God is calling us to go down on our knees, to seek Him and we shall be reconciled to Him.

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33

 The only way to get our joy back, the only way to get the good things in our lives... is to turn back to Christ, to seek Him with all that we are and He will remind the devil that our "Starro"  has already beat the bad guy... the battle was already won. 

GETTING CANED!!

 

One of the benefits of working in Teens Ministry is that I get to be at forums where parenting is discussed, I'm not a parent yet, I'm even yet to marry the amazing and beautiful girl who I'm dating as well... but I get to be a parent to the Teens I minister to, and start learning how to be a father to the kids I'll get in future. 

Not the point really, but I got to attend one such forum recently and we were discussing how parenting was a while ago. It was interesting to hear how people grew up and how parents raised them. 

I couldn't help but think of my own parents and how they raised me. You see, my mother was the final say in our house, it was her way or face her beating. It is quite many occasions that I had to face the cane. And she used the nearest thing that she could get her hands on... a leather belt, mwiko, a rubber slippers, name it. 

I remember one of those times... not very sure if it was a mwiko or slippers, but it was one of them. And she kept quarreling me between the caning... "Wewe," THWACK! "Who..." THWACK "... told..." THWACK! "... you..." THWACK! "...that..." THWACK! "... you..." THWACK! "...could..." THWACK! "...watch..." THWACK! "...TV..." THWACK! "... na..." THWACK! "... hujamaliza..." THWACK! "... homework!?!?"

Other times there was no break between those strokes... it felt like a rain of canes, like a hurricane coming down on me, and at the end of it, it was pain from head to toe. Or when it was slow and methodical and I was told to lie down on my stomach and she chose the toughest leather belt from my dad's wardrobe and I knew exactly what was coming my way. (Dad later hid that belt without mum's knowledge). 

It was not that dad was not into disciplining us... oh no! If dad called you and you knew it was a discipline case, you stated crying even before he spoke. He had this way of pinching the abdomen region and the pain would just flow from the head to the tip of your toes... like real pain, uncontrollable pain running through your body, tears would just flow. I think I dreaded him more than mum, his was just too predictable.

And this was not just with my parents, I hear my grandmother was no joke either... except for Sundays. Sunday was the only day a beating never came. If you happened to mess up on a Sunday, Cucu would take her cane and reign blows on a huge rock that was near the home. But dare you mess up during the week... it was a beating of the century, combining the beating you were meant to receive on Sunday as well. 

That's parenting... and I'd bet you had your experiences as well. We hated them, I know I did, and it sometimes felt as though our parents were being unfair, that they went too much with the cane and there was no need to be that hard on us... I mean, was it really necessary? All that went through my mind untilI understood why it had to be that way. 

There were rules, there were restrictions, there were regulations... and every time I chose not to obey those limits, there were consequences, the beating and punishment had to come. 

Does that mean they did not love me and that they enjoyed seeing me in pain and crying?? Not at all, they did it out of love. And many years down the line, I do appreciate that they punished me when I disobeyed, I appreciate that I grew up in a disciplined and controlled environment... they did it out of love. I credit a lot of who I am today to the fact that mum and dad disciplined me in the way they know how.

Just thinking about all these experiences reminded me of how our Heavenly Father is. He loves us much more than even our parents love us, He loves us so much that He made the ultimate sacrifice of giving up His life on the cross for us. He gave us His word; the Bible. This is the rule book He expects us to live by

Now, just like my mum and dad would discipline me out of love, then what stops God? In our life of sin, God will judge us, we shall experience His wrath if we continue to live our life in sin. If we turn away from the truth, if we choose not to live by His word and instruction, what stops Him from punishing us? But unlike mum and dad, God's cane is much more severe. We are looking at a time of pain and suffering, a time when there will be so much pain that you will wish to die but it will  not come (Rev 9:6). It will be a life in hell... literally. 

But does that mean He does not love us??? Quite the contrary.. He loves us so much!! I mean, he died for you, it was supposed to be you and I hung on that cross, but He took that on my behalf, on your behalf... that we do not have to go through it because He did it for us. Is there any love greater than that?

So, yes... there will be punishment, but He is giving us a chance to turn back to Him, a second chance. Take it and experience His love.