Roadblocks On The Road To Hell

She could not see it coming. Everything is okay. I can handle it, she thought. Unfortunately, she did not realize that she was in so deep. So many times her mother would talk to her about getting into church and allowing God to clean up her life. But she always rejected her mother each time with,” Maybe later, not right now, I am just not ready yet."
At each time of rejection, her mother would go into her bedroom, lock the door and cry before God for her daughter. These cries would pray roadblocks onto her daughter's path. For you see, this daughter in question was on the road to Hell.
Her life was full of torment. Her casual use of cocaine turned into a full-blown addiction. This addiction in turn, led her into prostitution in order to earn enough money to buy the drugs. Her pathway of life was free and clear of all obstacles that would prevent her from going to Hell, except one. A praying mother.
As time would have it, things grew worse. Three separate times in one year she overdosed on cocaine and nearly died. And each time her mother was praying roadblocks onto her pathway.
After years of prayers erected a countless number of roadblocks onto her daughter's pathway to Hell; she finally exercised her power of choice, stepped off of the road to Hell, and stepped onto the pathway to God's salvation and was eventually saved. Roadblocks on the road to Hell.
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Johnny knew he shouldn't do it. He knew it was wrong. But he just could not seem to be able to stop gambling. Each week after he received his paycheck, he would take off to Vegas to gamble. Johnny had been vowing for years to move away from the Vegas area, but his gambling addiction held him prisoner there.
Some years earlier, Johnny’s life was going quite well. He had a strong, thriving ministry in his church. Even now, his wife and children are still strong in the small Pentecostal church there in town.
Johnny's life made a complete turn around though, when he landed a new job across town. He began working longer hours and even began missing church services from time to time. All the while, Johnny’s wife was faithfully praying for her backsliding husband. Her prayers were continually throwing up roadblocks onto Johnny's pathway to Hell.
Due to the fact, that Johnny is one of God's children, but now, in his backslidden condition, if at the event of the tragic loss of his life, he would become a trophy on Hell's mantlepiece.(As we know, that is where Satan puts those that once belonged to the most High God).
Johnny's wife truly loved him and was faithful unto him as God's Word says to be. She continually lifted him up in prayer unto God, throwing roadblocks onto his pathway.
Johnny loved his wife. Even though he had backslidden out of church, became addicted to gambling, he was still faithful to his wife. Temptation presented itself each time he entered into the gambling hall, but he still retained his integrity of faithfulness to her.
Weeks turned into months and months into years. Johnny had fallen so deep in debt to the gambling casino, that he had to sell his house. This left his family homeless. Luckily, someone in the church took in Johnny's family, leaving him all alone. Johnny’s wife became bitter for a short while, only to repent of it and begin her praying for Johnny again. She knew her prayers were keeping Johnny out of Hell, but she never knew just how close to the gates of Hell that he really was.
Finally the bottom fell out. Johnny, still homeless and in debt for thousands, decided to end it all. He stole a gun, aiming to commit suicide.
At this point, Johnny’s wife had prayer chains going for him from all of her church family. Through this group prayer, enough roadblocks were placed onto Johnny's pathway to Hell, to divert his path back to God.
After coming back to God with a deep repentant heart, God cleansed him, forgave him, and restored his life back to what it was before his backsliding. God even cleared Johnny completely from his several thousand dollars of debt with his awesome mercy and grace. Prayers from a faithful wife and a compassionate church family. Roadblocks on the road to Hell.

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If I can make it home just one more time, I won't do it again, Mike thought. This time though, Mike was extremely too drunk to drive, but he was behind the wheel of his truck trying to get home.
Every Friday afternoon after work, Mike always heads to the local pub suitably called, The One More For The Road Pub. Mike was the first customer to buy the first beer there a little over four years ago when the pub opened. He has been going there since day one.
Mike is a real good guy when he's not drinking. He works good, he’s easy to get along with, and he's good to his wife. But after several drinks, he becomes more like Dr.Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
This particular Friday was typical, but different. You see, Mike has a co-worker/friend, that had gotten into church about five years earlier, and this friend has been praying for Mike. Mike’s co-worker/friend knows what it is like to desire to drink beer. You see, God delivered him from the grips of alcohol at the time of receiving His true salvation. Many times, Mike’s friend has invited him to church, only to be rejected each time.
This Friday was no different. In that, his friend invited him to church again. This time though, Mike did not want to hear it. As his friend was inviting him, Mike lost it. He stormed into his friend, slamming him against the wall and breaking one of his ribs.
As his friend got up off of the floor in intense pain, Mike got into his truck and sped off. Mike’s friend fell to his knees crying, and began to pray for Mike. He knew that Mike's life was headed straight down the road to Hell and he felt as if there was nothing that he could do. Throughout Mike's friend's prayers, roadblocks were erected in Mike's life, diverting his path to Hell. A couple of years ago, one particular roadblock erected when Mike received a DUI for driving drunk. His license was suspended for six months and he had to attend a DUI class. Sadly though, after getting his license back, he eventually went back to drinking and driving again.
Mike's friend could have become bitter due to his injury and many rejections. But he remembered what Jesus said in Matthew 5:44....Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
So because Mike's friend was committed to God and to seeing Mike saved, he continued to pray for him, placing roadblocks in Mike's pathway. As Mike's friend lingered longer at the job praying for him, God, with his infinite love for His children, healed him of his broken rib injury; as Mike sat at the bar drinking, becoming increasingly drunk. Even though Mike was addicted to alcohol he knew his limit. He always stopped at his limit in order to get himself home. But not this time.
As the hours passed by, night time fell and the pub's bartender finally had to cut Mike off from any more beer. Mike staggered out of the pub and somehow made it to his truck. He headed down the road, home.
As Mike tried to get home, his friend was under a heavy burden for him in prayer. He knew in his thoughts that as he prayed, he had to be putting up roadblocks onto Mike's pathway, so he continued praying.
Mike was feeling a little more confident now. He was almost home. He kept thinking, please let me get home just one more time, and I won't do it again! But Mike had forgotten about that extremely sharp S-turn only one half mile from his home.
As he headed closer and closer to the S-turn, he just knew he had made it. He vowed he would never do it again. He began to realize just how much he stood to lose if he didn’t. He even thought about taking up his friend on his invitation to church.....someday. Just as Mike approached the S-turn.....BLINDNESS! A tractor-trailer barreling down from the opposite direction had his bright lights on and never saw Mike coming. As he suddenly dimmed his lights and slowed down for the S-turn, Mike, thinking that he was going to hit the tractor-trailer, swerved to the right, ran off the road, over the ditch, and head on into the giant oak tree at the S-turn.
Mike's truck exploded into a ball of flames, killing him instantly.
At the notifying of the accident to Mike's friend, he wept intensely. As he thought over and over, he said,” Why Lord, why did Mike have to die? I prayed for him for so long, why didn't he get saved?” Mike’s friend waited patiently for God's answer. In God's timing, Mike’s friend was told what happened. This is what God told him:
"Mike's pathway was filled with many roadblocks to deviate him from his road to Hell. But he chose not to heed to the roadblocks. Your invitations were roadblocks but were never accepted. Your prayers were roadblocks, but the convictions placed on Mike's heart were never acted upon. Mike continued to drink and never took seriously your compassion and concern."
"At the time of your injury, inflicted by Mike, he had placed his hand on the knob of the gates of Hell. Instead of helping you to the hospital and apologizing for his actions, he sped away to the pub and drank himself drunk."
"But what had actually happened was this: he had pushed those gates of Hell open, and placed his foot inside the door. At that point for him, there was no turning back. He had reached a point inside the flames of Hell where no one could reach him or save him".
"Friend, all of your prayers did their job. They erected plenty of roadblocks into Mike's life, but he continued to detour around them and stayed on the pathway to his own destruction. It was his choice. Roadblocks on the road to Hell.

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She loved the Lord. All of her life, with the exception of just a few years, she has lived for God. She’s been faithful in church attendance. She raised all of her children in church; taking them to Sunday School and other church functions. She has been a good wife and mother, completely faithful.
But unknowingly to her though something was missing. With it being unknown to her, she would not know how to seek for it.
Her life was good, her spiritual life; complacent. Things were too comfortable for her as well as her family in the religious department. Somehow, a separation between holiness and worldliness never existed. This also applied to her children as they became adults as well.
Failure at studying God's Word in depth, in order to seek out God's lifestyle preference, was commonplace amongst the whole family. The attitude was that of,” God knows we are going to sin a little; these things are not that bad, He understands."
But one day something happened to her oldest son. On his job, he met a man that began to share biblical things with him. He revealed things to him that he had never heard of or had been taught before. These things would change her son for the rest of his life.
Her son began to feel a hunger and a desire to seek God again. Only this time, it would be through the guidance of his new friend on his job. Bible studies with his friend revealed things to him that neither his mother nor his Sunday School teachers had ever taught him. This sparked a flaming desire in him, to fulfill these new revelations in his life.
Throughout the course of conviction on his heart, her son repented of his life of sin and fulfilled this revelation of truth; becoming a new creature in Christ.
After the fulfilling of this truth, her son began to carry a burden for his family. It was a heavy responsibility to carry, since he knew that his family did not understand this truth, and would reject it for some length of time.
Nevertheless, he prayed for them, continually lifting their names before God in prayer. He prayed for God's protection in their lives, due to the fact that they did not have this truth. These prayers that this mother's son was praying, were prayers of roadblocks onto his family's pathway to Hell.
As her son continued to pray for his family, his prayers were not only placing roadblocks onto their pathways to Hell, but they were also tearing down their resistance to God's truth. Throughout her son's five years in this truth, he has seen his prayers do many things in order to get his family into this truth.
His prayers have been according to God's will and not his own, in order to accomplish his goal. He has seen one sister and brother become divorced from their spouses. He has seen his dad lose his job and his retirement pension. He has also seen his dad on his deathbed due to a stroke; along with an awesome miraculous healing with no lingering paralysis due to prayer. These prayers are continually placing roadblocks onto their pathways to Hell.
To date, this mother's son continues to pray prayers of roadblocks onto his family's pathways. This son has complete faith and trust in God, to believe that his prayers will eventually pave the path for his family into God's complete truth. In the meanwhile, he will continue to pray for his mother, his family, and all concerned, in order to erect the many roadblocks in their lives that will prevent them from going to Hell. Then when the long awaited day arrives, he will see his family walking down the aisle of truth and into God's true church. Roadblocks on the road to Hell.

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A faithful mother. A faithful wife. A faithful friend, and a faithful son. All four of these people in the aforementioned stories, have one thing in common. Faith. Without faith in God to see their prayers answered, none of these people would have ever prayed for the people in their own lives. But due to their faith in God and their knowledge of his love for those that are lost, they continued to pray for those involved.
Faith and burdens go together. One must first have a burden for someone in order to pray for them. That is where faith kicks in. It is faith that reassures the person praying, that the roadblocks are going up in those lives of the lost. Hebrews 11:6,But without faith it is impossible to please him:....To please whom? To please God. We must have faith in God and believe that he will do what he said he would do, and that is to save the lost.
How many roadblocks do you think it required to get you off of the road to Hell? How many prayers do you think it requires to keep you off of the road to Hell? How many people do you think prayed roadblocks onto your path? No one may ever know how many people that it took to pray them onto God's path. It could have been only one person. What if that one person had not prayed roadblocks into your life? Where would you be? Possibly like Mike?
Saint of God, do not stop praying for those lost loved ones! Do not stop praying for that co-worker! Do not stop praying for that backslidden spouse! Do not stop praying for that lost son or daughter! Do not stop praying for a world that is lost and dying, and running as fast as they can on the road to Hell!
Who knows? Your prayers may be the ONLY prayers that are putting up.....
Roadblocks on the road to Hell.
written 10-25,26,28&11-5-98