On this day in 1931, Alka-Seltzer® was sold for the first time.

You know how Alka-Seltzer® works, right? Take a couple of the tablets, drop them in water, and watch them fizz and disintegrate. Then drink it up. It’s supposed to bring relief to aching stomachs and heads and stuffy noses.

Relief means change, a break in the action, a new approach, and a turn for the better. We have relief pitchers in baseball and relief workers in areas hit by natural disasters. We talk about getting relief from a cold snap in winter, and when we hear good news (like, “No homework today”), we say, “That’s a relief!” We usually associate relief with stopping pain and feeling better.

That’s the good news. But here’s the bad. The Bible says that hell is a place of “no relief.” Check out today’s Bible verse. There, medicine won’t help. A new weather front won’t change conditions. No one and nothing will be able to relieve the suffering in that terrible place. What an awful prospect!

Heaven, on the other hand, is all about relief from the sin and suffering in life. Instead of pain, we’ll have pleasure. Instead of darkness, light. And we’ll be reunited with loved ones. Now that’s the place to be!

So what makes the difference? How does a person avoid hell and make it to Heaven? Only by grace through faith (see Ephesians 2:8, 9).

When we trust in Christ as Savior, turning over control of our lives to him, we are saved from eternal death. We receive eternal life and become members of God’s eternal family.

What a relief!

The smoke of their torment rises forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshipped the beast and his statue and have accepted the mark of his name (Revelation 14:11).

To Do

Get a concordance. Look up Heaven and read all the related verses. Do the same for hell.

Also on this day

This is National Ice Cream Box Day (Cool!).

1833—Oberlin College in Ohio opened as the first truly coeducational (admitting both men and women) school of higher education in the United States.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.