The phone call came early on a Friday morning:

"Hello. David Noel?"

"Yes."

"This is your neighbor, Mrs. Waldron."

"Who?"

"Mrs. Waldron, your neighbor."

Not wanting to embarrass myself, I mentally tried to place a Mrs. Waldron somewhere in my neighborhood. She continued, "There's a fire out in back of your house by the fence, close to the gas tanks."

I don't have a fence, nor are there any gas tanks anywhere near my home. However, I immediately went out back to see if there was indeed a fire. Returning to the phone, I said, "Ma'am, I think you have the wrong David Noel."

"Aren't you the David Noel that lives on Avery?"

"No Ma'am."

"I'm very sorry," she said.

"That's quite all right," I said.

I hung up the phone with a smile—and with one more glance at the back yard. A few minutes later, as I was sitting at the table, I found myself looking out in the back yard again. The stakes were too high to let a little embarrassment or confusion keep me from making sure.

The Scriptural teachings on hell present stakes even higher. No one ought to ignore those teachings without serious investigation into the claims of Jesus Christ.