"... there is rejoicing in the presence of the
angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Luke 15:10
Do you know where you will spend eternity? Are you
going to make it into heaven or is there a chance you
might end up in hell?
God smiles on us when we want to learn about Him and
His ways. Ignoring Him is not a good idea. Many people
have their own beliefs about God and how to get right
with Him.
God doesn't change His ways to our ways any more than adults
change to a child's ways. Assumptions
and wishful thinking are among the worst ways to
conclude anything about anyone, especially God. We
need to learn what God says about Himself
and us
because the greatest future event for every soul is
accountability to God.
In this age of political
correctness and moral relativism, God has not changed.
Let's take a look at what God has to tell those who
make incorrect assumptions about Him.
Job 38:1-4 Then the
LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
“Who is this
who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question
you, and you shall answer Me. “Where were you when
I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if
you have understanding.
It would be good to now pray this short prayer: Father in
Heaven, please give me
understanding to learn the truth about You and Your
ways. In Jesus' name, thank You.
All
religions tell us if we do good things then there is a
good chance we will make it into heaven.
But none of the religions can tell us how much good is
good enough. We just have to wait until it is all over
to find out if we succeeded. But once we leave our
bodies, it is too late to come back and change
anything. God knows our eternity is such an important
matter for us that He made a simple way for anyone to
be confident they are going to get into
heaven.
God
wants relationship instead of religion. Of course God
commands us to do good things. But no amount of good
things can remove the bad things (sin) from our
record.
We all are guilty of sin. And
God knows all our
sins:
Matthew 10:26
"... for there is
nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden
that will not be known."
What does sin produce?
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death [hell]; but
the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ
Jesus our Lord.
It is
unwise to not fear that we will be held accountable for our sins or that
they are small in comparison to the sins of
criminals who make the news. People are not God's
standard for righteousness ... Jesus is.
Our Universal Dilemma
We don't need to go
too far down the list of the Ten Commandments to learn
we are guilty of sin. For example: You shall not use
the Lord's name in vain. Honor your mother and father.
You shall not commit adultery/fornication. You shall
not steal. You shall not lie.
Our sin separates us from our Holy Creator. Lying to
ourselves about our innocence is self defeating. The
time to get right with God is now. He is watching to
see if you truly want Him.
If someone has the
cure for cancer and keeps it to themself, the world
would call them cruel. But humanity has a greater and
more universal problem than cancer. It is sin. Sin is
what keeps us eternal beings out of God's sinless heaven and condemns
us to sinful hell. And Jesus warned us that more
people are ending up in
hell than heaven:
Matthew 7: 13-14
"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is
wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction
[hell], and there are many who enter through it.
For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads
to life [heaven], and there are few who find
it."
Many people think we
get into heaven by doing good things. But doing good
things does not erase the bad things we have done.
How we get sin removed from our record
Unlike cancer,
the cure for sin is accessible to all and is free!
Most people already know these three very important
facts:
1. Jesus died
on the cross for our sins.
2. Jesus shed
much blood when He was crucified.
3. Jesus
suffered this painful death voluntarily for us. He did
not have to do this for Himself. He is sinless.
Jesus paid the price for our
sins because we are unable to pay the penalty. If we could
make it into heaven on our own by doing good things or
by some religious exercises, then Jesus would have
been a fool …
He would have suffered voluntarily for nothing.
But Jesus is no fool! He paid the greatest price anyone paid for
anything and that is for our souls so we could make it
into heaven!
Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of
God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
Now you can understand why God is
angry
at those
who ignore this most costly and precious gift that He is offering to us for
free. (Think of how you would feel toward
someone
who rejects/ignores the most valuable gift you could give.)
The significance of the blood of Jesus
The Bible tells us the blood of Jesus washes our
sins away. This is like a delete key erasing the record in
computer file. This means when we (true Christ followers) are
called up to give account at the
Great White Throne
Judgment, our record will have no sin on it because
the blood of Jesus washed it off!
I hope you can
understand
the magnitude of this.
Hebrews 13:12 And so Jesus also suffered ... to
make the people holy through his own blood.
Revelation 1:5 And
from Jesus Christ, … Him that loved us, and washed us
from our sins in His own blood,
John 14:6 "Jesus said ..., 'I am the way, and the
truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but
through Me.'"
John 3:18 [Jesus speaking] "He who believes in Him
is not judged; he
who does not believe has been judged already, because
he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God.
John 5:22-24 [Jesus speaking] "For not even the
Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to
the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they
honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does
not honor the Father who sent Him. "Truly, truly, I
say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who
sent Me, has eternal life,
and does not
come into judgment, but has passed out of death
into life.
I hope you pray the following
prayer with deep sincerity. If you do, you too can
have confidence that you are in right standing with
your Creator and will make it into heaven.
1 John 5:13 These things I
have written to you who believe in the name of the Son
of God, so that you may know that you have eternal
life.
Prayer to get right
with God
Dear Father in heaven, I
confess that I am a sinner and my sins have separated
us. I want to be in a right relationship with You. I ask You to
help me remember my sins so that I may repent of them
and come clean. I sincerely repent of my sins and ask
for Your mercy to forgive me of my sins. I accept
Jesus' crucifixion, His shed blood and rising from the
dead as
His payment for my sins. I ask for Your Holy
Spirit to come into my heart to guide my thoughts and
actions and to help me stay away from my sinful ways. Thank You in the name of
my Savior Jesus
Christ, Amen.
"... there is rejoicing in the presence of the
angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Luke 15:10
What now?
Read the
Bible
and
pray to God
daily.
Find a good Bible
teaching
church
near you. And learn more
from the
Next
Steps page.
Feel
free to print this page, mark it up and call
or
e_mail
me with whatever
questions or doubts you may have. I also eagerly
accept prayer requests.
And don't forget to tell others about this most
important information.
With the love of Jesus Christ,
