"Is Heaven Your Home?"

So what's it take to make it into heaven?
Is it based on how many good things we do in this life?
Is it based on how nice we have been to out neighbors?
How about being nice to strangers?
Is it about going to church on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas?
Is it about giving money to the church?

Are you born-again?

The answer to all of these is the same NO! That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do these things, it just means that these are not required for salvation, but they are certainly the things that we should do after being saved or ‘Born-Again’.

Being ‘Born-Again’ means to be reborn by the Spirit of God into newness of life where old things are passed away and we are made to be new creations in Christ Jesus. This is salvation, which is a free gift, but there is a bit we must do to inherit the promise of heaven.

Who can we ask to find out what is required of us to make heaven our eternal home? How about a priest, rabbi, minister or pastor? If they give us an answer, how can we know they are telling us correctly? Maybe they don’t really know for sure.

God has given us all answers to eternal life and Godliness.
The answers are all in His Word, the Bible.

It's very easy to think to ourselves "I'm not a bad person, so I'm pretty sure that God will let me into heaven.".

In thinking “…God will probably let me into heaven…” we are at least acknowledging that God has everything to do with where our eternal home will be. But this way of thinking falls very short of salvation.

God has said in His Word:

(John 3:16) “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”
‘so loved’ – God has an unending supply of love.

Many of us know that Jesus came to the earth and lived as a man. We know the story about how Jesus was brutally beaten and crucified. But we need to understand why He had to come and why He had to be beaten and crucified.

Just because you ‘accept’ that Jesus is God’s Son and came to earth and He is the price paid for our sin, all these things are true but just ‘knowing’ them, will not reserve you a place in heaven.

If your not familiar with the price that Jesus paid for our sins then I ask that you watch the movie “The Passion of the Christ” it’s available on Netflix and it may also be available in your local church library. You can also purchase it from Amazon.



(Romans 3:23) “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

This means that we all sin. If you think you have no sin then read over the ten commandments. Never looked at someone of the opposite gender and desired to have sex with them, or maybe worked late at work and took that couple of dollars from a co-workers desk drawer to get a pop and a bag of chips? Or maybe you neighbor got a new car and you wished you had the new car instead of him.

Exodus 20 – the ten comandments

God did not give the ten commandments so that we had goals to reach to ensure our way to heaven. The ten commandments are a gift to us, to show us that we, on our own, cannot be without sin.

(Romans 6:23) “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Sin, all sin, separates us from God. God made us to love us and so that we could love Him and He doesn’t want us to be separated from Him. God has a better plan for us, one that is free!

(2 Corinthians 5:21) “He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we may be made the righteousness of God through Him”
God requires a payment for sin, the price is blood. In the days of old this was accomplished by the Jewish people with the sacrifice of animals, but it only covered the sin for a time, then further sacrifice was required.

But Jesus, the ‘Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world’, was without sin. He led a perfect sinless life. Because he was without sin, He could permanently, forever, pay the price for our sin. It’s because of the love Jesus and God have for us that Jesus desired and was able to do this. With the price for our sin paid, by the blood of Jesus, salvation became available to us.

So how can you receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation?

(Hebrews 11:6) “and without faith it is impossible to -please God; for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those that seek after him.”
– If you don’t believe that God exists then you can’t believe that He sent is only begotten son and you can’t believe that there is a heavenly reward either.

(Romans 10:9-10) “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
– telling others that Jesus is our Lord is essential to salvation, we are not declaring salvation, we are declaring, that Jesus is our Lord. Which means a will and desire do what He wants for us.
– we believe with our hearts and this allows God to look at us through the blood of Jesus and God sees us as being righteous but we must also believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus was seen by many three days after his death. If you do not believe that God raised Jesus from the dead then how can you believe there is life after death?
– the blood debt of sin requires the sacrifice to die a physical death

To sin against God, means that we have done wrong to/by Him.
If we insult or hurt anyone isn’t it right to apologize and say ‘I’m sorry’?

Summary:

Believe that God exists.
Believe that God sent His only begotten Son into the World.
Believe that Jesus led a perfect sinless life.
Believe that Jesus paid the price for your sin.
Believe that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Realize that you are in need of a savior by accepting that you have sinned.
Ask God to forgive you of your sins.
Ask Jesus to make His home in your heart.

Are you ready to be save?
If so then it’s time to pray to God.

"Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me, a sinner. I believe in You and that Your Word is true. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that He died on the cross so that I may now have forgiveness for my sins and eternal life. I know that without You in my heart my life is meaningless.
I believe in my heart that You, Lord God, raised Jesus from the dead.
Please Jesus forgive me, for every sin I have ever committed in deed or in my heart.
Please Lord Jesus come into my heart right now, be my Lord for I believe in You and in Your promise of salvation.
I give you my life and ask you to take full control from this moment on; I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ."

Amen.”

Do help you grow in the knowledge of God and Christ I strongly recommend:

• that you find a local church

This church should be one that believes in the ‘whole Gospel’ not just the bits and pieces that the church administration agrees with! Usually these are referred to as ‘Full Gospel’ or Pentecostal churches. These churches will believe that God does heal today and this is not something that God has done away with, they believe in ‘the laying on of the hands’ for physical and spiritual healing. These churches also know that you do not need someone to speak to God on your behalf, as a born-again creation of God you can go directly to God, in sincere reverence and proper fear, with all of your worries, fears, to ask for forgivness, or just to talk to God about your day! God likes that a lot, just to talk to Him, He already knows everything, but He will not be bored when you tell Him about your day! God speaks to people and God uses people, I know this to be true from my own life experiences since being born-again!

• Start reading the bible

If you do not have a bible you can download and install a free electronic bible on your computer from http://e-sword.net. Many different versions of the bible, including the “Bible in Basic English” are available free add-ons to e-Sword. In e-Sword you can also setup a Bible reading plan to read the Bible in an amount of time the you decide.

• Start a daily bible devotional reading

e-Sword has several free devotions that you can add to it.

• Read Proverbs every day, read the chapter that corresponds to the day of the month.
• Set aside regular time to pray.

Pray for the salvation of your loved ones, pray for wisdom and guidance for you boss, doesn’t matter if He is saved or not just pray for him. For healing.

• Seek God’s wisdom, for He gives wisdom freely to those that ask and does not ridicule them for asking.
• Make new friends that have also been reborn by the Spirit of God and hang out with them.

NOTE: I felt it important that people understand the price that Christ paid for our sins. I also felt that the movie 'The Passion of the Christ" portraid this very well. That is why the links are here, but a 4% commission is made from each sale if you purchase the video from Amazon using the links in this article. All commissions earned from these sales are given to the Christian Temple Church with nothing withheld. I know of no place that you can get this movie for free so this was the only other alternative I could find.