A little girl was
standing outside her Sunday School classroom when the pastor noticed she was
holding a big storybook entitled, “Jonah and the Whale.” The pastor wanted to have
some fun with her so he asked her, “Do you really believe that Jonah was
swallowed by a whale?” The little girl frowned and declared, “Of course I do!”
The pastor pushed her a bit and said, “You really believe that a man can be
swallowed by a big whale, stay inside for three days and then come out and
still be alive?” The little girl said, “Absolutely. The story is in the Bible
and we studied it in Sunday School today.”
Then the pastor asked, “Can you prove to me that the story is true?” She
thought for a moment and then said, “Well, when I get to Heaven, I’ll ask
Jonah.” The pastor was on a roll and asked, “Well, what if Jonah’s not in
Heaven?” She then put her hands on her little hips and sternly declared, “Then
you can ask him!” (anonymous)
When I say the word
“heaven” most of us kind of put that in an “I’ll think about that later”
category. In our minds we have three boxes of importance of thinking about
things. The first box is Urgent. The second box is Not Urgent. The third box is
After I’m Dead. And heaven is in that third box. Because of that we just don’t
think about it much.
REMOVE
YOUR DOUBT ABOUT GOING TO HEAVEN.
There’s a couple of good reasons that we feel unsettled about the afterlife.
Because to us it seems so unclear.
know who gets in? How do you I know how you get in? Don’t you have to wait
until you die and get all the books settled and figure it all out? God sent Jesus Christ to this earth to give us the message. He sent Him to give
us the message that it does not have to be unclear. We don’t have to be unsure
about the hope of heaven.
what God told us. God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son.
Whoever has the Son has life. But whoever does not have the Son of God, does
not have life.””
to say, “I want to show you the way to heaven, to eternal life. I’m the way to
eternal life.” God knows that some of us don’t like to ask for directions. So
He came to us. Before we even asked He said, “Here is the way to get to heaven.
It’s through Me. It’s through Jesus Christ.”
There’s a second reason we feel unsettled.
depending on what we can do to get into heaven.
around and think, “If I’m doing better than most people I’ll probably make it
in.” I’m doing probably as good as the Pastor. I’ll probably make it into heaven.
It’s a matter of comparison in getting in.
Heaven is a perfect place. Because it’s perfect even one imperfection will keep
you out. If you have even one bad thought, one wrong action, one sin in your
life your entire life that’s enough to keep you out of heaven. It’s not a
matter of balancing the books. Someone needed to wipe the slate clean for you
to let us in.
Ephesians 2:8-9 ““God saved you by his special favor(grace) when you
believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation
is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about
it.”
It’s not
based on what I’ve done. The more we base our thoughts on whether we’ll get
into heaven or on what we’ve done the less sure we’ll be. The more we
recognize it’s what Jesus did, the more security we’ll have. Would you like to know for sure that you’re going to heaven, have no doubt
about it? You can. Based on God’s promises. That’s the first thing you and I need to do to bring thoughts of heaven.
Continued tomorrow….