_____we give our all to you//

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Something i found on a blog (created to share the word with the rest of CGS) set up by a few christians in my school. http://crescent-Revived.blogspot.com/

The Bible says that God is holy, and heaven is holy. Holy means perfect. If I had a glass of pure water and I put a drop of ink in it, the water would look pure, but not be pure, true? It's the same with heaven. God cannot let anything imperfect into heaven.

The Bible also says that all of us have a body and a soul. At death, your body is buried and decomposes. But your soul, the invisible life force within you, the unique and real you, this lives on forever, either in heaven or hell, there is no third place.

Unfortunately, we have a problem. The Bible says that if we have broken just one of God's laws - lied once, hated once, cheated once, just once, then our souls, like the water, have become polluted. Now let me ask you a question. Do you know of anyone who has never broken any of God's laws? No, neither do I. We are all the same, we are all guilty of breaking God's laws.

So here's our problem. All people have broken God's laws. Therefore, all people have imperfect souls. Now think of the logic of this. If there are only two places for our souls to go to at death, either heaven or hell, and to get to heaven we must have a perfect record, and no one has one, then unfortunately, the sad thing is, all of us are headed for hell. Hell is a place of punishment for breaking God's laws. This is the bad news.

But here is the good news. This is why Jesus is the most significant person who has ever lived. He's huge. This is why He split the time line, BC and AD. But most people don't know why. It's because of the difference between Jesus' soul and our souls. We are polluted because we have broken God's laws, but Jesus is perfect. Imagine this: Before Jesus came to earth, He saw you, and He said to His Father, "Father, I really love ________, I don't want him/her to go to hell.Is there any way that ________ can come to heaven?" And His Father said, "Yes, there is one way. Jesus, if you go earth, become a human being, keep your perfect record, then die a cruel death on the cross to take the punishment which ________ justly deserves for breaking my commands, I'll make it possible, but not automatic, for ________ to exchange his/her imperfect record, which will keep him/her out of heaven, for your perfect record which will get him/her into heaven. And Jesus said, "I'll do it." And He did it.

But there is something you must do to make this exchange happen for you personally. According to the Bible, there are supposed to be three major events in a person's life. There's birth and death. Ultimately, we have no control over these two.The third major event is supposed to be the day when we ask God to exchange our imperfect record for Jesus' perfect record. We call this "becoming a Christian". Now, we do not become a Christian by being baptized or confirmed, going to church, praying, believing in God, nor, according to the bible, can a person get to heaven by doing good deeds, and giving money to charities and so on. These are all good things, but none of these thigns give us a clean record. Like I said, we become a Christian when we ask God to exchange our imperfect record for Jesus' perfect record.

Say you had this third major event sometime in your life, this is what it would be like for you at death. You would come before God at judgement, everyone will. He would look at you and say, "Welcome to heaven, my beautiful child, I love you!" And you will say, "But i broke your laws, shouldn't I be punished?" Smiling, Jesus will say, "I took the punishment for you. You have my perfect record, welcome to heaven!" Now that's awesome. In other words, Jesus has done something for us that we can never do for ourselves. This is why He's a real hero.

Now the next bit is abit more serious. We're nearly finished. Say you forget all that I've told you, and you never make this decision sometime in your life. This is what it will be like for you at death. You will come before God at judgement and He will look at you and begin to cry. He will say, "I'm sorry ________. I really loved you, but I can't let you into heaven. You don't have a perfect record. I'll have to send you to hell. I tried six ways to get through to you. Firstly, I died on the cross for you. Secondly, I sent people to tell you why I died on the cross for you and how you could be forgiven. Thirdly, I gave you a conscience so that you would know right from wrong. Fourthly, there were churches all around the town where you lived. Some were good, some I was ashamed of, but you could have found the good ones. Fifthly, I created a world so beautiful that it was impossible not to acknowledge that I exsisted. And finally, I rose from the dead to prove that I am God and that everything I said and did in the Bible was true. Yet, you just did nothing. I'm sorry I can't let you into heaven - I have to send you to hell."

The Bible sums it up this way: John 3:16. That really sums it up. God wants you to go to heaven, and through Jesus, He has made it possible. The choice is in your hands. I guess the question for you is whether you have believed in Jesus with your life, because the Bible says that your eternal destiny depends on this decision.

If everything I told you today is true, if you died tonight, where would you go?