HOW TO MAKE HEAVEN YOUR HOME
FOR ALL ETERNITY…
First of all: Repent [not just for some sins that you have committed] but for being a sinner by your very nature, and then you will be blessed with God’s forgiving grace and you will have an entrance to Heaven when your life on earth ends.
As it is written:
James 4:6
"But He giveth more grace.
Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up."
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up."
True humility is hard to find, but it takes true humility and honesty to be a benefactor of God’s glorious grace. A proud person can neither receive God’s grace nor give grace to others because they think too highly of themselves.
There is a story in the Bible about two men. (it is a parable found in Luke 18:9-14) One man was a very religious man, and the other was a very sinful man. They both went to pray in the Temple of God. The religious man sat near the front of the Temple by the altar and declared his righteousness. He thanked God that he was not a sinner like the man who sat in the back of the Temple. The sinner man sitting on the back pew was crying out to God and even beating his chest as he openly acknowledged his wretched sinful state. The Bible said that it was the repentant and humble sinner that received God’s grace and forgiveness while the religious man stayed in his proud and sinful condition.
I find that people today may confess to some sin or another, but don’t like to think of themselves as wretched sinners. Or (just as bad) they may compare themselves to others thinking that "some people are certainly much worse than I am."(!) They don’t understand that God will compare each us to His holy standards, not the standards of others or of the world! The great apostle Paul understood this and said of himself in Romans 7:24 “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” He was confessing his completely bankrupt spiritual condition insofar as his own "righteousness." Now Paul was a zealous, upright, religious man, but he had a true vision of Jesus and came to understand and fully acknowledged his evil, sinful, depraved and fallen condition before GOD and then abandoned himself to Jesus by faith and confessed next in verse 25: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Why? Because Paul knew very well that "he was crucified (in his fleshly, carnal sinful nature) WITH CHRIST," and that it was no longer Paul who was living the Christian life, BUT CHRIST BY HIS SPIRIT thru Paul, by faith and trust and surrender to Jesus as Lord. (!)
So what will you do, my friend? Will you try to turn over a new leaf? Will you just try to give up a vice or two? Or will you humble yourself and acknowledge your very fallen, sinful condition, calling on Jesus to change and forgive you. My friend, that’s the only way to be saved from your sins and the eternal death penalty that they will bring upon you, i.e./ hell and (eventually) the second death, which is the lake of fire.
You can be sure that the proud can’t get to heaven or into GOD's Kingdom. They may try their best to climb the religious ladder of good works but will be surprised to find themselves in the fires of hell along with the rest of the deceived and the hypocrites. It was pride that ruined Lucifer, who became Satan, the liar and arch-enemy of God. Will you follow him? or will you humbly follow the Lamb of God and climb Calvary’s hill to put your pride to death on the Cross?
Humble yourself and acknowledge your need and call on THE LORD JESUS CHRIST to be forgiven and changed from within. He will hear and answer that sincere prayer, and then His grace and forgiveness will be yours.
“BE HUMBLE OR YOU’LL STUMBLE.” ~ D. L. Moody
