On the right-hand side of my page (in my welcome message), I mention "the ticket to Heaven." People talk a lot about Heaven and ask many questions. What is it? Who is there? Does it really exist? What's it like? How can you be sure you're going there?

Heaven is awesome. Not only do you get to live with God and Christ "up" in Heaven, but the Bible specifically states that at the end of it all, everyone -- including God and Christ -- will come down here to live on what is referred to in the Bible as the New Earth.

So essentially, if we died today (or are Raptured today), we will go up to Heaven to be with God. We'll get new resurrected bodies that don't hurt or ache or feel ugly. Those who are crippled will walk again... those who are blind will see again. Those who are overweight or achy or bald will be strong, supple and healthy. And so we will live in Heaven temporarily while Biblical prophecy plays itself out here on earth, and when that is all over we will all come down to live our eternal lives with the Lord.

THAT is going to be awesome! Think about it for a second. Another chance to live here on earth. But this time, with a new body. No feelings of sadness or despair. No feelings of hurt or anger. No loneliness. No stress. No aches or pains. The earth will be whole again. Beautiful and lush, with no pollution or ozone damage. No dirty inner cities or graffiti-laden alleys. No wars, no conflicts, no poverty or disease. Nothing will be harmful. In fact, the Bible even says that even animals will not harm us:

The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.

The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.

They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
(Isaiah 11:6-9)

It will be an awesome time. Every dream you had or yearning you felt in this life will be fulfilled in that eternal life. The Lord will be our King, and Christ will be our Prince. And it will be glorious. It will be beautiful. Think of the absolute best moment in your life. The day you got married? The final seconds of a winning game? The moment that you gave birth to your child? Remember that amazing joy you felt? Multiply that by 100. And make it last forever. THAT, my friends, is Heaven.

So how do you get there? Do you have your ticket? If you believe in the Lord and know with all of your heart that He sent His son Jesus down to die on the cross for our sins, to give us the gift and grace of salvation, then you have your ticket. If you don't, then you don't have that ticket. That's all there is to it.

An acquaintance of mine once said to me, "Don't you condemn me to hell! Who do you think you are?" Another person, a blog reader, emailed me once to say, "No way can you condemn millions of Buddhists and Muslims and such to hell, just because they aren't of your faith."

Let me set the record straight here. I am not condemning anyone. I have nothing to do with your decision to accept Christ or not. You have your choice. Imagine this: Pretend that the president of the U.S. just passed a bill that said anyone and everyone can receive a check that will cover all their living expenses for 30 years, so that we can all retire now. All you have to do is fill out a form to claim your check. Now, as you can probably imagine, there will be some people who for whatever reason decide not to claim their check -- maybe they don't believe in a free hand-out. Maybe they dislike the American government. Maybe they thought that the rest of us were wrong in taking this offer. Most likely they were really skeptical that the government was telling the truth, and doubted that we were even going to get our checks. But then imagine that the time came for us to receive our money, and we quit our jobs to retire. Suddenly, all those who refused to take the check are getting angry, and are crying and yelling at us: "It's not fair that you get to sit back and enjoy life while we work our butts off. It's not right that you condemn us to work hard for the rest of our lives while you enjoy retirement! We're not bad people... why do we have to suffer? What gives you the right?"

Was that whole thing our fault? Was it the government's fault? Were we all to blame for their anger? No. Not at all. The check was a gift -- a really good one. One that saved us all from a hard life. It was those people's decision not to take it. They had free will to make whatever choice they wanted, and they chose to ignore it and deny it. What did we have to do with it? We tried to convince them to take the check, and to get them to see that it was the right thing to do. Yet they were stubborn and refused to see. They chose not to take the gift. They scoffed at us and laughed at us and told us they never thought it would happen. But then it did. Was it the government's "fault?" No. They weren't going to force it on people if they didn't want it, but it was such an awesome gift that they honestly were surprised that people chose not to take it. But being fair, they weren't going to force it on those who absolutely did not want it.

Salvation through Christ is kinda like that. (No, it's not the greatest analogy. But you get the picture...) It is your choice to accept the gift and believe in Christ.

"Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures." (John 10:9)

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22-24)

Another person a while back emailed me, telling me that I am wrong. That people get to Heaven by being good, and doing good deeds. That's when I responded with my reply, "So, then... if that's the case, what's the scoring system? How do you know if you've done enough to get into Heaven? Is a good deed done by a wealthy, well-off, happy man equal to the same good deed done by a poor, sickly, homeless person? How do you -- as a human here on earth -- know when you're doing it right or scoring well?"

That person retorted, "You don't... only God knows."

Well, folks, that's not how it works in Christianity. Each one of us knows exactly if we're going to Heaven or not. It's not a guessing game. We don't have to wait and see or live blindly, wondering. And despite what some religions think, we do not get to Heaven by doing good deeds or works:

Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
"Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord will never count against him."
(Romans 4:4-8)

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. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Listen, readers. This is not a world where every human gets into Heaven. If that was the case, then murderers, thieves, child molesters and terrorists would be in Heaven. Suddam Hussein would be in Heaven. So would Adolph Hitler. The Bible DOES say that if you've done wrong, and accepted Christ as your savior and repented your sins, then it doesn't matter what you did. Then The Lord won't see you as a thief or adulterer or murderer -- He'll love you and accept you into His kingdom with no evidence of your wrong-doing. But without that gift of salvation and grace, you are still seen for who you were here on earth. You wear your sins for all to see. By wearing those sins and denying Christ, you are choosing NOT to have eternal life with God. If you think that you haven't sinned, remember this: ALL sin is created equal. A little sin is the same thing as a big sin. ANY sin keeps you out of Heaven. God gives an easy way to get in. If you don't accept the gift of His salvation, then you are choosing not to be with the Lord in Heaven. It's that simple.

Nor is this a world where your good deeds get you into Heaven. God knows that people who are wealthier and who are better off will have more opportunity to do good deeds than those who are poor and live in impoverished areas -- that simply wouldn't be fair. Also the Lord knows that many humans do good deeds simply to show off and boast about them. That, too, is far from what He has instructed us to do.

God's requirement is simple: Have faith in Him and his son Jesus Christ. True faith.

Do you have true faith as you walk in your journey of life? Just the other day I was having a conversation with someone who was talking about Lutherans versus Catholics. This person was talking about a couple where one person was Lutheran and one was Catholic. They were feeling a need for spiritual growth and God, yet they were struggling because they didn't know which church to go to. My conversation with their acquaintance was frustrating, because this person said, "I feel badly for them. They want to get to know God, but she can't take communion at his church, and he doesn't necessarily want to go to her church..."

Yet another conversation with a person a few weeks ago was along these same lines. I was talking with someone who said that they wanted to do more charity work. I was describing some of the great ministries that our church offers, and invited this person to come to a service to see if they would be interested in meeting a few people and getting some information on one or more of those ministries. This person said, "Oh, I couldn't do that. I'm Catholic. I wouldn't feel right about doing it outside of the Catholic church."

Come on, people! Don't you get it? It's not about who is eligible for communion and who isn't. Or whose church is right and whose is wrong. It doesn't matter what sect of Christianity you belong to. All that matters is your faith in Christ. All that counts is your relationship with the Lord, and the fact that you've accepted salvation through the gift of grace He's given us. Do you think God is up in Heaven, approving the fact that all of these rituals and rites and segregations are keeping all of us from working together as a church? No way! How did this come to be? How is it that the majority of the world thinks that they will be going to Heaven without doing this one specific thing that is talked about over and over again in the Bible?

We are on all this earth with one shot at finding Christ. We are scattered all over the earth, on all corners of the world, with one main objective in front of us -- to find Christ. To accept the Lord's gift of salvation with eternal life in Heaven (and on the New Earth) with Him. You don't get a second chance. You know the story/analogy I wrote about above, about how some people chose to accept the government check to retire and some didn't? You only get one chance at it -- you can't go back after the fact and say, "Wait! I was a jerk. I realized now that I need that." God gives the average human about 70 years or so to make the decision to accept the ticket to salvation. We all have free will -- everyone gets to decide. In the end, if you're on the path that doesn't lead to Heaven, it is nobody's fault but your own. YOU made that decision.

Think about it. It's the most fair way of doing it. God doesn't decide -- He lets YOU decide for yourself. Either you want to be there with Him, or you don't. He's not going to force you.

Some out there might believe that Heaven doesn't exist, and that you just die in the cold ground. Not true. There are a lot of people who died young, or became handicapped, or who lived a hard life that will get a second chance at really living.

Some still might say that they don't believe in the Bible. Maybe they don't believe in God. Maybe they are true atheists, or maybe they believe in the Zen Buddhism, or in the Koran. But understand this: whatever you choose to believe about any portion of God, Christ, the Bible, etc. is all YOUR decision. Just because you don't believe it doesn't mean it isn't true. Listen for a minute. Be still, and open your heart and mind. You aren't going to get a free pass by saying, "Hey, I'm sorry! I didn't believe that the Bible was even true! I thought it was just a bunch of men making up stories." It won't work. God has made sure to give you all the information and signs you need to come to the right conclusion. I mean, if you're here reading this and you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your savior... think for a minute. Talk about a sign, right? God's giving this information to you via this blog. Why are you still holding back? Even after reading this and hearing all the things talked about in the news or on TV or by other people you STILL choose not to believe, then God will say something like this to you, "I gave you many signs. I sent many people your way to help you see. Still you hardened your heart and denied it all. You made the decision to reject my gift -- you didn't want it. I will honor your decision."

Men did not just make up stories. It came from God. Listen to Him. Read those stories. Recognize that there is much more going on here than just "religion."

Peter wrote this to all of the church, so that everyone could understand exactly what the Scriptures were all about -- he knew that people would be in denial and would choose not to believe that the story of Jesus and the Scriptures really came from God:

So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21-21)

Read. Pray. Be still. Think for a minute. Open your heart and your mind. Accept God's gift of salvation. Make the right decision. Choose the right path...