How Can I Go to Heaven?

The Big Question – How Can I Go to Heaven?

The mystery of what happens after we die has captivated people since the beginning of time.  For most people, throughout history and across every culture, the belief in a god or gods has been almost without question.  How we relate to a supernatural being and how that relationship impacts us after we die has been the source of countless speculation and debate, even resulting in all kinds of violence and oppression.

We believe that a relationship with almighty God is as simple as a prayer.  God does not demand of us any great and noble words, any heroic acts, any deeds to prove to him that we are worthy of his favor.

We believe God is love.

We also believe that God’s greatest expression of his love for us was by sending his son, Jesus, to teach us about him and ultimately to pay the price for our admission into heaven.

What price?  Let’s face it, no one is perfect.  In fact, if all of your thoughts for a single week, or even a single day, were made public, chances are you would need to leave town.  We are by nature people who think, say and do things that are sometimes pretty rotten.  That rotten part is what the Bible calls sin.  And the Bible also says that no one is going to get into heaven who has committed sin.  There’s been only one person who has ever lived who didn’t commit sin.  Jesus.

The Roman soldiers, with the urging of the religious leaders of that day, crucified Jesus.  What they didn’t realize was that Jesus, the only sinless man in history, was offering himself up for us as a payment for our sins.  God let Jesus take the punishment for our sins.  It doesn’t sound fair, but that’s just it.  God’s love for you doesn’t have a thing to do with being fair.  God loves you and me and is willing to go to this kind of length to save us and to have us live with him forever.  Jesus died for your sins.  That’s not fair.  Its love. 

Jesus was buried but he didn’t stay dead.  Three days after he died, God raised him from the dead and he’s been alive ever since that day.  By Jesus being resurrected by God, it proved that Jesus really was the Messiah, the Son of God.  And because Jesus was raised from the dead, we believe that we too will live with him after we die.

Fifty days after Jesus was raised from the dead and after hundreds of people had seen him alive, he ascended into heaven and sits next to God the Father in heaven.  He promised to come back some day to set everything right.  Evil will be banished and goodness will be unopposed.

So how does this all bring us to going to heaven?  What do we have to do?  Some have believed that if we just do more good things than we do bad things then it will all even out and we’ll make it to heaven.  Others have believed that heaven is for everyone, no matter what they do or say or think or believe. 

However, these ideas are not what Jesus told us.  Getting into heaven isn’t about balancing the scales, any more than staying the son or daughter of your parents is based on doing your chores when you were a child.  We are our parent’s child because of who we are and because of the relationship between us that is far stronger than if we were perfectly obedient.  We are our parent’s child because we are in an intimately loving relationship with them and they are in an intimately loving relationship with us.  We don’t become their child or stop being their child based on deserving it.  It’s a relationship.

And Jesus clearly taught that those who don’t want a relationship with God don’t have to have one and thus won’t be required to be with him in eternity.  No one, from infamous persons in history who worked to destroy others, to you or I, have to hang out in heaven pretending that we love the Lord. 

It all comes down to one thing.  Tell God that you love him and that you want to be his child.  Tell him that you accept what Jesus did for you and ask him to forgive you for the sins you’ve committed.  Ask him to make you a new person, full of the kind of abundant life that he has promised to those who follow him.  Let him know that you trust him and want to be Christ’s follower and his child.

Remember, that when you tell God these things from your heart, God writes your name in the Book of Life.

All of this can happen in the back bedroom of your house or on the front seat of a cathedral.  It can happen in the middle of a field or at a kitchen table with a friend.  The most important thing to remember is that God really, truly loves and accepts you, just the way you are and wants to give you something that is really impossible to adequately describe.  What it is that God wants to give you can summed up as love.  He loves you and wants you to love him.

Bringing God into your life isn’t just about getting into heaven years from now.  It’s about experiencing the life changing power of God today.  Your life won’t magically change and become perfect when you become a Christian.  But going through life with the Lord means that you will have someone to go with you who is stronger than your weaknesses, wiser than any of your foolishness, deeper than any of your shallowness, and more meaningful than anything you will ever encounter.  Where there is brokenness in your life, God wants to bring healing.  Where there is shame or guilt, God wants to bring freedom.  Where there is confusion or meaninglessness, God wants to bring purpose and order to your life.

So call a Christian friend and tell him or her that you want to follow Christ.  Bow your head and just start praying.  The words don’t have to be fancy religious words.  Just speak from your heart and God will hear you and save you and start making you into a new person.

Need help? 

We’re available …more than available ... we really want you to call us!

                                Phil or Matt

816-734-2635                                         816-550-4842

Here’s a link to a flashier presentation of what was just said:

How to Know Jesus