ETERNITY IS A VERY LONG TIME!

How do you get to heaven? A recent letter to the editor in the *other* Sterling newspaper (not the one for which I write) posed this question, and raised some doubts as to whether the question could be answered with certainty.

Frankly, it’s a question we all should be asking, because eternity is a very long time.

Of course, your eternal destiny doesn’t depend on simply asking the right question, but rather on knowing the right answer. And there are lots of wrong answers.

The most common wrong answer in western society is that people get to heaven by being good, or pretty good, or perhaps even not so bad. The typical rationale of this position is that since heaven is a good place, then good people go there.

There are at least two serious errors in this view. First, heaven is a perfect place, not a good place. Scripture makes it clear that no sin is allowed into heaven (Revelation 21). Second, there are no good people. God’s Word is unequivocally clear on this point. “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). So, the getting-to-heaven-by-being-good notion is obviously out.

Other people believe that everybody eventually goes to heaven, even if they spend time being punished for their sins after they die. Again, this view is contrary to Holy Scripture, which declares, “it is appointed for people to die once – and after this, judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Jesus made it clear that some people go to heaven and some people go to hell, and they all stay in their respective places forever. Plainly, the everybody-goes-to-heaven idea is also wrong.

Jesus’ mission on earth was “to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Therefore, He taught with extreme precision about how you and I can be certain we will spend eternity in heaven. His conversation with Nicodemus, recorded in John 3, encapsulates His teaching on the matter. Here’s the gist of what He said there.

The eternal Son of God was sent to earth by His Father to take our sins upon Himself, and suffer the just punishment of God on our behalf. He gave His life for us – a life that is perfect and eternal – so that by trusting in Him we could have His life in us and live forever in heaven with Him.

Jesus also stated very clearly that He is not merely one way to heaven among many, but that He is the only way. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” He stated. “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

With these words, Jesus conclusively put to rest any and all other notions about the way to heaven. You can’t get there by being good, by being religious or by suffering for a little while for your sins. Only Jesus can get you there.

I remember sharing this once with a man who had recently been told he had only a short time to live. His response amazed me. “I’ve led a pretty good life. I’ll take my chances,” he told me.

Take your chances?! With eternity? That’s a pretty big gamble. And the consequences of taking the wrong chance are immensely tragic, especially in view of the sure thing Jesus offers you. He’ll take your sin if you’ll give it to Him, along with the punishment you deserve. In return, He’ll give you His life and eternity with Him in heaven.

Be sure you know where you’re going. Indeed, you can be sure, if you’re trusting Jesus.

And please remember: eternity is a very long time to be wrong!

Redeemed

One of the formative memories of my childhood was pasting the “S & H Green Stamps” we got at the grocery store into little green booklets of twenty-four pages, fifty stamps to a page. I can still remember the awful taste! It was a great day when I got to start using a wet sponge to moisten the glue on the back of those things.

After we got enough stamps pasted into enough booklets, we would take them to a place called a “Green Stamp Redemption Center.” I remember being very confused by this term the first time I accompanied my parents to the “Redemption Center.” As a preacher’s kid, I had only heard the word “redemption” used in connection with what Jesus did for us. So, I had to have it explained.

Redemption, as the explanation went, comes from the word redeem, which, at its most basic, simply means to purchase or exchange. Thus, at the redemption center, we were exchanging all of these booklets of stamps for items we would otherwise have to purchase with cash.

Since then, I’ve learned more about this concept. I’ve learned that the word “redeem” itself derives from the little used and somewhat archaic term “deem,” which means to take account of something or to place a value on something.

The word might have been used like this in seventeenth Century England.

Mr. Smythe goes to the village market and sees a hen he wants. To the merchant, Mr. Browne, he says, “I deem that hen to fetch a price of one penny.”

Mr. Browne replies, “I deem her at three pence.”

“One pence and a half,” offers Mr. Smythe.

“Tuppence,” replies Mr. Browne.

“Sold,” says Mr. Smythe, and because both gentlemen repeatedly “re-deemed” the value of the hen, the bird is eventually redeemed, or purchased.

That’s exactly what the word portrays in its Christian meaning. Humanity has deemed itself being worth only the pursuit of pleasure and things. God the Father, Who indeed knows best, deemed us worth the price of His own Son’s death. By paying such a price for us, He literally re-deemed us: He placed His value upon us, not because of anything we had done or could do, but simply because He created us for eternal intimacy with Himself.

That is very good news. I am redeemed, or re-deemed, as it were: re-valued, purchased and held by a new Owner. I paid nothing for myself. Instead, I am the recipient of God’s re-deeming grace, unearned, undeserved, and undeservable.

A great portion of the Christian life involves simply learning how to make daily decisions on the basis of this marvelous truth: God has placed His value upon you and, by some inexplicable miracle of His love, deems it appropriate that His Son should have died for you. In contrast to the value the world and devil consider you to have, God re-deems you.

How do you deem yourself? Do you consider yourself as God does? Are you re-deemed?

A fascinating postscript:
The Sperry and Hutchinson ("S & H") company started offering stamps to retailers way back in 1896, still does something like this. Today it's called "Greenpoints," and is all accomplished online. For details, go to http://www.greenpoints.com/account/act_default.asp

Believe or Know?

Do you know anyone who doesn’t know God?

Notice I said “know.” Not “believe in.”

According to many recent studies, believing in God is almost universal in America. One study says ninety-five percent believe in God, another says ninety-seven percent. Whatever the numbers, almost everyone believes in God. Indeed, scripture says that even the demons believe in God – and they tremble (James 2:19).

We are, indeed, a believing nation.

But, honestly, so what? What does believing in God mean if it changes nothing about the way people live? Does the word “believe” refer to mere mental consent to a creed or doctrine?

In this sense of the term, God did not create us to “believe in” Him. He is patently not interested in our merely acknowledging that He exists.

What He created us for is to be in a relationship with Him. He wants us to know and love Him like He knows and loves us. The original plan, revealed in Eden’s fair glade, was that we enjoy an intimacy with God comparable only to a healthy marriage – full knowing, deep closeness, and delightful love.

The problem is, we have spoiled the original plan: we ignore Him. Though He fashioned us to be in love with Him, we have fallen in love, instead, with ourselves. Like Narcissus, we gaze with sinful vanity into the pool of our own depraved self-will, and find there not the image and reflection of God, but only our mirrored selves. Enthroned upon our own hearts, and infatuated with the pursuit of our own desires, we have excluded Him from our lives by blatant neglect.

And yet, we say we believe in Him.

This “belief” is a far cry from biblical faith. It’s an impersonal, imaginary thing, a passing nod to some invented notions about God. The fact that such “belief” utterly fails to change lives reveals it for what it truly is: a powerless deception masquerading as faith, a fig-leaf bandage to conceal our shameful conceit.

Jesus’ coming to earth, His death and resurrection, reveal with passionate clarity what God is looking for: a relationship with you. God desires to be so near to you, so intimate with you, that it can be described only as Him living in you.

As you actively turn from your sin-driven self-love – an act the Bible calls “repentance” – your life opens to Him: Jesus enters in, and fills you with Himself. At that point, He not only forgives your sin, but changes you into a brand new person on the inside.

Thus begins a whole new relationship. Paul described this relationship as the defining quest of his life: “I consider everything loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

I repeat: knowing Him, not just believing in Him.

So, let’s return to the initial question: “Do you know anyone who doesn’t know God?”

Could that person be you?

Is America Still Under God?

Are we a nation under God or aren’t we?

Listen to these words that shaped our nation, that prove that the U. S. A. was, indeed, created and designed to be a nation under God!

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” – The Declaration of Independence, 1776

“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” – George Washington, 1789

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization . . . on the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, and to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." – President James Madison, 1813

“It is the duty of nations . . . to recognize the sublime truth . . . that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.” – President Abraham Lincoln, 1863

“It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work . . . that this nation under God shall have a new birth . . .” – President Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863

The fourth verse of our national anthem, written by Francis Scott Key in 1814, includes the words, “May the heaven-rescued land praise the Power that hath made and preserved us . . . and this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust’.”

Because of this undeniable history, Congress voted in 1954 to add the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, “thus reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future.” – President Dwight Eisenhower, June 14, 1954.

The fact that a few people are offended by those two words doesn’t change our history; nor must it be allowed to change our future! “America’s heritage,” as President Eisenhower put it, is undeniably tied to the God of the Bible. America’s future will grow ever more grim if that Godly heritage is stripped away.

Wednesday morning, I began my celebration of Independence Day in a prayer meeting at the church I pastor. We prayed that the church in America would repent of its passivity and once again grow strong to take a leading role in the shaping of American culture. Though we can never return to the past – nor should we ever desire to do so! – God is certainly calling us to turn from the sins of our past and turn to the future He has planned for us.

If America is ever to live up to its founders’ intention to be a nation under God, it will take churches under God. And that means Christians under God, serving Him with earnest love and complete obedience in every detail of their lives.

Is America still under God? I guess the answer depends upon how you live your life.