I got my own ideals about God and God is alright with that!
That was my mindset during my late teenage years into my very early 20’s. No doubt there are millions upon millions of people today, old and young that think the same way I did. So, what’s wrong with that? If you feel like you need to go to church and read the Bible and all that stuff, that’s good for you. I am not going to knock that, but that’s not what I feel like I need to do. I am just going to live my life, try to treat people right and just enjoy life and when it’s my time to go, I feel like, I am alright with God. I believe in God. I might not go to church, but I believe in God. I just believe in my heart that God is going to let me into heaven because He knows me, and He knows I am not a bad person. That was how I felt, like so many other people, but is that what God actually said? More importantly, is that how God really feels?
The reason it’s important to ask that question is because where I want to go when I leave this world, is Heaven. That’s where we all want to go, to that better place. That’s where God is. That’s God’s house. That’s where the Heaven city is, a place that is so beautiful that our minds can’t even conceive just how beautiful it is. It’s where God’s throne is. It is a place where God wants you and I to live with Him forever when we breath our last breath and leave this life, but let me say this again less we forget, Heaven is God’s house… It’s God’s city. It is the place where God’s throne is, and because that’s so, it is God, not me… that decides what’s necessary to get there. It is what God said,..not what I feel, or what you may feel, that will decide if we go to that Heavenly city.
In the Old Testament book of Proverbs, chapter 21, verse 2,. God speaks about the feelings we all have individually:
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the hearts… (Proverbs 21:2)
Also in Proverbs 14:12,… God says this:
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death…( Proverbs 14:12)
So according to that verse, God said, I could live my whole life doing what seems right to me and end up not going to heaven when I die, but end up eternally lost, separated from God, forever. Jesus Christ gives us an example of that very thing in (Matthew 7:21-23),
“Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’…..( Matthew 7:21-23)
Beloveth, pause a minute and think about what Jesus Christ is saying here. This is such a crucial point Jesus Christ is making here. Not everyone who calls Him Lord He says, will enter the kingdom of Heaven. They may feel that they will, but Jesus said no,..Not everyone will. Some who believe themselves to be Christians will not enter Heaven, even though they preach in His name,..even though they do wonders in His name. Wow! Three crucial mistakes they make that Jesus Christ points to here. One, although they felt they knew who Jesus Christ was,.. the Lord, they never knew Him as their Lord. He tells them in verse 23, that “they practice lawlessness’, which means, there was no change in the way they lived life toward Him as a result of their profession of faith in Him. Second, they felt that “doing many kinds of wonderful works, including preaching in Jesus’ name assured them a place in Heaven. Then here’s the critical mistake Jesus points to in their thinking. They trusted their own works to get into Heaven, not God’s work. They actually “relied on what they felt would get them to Heaven, rather than what God actually said was necessary to get into heaven. So, they didn’t seek what God’s revealed will is, in the Bible. They lived their whole life feeling that way and died believing falsely that God felt about them the way they feel about themselves, and Jesus Christ tells them, they were wrong, and since they are dead now, there is absolutely nothing they can do about it, and they are absolutely stunted. Jesus said, those who enter Heaven are those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven…(verse #21).
So, is God alright with me feeling like I just what to live my life the way I want to and me and Him are good so long as I try to just be the best person I can even if I am not involved in all that Church stuff. I think we can clearly see the answer to that is no. We may feel otherwise, but God did not actually say that. Anyone that does not personally trust Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord and dies in that state has no hope of getting into heaven. They will not enter Heaven according to Jesus Christ. There are some people that we all know if their name is bought up in a conversation, but they don’t necessarily know us. We see them on TV, or read about them, or hear about them through somebody else. To enter Heaven, we must know Jesus Christ personally as our Saviour and Lord, but more importantly, He must know us as one who has invited Him into our life as Lord.