Jesus answered, ” I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John 14:6 NIV

Last night we went through Judgement House at Woodland Park Baptist Church in Hammond, LA.  The church staff did an excellent job.  It was very well organized. Our tour guide and helper were awesome and the actors did a fine job!  if you live in this area, you should go through it.  There is no cost and reservations are not required but are recommended.   This coming Friday and Saturday will be the last nights.  For more information you can go to WoodlandParkBaptist.org or go to Woodland Park Baptist Church on facebook  for more information.  I will warn you, however, that some scenes are a bit intense.

The most important question you will ever ask yourself or someone else is this one, “If you were to die right now, would you go to heaven or would you go to hell?”  Now many people will say, “well I hope I would go to heaven”  or  “I think I will go to heaven”.  My friend, you need to know, that you know, that you know that you will go to heaven.

Many people believe that they will go to heaven because they are a good person and like to do good things for other people.  That’s very nice and it will make them liked by many people here on earth.  It will not get them into heaven.  Many people pray and feel that this is all that is needed to get them into heaven.  That’s great but it won’t get them into heaven.  Many people grab their Bible in times of trouble and read scripture.  Some of them even have some scriptures memorized that they can recite when times get hard.  That is awesome, but it won’t get them into heaven.

One thing and one thing only gets us to heaven.  That is accepting Christ as our personal savior and developing an intimate relationship with Him.

Have you ever met someone and felt instantly comfortable around them?  You get invited to their home and the minute you step in you feel warm and welcome.  That’s how our relationship with God should be.  He should not be our 911 emergency contact, he should be a dear friend.  He should be our Father.  We should be looking forward to going home to be with Him.

Now I don’t know about ya’ll but having grown up in southeast Louisiana, I am not so fond of the heat.  Summers here can be unbearable.  I don’t mind being out in the heat when I know that I can go inside and get into the air conditioning and seek relief.  There is no air conditioning in hell, just sayin’. So you need to be really sure about where you are headed.

Now I told ya’ll a few days ago that there are people in my life that God has blessed me with that I am so grateful for.  First of all I have a wonderful stepson and he was wise enough to bring a young lady into our family that is beautiful inside and out.  I am so grateful for them.  I also have nieces and nephews and neice-in-laws and nephew-in-laws that I dearly love.  If ya’ll are reading this, please know one thing.  I know where I am going.  I got that straight with God in 2010.  Before that I was going to church but it was kind of iffy.  But now I am in a committed relationship with Jesus Christ and I know that when my days on this planet are over, I’m going home.  I hope that I die way before you do, but if that is not God’s plan,  you need to know something.  It will be hard enough for me to lose any of you, but not knowing for sure where you are going would be unbearable.  If it would be unbearable for me, imagine how it would be for you.  You could be the one in the furnace.

I’m not trying to scare anybody folks.  It is what it is.  The Bible is very clear on what gets us to heaven.  Jesus is the only way to the Father.  Where is the Father?  Duh, in heaven.  While we know he is everywhere at once, we know that His abode is in Heaven.  So if Jesus is the only way to the Father and the Father resides in heaven, then you guessed it.  The only way for us to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ.  So you can feed the poor and hungry.  You can donate to help orphans.  You can build churches.  You can love your neighbor and be the most well liked person on the planet, but it won’t get you into heaven.  Now the beautiful thing is that when we enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ this awesome thing happens.  We want to be more like Him.  We are inspired to do good things, but I need you to understand that without accepting him as your savior all those great things you do will not get you into heaven.

Now having established that personal relationship with Jesus Christ I can’t imagine why anyone would not want to commit their lives to Him.  So I asked myself, well what stopped me from committing my life to Him?  Then  I remembered.  I was enjoying sin in my life.  I had sinful things that I did not want to give up.  I just couldn’t imagine my life without that sin.  I remember telling God to please just let me have a pass on a couple of things.  I was hoping he would understand.  But, he said no.  He said you have to choose your sin or me.  You have to choose where you wish to spend eternity, heaven or hell?  God could have taken my life before I got sense enough to get it right.  I thank God that he gave me time. But the thing is none of us know if we have another minute here.  Please don’t read this and think that you have plenty of time to get your act together.  None of us know how long we have.

So right this minute, you have a choice to make.  You can keep on keeping on and live the life you’ve been living.  You can put off the whole God thing or you can trust in Jesus Christ as your savior.  You can pray to Him and tell Him that you know you are a sinner.  You can tell Him that you know that your sin has separated you from Him and that you deserve to spend eternity in hell.  You can thank Him for sending his Son to die on the cross to save you from your sins.

You can tell Him that you believe in His son Jesus Christ.  You can tell Him that you believe that Jesus died and that you want to die to sin.  You can tell Him that you believe by faith that He raised his Son from the dead and that you too want to be resurrected and live eternal life.  You can ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and ask Him to cleanse you of your sins.  You can surrender your life to Him and ask Him to give you a new heart.

You can give your life to Him and ask him to fill you with His Holy Spirit.

This is a typical sinner’s prayer.  If you are unsure about your eternal destiny then I beg of you to commit to Christ.  There is no sin in your life that feels as good as the love of Jesus Christ.  This is hard to see before you accept Him, but I promise you there is nothing I have given up that is greater than what I have gained.

If you need more information or help on what was discussed today, please feel free to contact me through this website.

Have a great day!