One Way Ticket Home

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction; and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matt 7:13-14

Today there is a plethora of religions to choose from. You can pick and choose, mix and match and make up your own. Just ask Oprah, she is the expert! Let's the pick the best of all of them and we can create a new religion to fit our lifestyle. Then we can live guilt free with our lifestyle choices and have our religion to back us up. There are so many world religions; buddhism, hinduism, catholicism, you name it, its out there. But what separates one from the other? They all have gods that they serve.

Will the real God please stand up? There is only one religion that stands apart from all others, Christianity. Christianity believes in God the Father, but also God the Son, Jesus. America was built on Christianity but in the past few years we have been leaving God out. We have those who wanted to take prayer out of school, the 10 commandments off of Judicial walls, In God we Trust off of our currency and Christ out of Christmas to make it Xmas? Our society screams tolerance, but tolerance to every religion but Christianity! So what is all of this commotion about really?

No one wants to admit that there is life after death and one day we will all be held accountable for our words and deeds that we have done here on this earth. If that is so, who will be the ultimate judge? There have been so many jokes about standing at the "pearly gates". Those gates refer to the gates of heaven. So who gets the golden ticket to get in the pearly gates? Does being a good person give you the golden ticket? Can you ride in on the coat tails of a friend or family member? Can you earn your way there?

Many people have misperceptions about hell. People picture Satan as a red man with horns and a pitch fork, a fictional character? Do you know that he actually exists? Do you know that he was actually a very beautiful angel? I picture him being exceptionally strong and handsome. The problem was, He wanted to be God so he was cast out of heaven. Since then, he and his fallen angel friends have been running around enticing humans for hundreds of years to "do their own thing", live their own life, control their own destiny. The problem comes that we can try, but in reality, there is not much in life we can control other than our own choices to do good or evil. Given to our own wisdom, a lot of times we pick the latter choice. People joke that hell is a big party. Ironically, it is just the opposite, it is a place of darkness and isolation, an eternity of being alone. Hardly the picture of a party!

What is heaven then? The Bible says He is preparing many mansions with streets of gold. Think of the most beautiful places here on earth, beaches with white sand, mountains covered with wildflowers, waterfalls and luscious forests. If earth has that much beauty, how much more heaven will have, beyond our wildest dreams. There will be no more death, sickness, fighting or disease. Everyone will actually like each other and get along. We will be reunited with our family members who have passed before us and we won't have to work anymore! All the miserable things about this life will be no more!

Man, since Adam and Eve is fallen, we are born into this world and will make bad choices. Just watch a toddler, continually telling their parents emphatically "No" when they are told to do something. God created every human being with a void and the choice in who and how they want to believe. Many people know they have a void but they spend their entire lives "finding themselves". They try to fill the void with material things, pleasure, family, careers, everything you can name, some even go through many religions but in the end, the void remains. Many people leave this earth having never found the answer to the void that they spent their entire life trying to fill.

How about you? Do you feel a void in your life? What do you believe if anything? Do you feel like you are missing something and keep trying to find yourself? Are you on a quest to find out why you do not have peace and joy in your life? Will you hold the golden ticket to get into the pearly gates? Do you know how to get there?