I was watching a football game and there was a "crawler" at the bottom of the screen. You know what a "crawler" is right? They show you scores and highlights and breaking news from the world of sports 'crawling' along at the bottom of the screen. They were showing the NFL games coming up this weekend, the last regular season weekend of the season. I had to laugh because after each match up, say : "New Orleans at Seattle" they would say something like: New Orleans clinches home field advantage throughout all the playoffs with win at Seattle and loss by Green Bay and San Francisco, or tie and loss by San Francisco, AND loss by Green Bay. New Orleans clinches wild card with win at Seattle AND Losses by San Francisco AND Green Bay or Losses by Washington And Atlanta, and loss by New York Giants And Snow in Detroit. Of course I went a little crazy there, but it does get a little ridiculous doesn't it? This went on for a while. In other words, there where many scenarios still possible for the Professional Football playoffs. For a particular team to make the playoffs, and what order they would be seeded, quite a few things had to happen. I live in Texas, we have two pro teams, 1) Houston Texans are already in the playoffs, seeded #3 in the AFC. 2) Dallas Cowboys have to win at New York against the Giants Sunday night or they will sit home for the playoffs. But for some of the other teams, it get's confusing. It could actually come down to how many points a certain team scored against common teams. If say, the New York Jets beat the Miami Dolphins by 21 but the San Diego Chargers beat the Dolphins by 22, then the Chargers are the wild card team over the Jets. If your a real sports fan, then you know none of this is accurate I just made it up as I went along, please don't think I am saying the Chargers have any chance to make the playoffs, I just like them. Also know I do realize that if it snows in Detroit, that does NOT have ANY meaning in the playoff scenarios. OK, just had to make sure we we are cool.
What has to happen for us to go to heaven? Do the stars have to be aligned just so, or do we have to score 28 or more points at our local church? It is getting close to Jesus coming back for us, so is time winding down and we have to win games more often? If, say, we went to church 51 out of 52 weeks this last year, but Bob only went 50, does it all come down to this last Sunday, the last Sunday of the year? If I missed this last week but Bob went, then we are tied, does that mean it goes to a "tie breaker" who paid more tithes? If we both paid 10% of our income then we go to "Tiebreaker #2: Who paid the most in 'Offerings" goes to heaven, whoever did not, well sorry, you miss out? Is that how things work? NO, sorry, it doesn't. It is not about our abilities, not about our "works" that gets us into Heaven. You cannot "Earn" you way into Heaven. There is only one thing required to make it. Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, and mind. Nothing else.
Aren't you glad we cannot earn our way into Heaven? There is NOTHING I could do, to earn that privilege. Heaven is NOT about that, we ALL do not deserve Heaven. It is only "by His grace" that we can go. If it were not for what Jesus Christ did on the cross, then Heaven would not even be in the future for any of us.
Romans 11:6
"And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved."
See? God wants us to take what He is offering, free , not deserved because of what we have done, but free because of what He has done. How can you earn something yourself and be grateful to someone else? You can't, pride knows YOU earned it, therefore it is not FREE. There is no way we can obtain Heaven by ourselves. We cannot even start to do enough for the first step. It is NOT, I say again, it is NOT about what we do, it IS about what HE did.
John 14:6
"Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." Jesus did not say, :"You are the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father unless they earn it". NO, "HE IS THE WAY.............We can only get to Heaven because of our faith, trust in Him. We cannot score more points in this life then others, we can not win a battle and then watch the other battles and hope Bob, looses by 21 or more points, so he is eliminated thereby we get into the playoffs. It is not like there are only room for 100,000,000 Christians in Heaven, and you have to fight it out for the last spot. There is room for "ALL".
So, if your a sports fan, enjoy the games this weekend, play along with the many different scenarios as they play out. Hopefully your team will make it and live to play another day. BUT remember no matter what you do, how often you volunteer at the church, the homeless shelter, or how much money you give to the church, you still must get to Heaven by the GRACE and Forgiveness of God.
BUT if you do all these things, they will help you in your daily walk. They will NOT get you into Heaven, but they will change your perspective and love of others. You may be as example to others and thereby start them on their on road to heaven. Don't just sit around because works will not get you to heaven, go out there and help where you can.
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