As a church member, I used to be actively involved in lots of church activities. What motivated me to take part in these activities? My goal was to earn lots of prizes from God in heaven. My dream was to build a big house in heaven and receive awards from God for my good deeds. The idea of becoming someone in Heaven appealed to me. You will receive many heavenly gifts if you do God’s works during your lifetime. Christians regularly pray to God, sing hymns, offer tidings, spread gospels, help the poor, heal the sick, and do everything God wants us to do. You will be awarded heavily in heaven, and this is true. But you will have to enter Heaven to receive those awards. Unless you enter heaven, all the good things you have done will be lost. Wouldn’t it be awful to go to hell after all your hard work, the good things you have done for the God and for the people.
The question i s, how do we get saved? It’s because we believe in Jesus Christ and God’s love shown through the cross that we’re saved. In the same way that Jesus died on the cross and rose again, we’re also saved together with him if we believe that. Our salvation comes from believing in Jesus Christ. That’s easy, right? It’s not as easy as you think. Whenever you believe in Jesus Christ, you’ll receive a seed called belief, which you’ll have to let grow with Holy Spirit’s help.
It’s true that lots of Christians are going to hell because they think saying I believe will get them into heaven. That’s not true at all. As a Christian, Jesus says you must carry your cross on your back and follow him. This means you’ll have to nail your ego to the cross every day and follow Jesus. Your ego, what’s it like? It’s greed, hate, jealousy, lies, gossip, obscenity, and evil hearts. With your sins, you can’t go to Heaven.
If you hate anyone, you won’t get into heaven. You have to forgive from the heart. Repentance isn’t just saying sorry to God. That means you fight your sin with everything you’ve got, and do your best not to do the same thing again.
In many cases, it’s impossible to get rid of the sinful heart and sin without God’s help. If you can’t overcome your sin, you’ll have to ask God to help you to get over it so that you don’t do it again. Pray with all your heart and biggestsincerity. Don’t underestimate the danger and seriousness of sin and its consequences. Listen, our almighty God had to die for our sin. It is not a simple matter.
I’ll give you an example. If you’re a Christian and go to church, pray, and do good stuff. For instance, you help the poor, and you help the sick and provide comfort to them. But in the end, if you carry a hatred within your heart for your co-workers, your relatives, or even your church members, and you don’t repent of it, you will not enter heaven. It is the same thing if you do not repent of other sins as well. Don’t give me wrong. The good things you have done are great and you will be rewarded in heaven with unimaginable gifts, but let’s first make sure that we go to heaven first so that we can receive such unimaginable gifts.
Best wishes and many blessings to you and your family.