(April 12, 2009)

Easter is a time for us to have our questions answered. We have many questions: Will I get married? Should we have kids? Will my job still be there? Do I have clean clothes? Can I retire? But, most of us don't usually think about the most important question we will ever have to ask ourselves: Where am I going to spend eternity?

Draw a dot on a piece of paper. Then, starting at the dot, draw a line that continues off of the paper. Imagine that the line goes forever; it is infinite. Understand that you'll spend much more time in the afterlife than in your life, but what you do with this life will determine where you spend the afterlife. The dot represents that small amount of time that you are here, making those decisions about your eternity.

If God asked you upon your death "Why should I let you in?", what would you answer? We are in a troubling position. We don't survive well without relationships and God requires a relationship from you. Since God is perfect, his standard is set high, thus since humans are not perfect, we will miss the mark. God gave us free will, therefore, we are born into sin. Proof: Do you have to teach your kids how to sin? No. We are naturally bent toward sin. We all want to hit the target, but we will miss. So, how do we get to Heaven on our own? We can't. There has to be a payment.

The wages for sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Man's dilemma is "How do we get from here to there?" People say lots of things like "I'm a good person." But, are you perfect? No. Therefore, it isn't enough. Here's another: "If I follow my religion and their rules, I'll get in." Understand that even demons believe. "I'll do good work for my church." Sorry, not enough.

There isn't a scale where good is on one side and bad on the other. If it isn't all good, you don't qualify. The great news is that the Gift of God was Him giving us His Son, Jesus, to take our imperfections away, allowing us the ability to cross the bridge.

Jesus lived a perfect life, going from riches to rags. He knew there had to be a sacrifice. God did that for us. He gave us the Gift, the opportunity to earn a place in Heaven.

Two things will save you as stated in Romans: If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Christ is your Savior, you will be saved. This is the ONLY way to get to Heaven.

- Jon Bruney