How’s It Going To Be?
How’s It Going To Be?
I went to high school with a very abrasive guy. We were friends, but he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. In spite of his attitude, he got along well with our soft-spoken homecoming queen – so well, in fact, that they’ve been married for over thirty years.
He was a B+ student and a big strong fullback who won our football team’s award for being the hardest-hitting player. I can attest to that fact, because he broke my nose once in practice. After they married, he and his wife went hiking through Europe. In Denmark, instead of just seeing the sights, they got saved! Instead of coming back with stories to tell, he returned with the “good news” that we were all going to hell if we did not repent. Remember, I told you he was a very abrasive guy.
By the time he and his wife got around to me, others had already warned me about them, and I was ready with my defense. But apparently his “hell-fire and brimstone” message and method had been tempered by a lot of strong resistance, because he was very soft spoken and much more positive in his approach with me. He quietly yet enthusiastically said to me: “Dave, you ought to read your Bible and see what it says about how to get to heaven.”
Compared to what he had said to our other friends, I got off easy. So I said I would. I was amazed when I read the New Testament portions he’d suggested. I read the New International Version, and couldn’t believe it, so I got hold of the old King James Version to see if the one with all the “thees” and “thous” said the same thing.
Guess what? It did! Both translations told me that when I gave my life to Jesus I got to go to heaven free. No questions asked! Absolutely free! No working for it! No losing it! Free! What a relief to my soul.
Often, when watching athletic events on TV, I would see a sign held up in the stands that told me to read John 3:16. I found that verse in my Bible and it said, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV).
As I continued to read, I discovered that the Bible says the same thing throughout the New Testament. For example, in Philippi a jailer asked Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” They replied simply, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:30-31). Later on, Paul wrote the same thing to the Romans: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
Although I’m a sinner, I now know I am going to heaven. I’ve given my sinful life to Jesus, and it died with Him on the cross. Now I can say with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
This is the way it is with me now – heaven bound and sure of it! And all because I took the advice of a once-abrasive-but-now-soft-spoken guy who broke my nose in high school. I want to say to you what he said to me: “Read your Bible and see what it says about how to get to heaven.” As you read it ask yourself, “How is it going to be with me?”
By Dave Phillips