today i went to talk to Pastor Dale Mackness as scheduled.
it was alright. mainly talked about myself, my family, my history.
then he asked me if i was 100% Christian, and I asked him what he meant. He said, "Are you 100% sure that you will go to heaven?" and I had to think. I told him about what my youth pastor said "that nobody but God can be 100% sure". Then Pastor Dale said that that wasn't true. Then I remember something I had read in How Good is Good Enough? by Andy Stanley:
Good people don't go to heaven. Forgiven people go to heaven.
God sees your sin as a debt you can't pay back. The example given in the book is when a two-year old scratches up her father's car, he has to decide what to do. Does he rant and rave about how much trouble and money it's going to cost to fix his car? Does he make her pay for the damages? None of it would make sense to the two- year old. It's all beyond her comprehension, and it wouldn't be possible for her to pay her father two- or three hundred dollars to fix the paint anyway. In the same sense, us trying to pay back God would be like the two-year old promising to clean up her room. It's a nice gesture, but the car still isn't fixed.
"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" John 14:6
1 comment:
Hey Loey!
Romans 3:23 is a nice verse as a reminder that we'll never make it to God's holy standard, but remember that the BULK of the good news and ridiculously good stuff comes right after it! Check this out:
"23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
25whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
26for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
How amazing is the power in the blood :D
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