God bless you, and thank you for visiting this page! Please read it in its entirety, as it will help you learn how to make Heaven your future home! Pastor Tim
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I have written this because I don’t want to take for granted that all my readers understand how Heaven becomes their future home and a gift from God that you cannot personally earn. I frequently talk with people trying to earn their way to Heaven through some personal effort of worthiness. Although God wants us to live a good and godly life, that’s not the answer to the question, How do I get to Heaven? Heaven is a gift of God’s grace (receiving His love though we don’t deserve it.) Hopefully, if you read this and look through the scripture verses in your own Bible, it will paint the picture of what Jesus did for you so that you could receive Heaven as a gift from Him—not something you earned by being good enough!
The Road to God’s Forgiveness and Salvation and the Gift of Heaven
If you were to die today, are you 100% sure—beyond the shadow of a doubt—that you would go to Heaven? Most people have doubts because they know they’ve fallen short in some areas of their lives.
If you were to die today and stand before God, and He asked you why He should let you into Heaven, what would you say?
If your answer is, “I’m hoping I can enter Heaven because I have tried to be a good person,” it’s the wrong answer. So please read on.
Salvation, or the gift of eternal life, cannot be earned. To have earned it, you would have had to live your life without ever sinning—something that no person except Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has ever done. The forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life—called salvation—is just that: a gift! It can’t be earned. Like any gift, it’s free and only needs to be received. You don’t pay for the birthday or Christmas gifts given to you each year, do you? No, of course not! Someone paid for them and gave them to you as a gift.
Similarly, concerning the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Heaven, Jesus has already paid the price for you through His death on the cross. You cannot earn these gifts.
The following verses reveal these glorious and eternal promises and truths:
We can know—not just hope—that we have eternal life!
1 John 5:13 – “I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.”
No one has lived a sinless life.
Romans 3:10 – “As the Scriptures say, ‘No one is good—no one in all the world is innocent.'”
Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (That means we fall short of earning our way into Heaven.)
Sin has touched every human being’s life.
Romans 5:12 – “When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. His sin spread death throughout all the world, so everything began to grow old and die, for all sinned.”
We deserve punishment for our sins, but Jesus offers us the free gift of eternal life.
Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
God isn’t waiting for us to clean ourselves up first—He’ll help us with that! He accepts us as we are, so there’s no reason to put it off.
Romans 5:8 – “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Faith in Jesus Christ and receiving the gift of salvation begin by asking God to forgive us for all our sins, sincerely repenting, believing in our hearts, and publicly acknowledging that Jesus died to save us and cleanse us. Then, we ask Him to be our Lord and Savior.
Romans 10:9-10 – “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.”
If we say we haven’t sinned, we are deceiving ourselves. When we admit our sin, God is faithful to continually cleanse us.
1 John 1:8-10 – “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that His word has no place in our hearts.”
Jesus is waiting for you to surrender your life to Him right now! Don’t put it off for a second. Pray and ask Him to be your Savior now!
Revelation 3:20 – “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
If you would like to ask Jesus into your heart right now, simply pray this prayer to God and mean it from your heart. A miracle will happen as you pray! You will be forgiven, brought into the family of God, and can know that Heaven will be your future home.
Pray this prayer:
Heavenly Father,
I believe that Jesus is Your Son. I believe that He came to earth to die for my sins and that He rose again from the dead. Please forgive me of all my sins. Wash them all away. Come and live in my heart. Teach me Your ways. Help me to learn and understand the Bible, which is Your Word. Please give me Christian friends who love You and can help me grow in the knowledge of You through Your Word. Help me find a church that will teach me the Bible and help me grow in knowing You.
I thank You now, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Now, go tell someone you know who is a Christian that you prayed this prayer! Also, pray and ask God to show you a good Bible-teaching church to attend. He knows how to lead you—and He will do it!
I pray you’ll continue to read Fresh Manna and learn of God’s love toward you! I’ll be praying for you!
In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
