Go to heaven. Go to hell.

TRUTH THAT BRING FREEDOM

If you were like me and most other people raised in the US then you probably had the privilege of reading many different books throughout your childhood. Yes, part of the literature and English curriculum in our good old public school system calls for taking children to the library and exposing them to the world of imagination. Everything from science fiction to horror tales to talking animals is now at the fingertips of young people. They now read stories created by other human beings that reveal a number of emotions, have many different scenes and themes, but also different outcomes. The “moral of the story” for each book changes according to the author’s discretion.

How disappointing it was for me as I read many books that ended in a way that was unacceptable to me or that I did not agree with at all. Why did it have to end this way? Ever read a book or watched a movie or experienced an unanticipated end or outcome? So it is with heaven. For heaven is only decided solely by God Himself. He alone determines the outcome for humans after they die naturally, automatically, suddenly or the million other ways people leave planet earth. Every second that ticks on any clock 1.8 people die. And here’s an even better fact. God has already determined who goes to heaven! No, it will never be a guessing game, a weighing game, a “let me calculate the life of this person” game with God. For God is the only true and living God who is all knowing, all powerful, and all present. Revelation 20:11-15 and Revelation 21:8 are great places to start.

The question of the hour remains to be asked…WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF LIFE? Here’s an even greater question…who is the author of your life? We can both agree that you certainly did not create yourself, pick your parents, distribute your genes, arrange your siblings and family members, select your abilities and so forth. Who did all of this? God did. Psalm 139 is a good place to start reading to embed this truth in your heart. You might be wondering about the rest of your life or people, places, and things more recent than the obvious. Journey with me through a string of common occurrences to determine the author of them all.

The greater question was who is the author of your life? Children out of wedlock? STDs? Divorce? Domestic violence? Theft? Murder? Homosexuality? Lies? Jealousy? Laziness? Worry? Unruly children? Getting drunk? Getting high? Drugs? Cigarettes? Alcohol? False gods/philosophy/religion? Promiscuity? Casual sex? Gangs? Who created all of these things? How did one or some of these things become a part of your life? How did one of these things become a part of you or you become these things altogether? Who made such a mess of things? Lets be honest. YOU DID!

Preacher, are you pointing those self righteous judgmental fingers again or is God holding up the mirror of His word in an attempt to find Himself in His most prized possession: YOU? 2 Corinthians 13:5 and Psalm 10:1-11 are a few scriptures that say (paraphrasing) “Look at yourself in the mirror and what do you see?” If you know that Jesus Christ is not involved in creating the unfortunate outcomes in the listing above, and if you know that you have been through, are currently involved with, or live in such a manner that the outcomes in the listing above will be your reality, then know that Jesus Christ, God Himself is not the author of your life.

God fashions and creates you and me after His own image and likeness. He gives you a scenario and or setting to be born in and with. The trend is that as humans we began to think that we all of a sudden know more than the God of all creation, who created everything to include thought, languages, numbers, etc. So then, we began making choices for ourselves instead of allowing the God who chose to create us the way He created us choose things for us. How backwards and lopsided is that? Instead of parents raising children I guess it makes more since for the children to raise the parents? As goofy as that sounds, it is the same thing when humans dare to live in opposition to the very One who created them.

God is the author of life. We are the authors of the life God gives us. For the most part, you and I can both agree that our lives are a culmination of choices we made. This is widely known and agreed upon by humans throughout the earth. I have good news for you today! The unfortunate listings mentioned above is not who you are because that is not who God created you to be. You are NOT your past. You are NOT your current unfortunate scenario. You are a human being created in the image and likeness of the only true and living God. Today, you can turn to Him and turn from where you are down the lane of Jesus Christ. We’ll get to that in a second. For now, lets summarize.

Authors create stories. Authors create everything in the story. Authors create the characters, write the script, themes, main plots, and the ending as well. God is the author of life. Psalm 24:1 tells us “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof and all who dwell therein.” So God created you by allowing two people to get together and then He distributed your genes, which allowed you to have gifts and abilities. Here’s the point of this whole blog. You are the author of your life based on the choices that you are free to make however you want. Good or bad in the eyes of man and or God they are YOUR choices and no one can ever take that right from you. However, the choices you make determine the ending of your story. You cannot make any choice you want and have any ending. That’s not how math works. The sum or the answer is based off of all the integers and transactions in the equation. Are you going to go to heaven? Lets find out right now.

If you live the way you want to live apart from God you are not going to heaven. If you have added things to your life that you don’t have a problem with or if you have continued to do things that you want to do that oppose God, His word, His character, His truth, you are not going to heaven. If you do what is just enough to “get by” according to scripture regarding the life God wants you to live, you MIGHT go to heaven and that’s a gamble and an uncertainty with no guarantees. That’s hard to live with not “knowing” if you are going to heaven. If you live in sin, practice sin, habitually sin, willfully sin, intentionally sin, knowingly sin, you are not going to heaven, furthermore, you are not born again. Romans 1:28-32 is a great place to read for this. If you live as if “God knows your heart” or you say that “only God can judge me” then know that ONLY GOD WILL JUDGE YOU. John 16:8-11 is a good place to read this truth. Intention has no weight in the eyes of God. Please understand that God’s judgment against sin is hell. John 3:36 is a great place to read this truth.

As I close, know that you are not smarter than God and never will be later. You can’t out sin the word of God or come up with a loop hole to get by in this life sinning with a heaven bound ticket in your hand. If so, that ticket is one you created in your own thinking and it is in your hand now according to your own imagination. Here’s the truth. The Bible is clear about what it means to serve Him. That’s no secret. Those who obey His commandments (His words, to mean every word of the Bible) are those who are going to heaven. You know in your heart where you stand with God. If you choose to stay there and you are apart from Him then go to hell. If you choose to turn from those choices, people, places, and things that are not like Him and live for Him according to His word and on His terms, go to heaven! Now author, finish writing the ending of your life.