Without faith as the foundation, all else means nothing.
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. - Mark 11:22-24
The powerful words of Mark tell us a lot about what it takes to make it to heaven. In today's world we are constantly bombarded with commentary saying that the beliefs in God of the past are not valid and that to advance in the modern world we must change the way we are and in some cases even the who and what we are. Many falter and fall for it, some just change the narrative in describing what it takes to get to heaven, but yet there are a strong number who stand by the tradition and refuse to bend. This last group makes up the ones who have the right connection for the only way to make it to heaven is to put your faith in God, who gave us the life of His Son in order to forgive us for sin.
Take the man who gives large sums of money to the church yet he acts as mean as a snake toward people in his daily business dealings and sees himself as the sole factor in his business growth and success. Well, by his own admission of not crediting God for his success, he lacks the faith which comes from belief in God. Or there is the man who is very kind to everyone yet he refuses to acknowledge anyone of higher power in his life. He. too, while being a good and decent man, lacks faith and faith is the principal ingredient to get us to heaven. Sometimes it's hard to understand but it is just the way things are and there is a reason and it's this. We must depend on God's mercy and grace to make it to heaven for it is He who allows us to do so. His power is not of this world, but it is a power that is greater than any other power there is and it can work special wonders. One of those wonders is saving a mortal sinner because deep down inside he acknowledges the Lord for who He is. It's just as simple as that.
We have our big part to play through in this process through our free will and it comes in opening ourselves to Him, letting the Holy Spirit fill us from within and guide us to that faith. Like the Apostle Paul, some might see the light very quickly from some major event in life, but most of us likely find it's a growing process. The more we study and read the Bible and understand what it says, the more we pray and force ourselves to focus on His realm and the more we gather together with like souls seeking a Divine future as we do, the more we will grow our faith and fully believe. And when we finally get to the point where we throw out all doubt and know in our hearts that He is who He says He is and that His Son is our mediator, well, then we will also live out our lives in a way that is pleasing to God. We'll still make some humanly sinful mistakes, but we will please Him. But we can't give up then, for faith if not routinely practiced can be lost, so it is incumbent to follow forth with the use of all those tools for the faithful to remain in sync with Him until our dying day. At that point, when He calls us home, we never need worry again. Keep the faith always and live forever, that is the Salvation Ticket.
The powerful words of Mark tell us a lot about what it takes to make it to heaven. In today's world we are constantly bombarded with commentary saying that the beliefs in God of the past are not valid and that to advance in the modern world we must change the way we are and in some cases even the who and what we are. Many falter and fall for it, some just change the narrative in describing what it takes to get to heaven, but yet there are a strong number who stand by the tradition and refuse to bend. This last group makes up the ones who have the right connection for the only way to make it to heaven is to put your faith in God, who gave us the life of His Son in order to forgive us for sin.
Take the man who gives large sums of money to the church yet he acts as mean as a snake toward people in his daily business dealings and sees himself as the sole factor in his business growth and success. Well, by his own admission of not crediting God for his success, he lacks the faith which comes from belief in God. Or there is the man who is very kind to everyone yet he refuses to acknowledge anyone of higher power in his life. He. too, while being a good and decent man, lacks faith and faith is the principal ingredient to get us to heaven. Sometimes it's hard to understand but it is just the way things are and there is a reason and it's this. We must depend on God's mercy and grace to make it to heaven for it is He who allows us to do so. His power is not of this world, but it is a power that is greater than any other power there is and it can work special wonders. One of those wonders is saving a mortal sinner because deep down inside he acknowledges the Lord for who He is. It's just as simple as that.
We have our big part to play through in this process through our free will and it comes in opening ourselves to Him, letting the Holy Spirit fill us from within and guide us to that faith. Like the Apostle Paul, some might see the light very quickly from some major event in life, but most of us likely find it's a growing process. The more we study and read the Bible and understand what it says, the more we pray and force ourselves to focus on His realm and the more we gather together with like souls seeking a Divine future as we do, the more we will grow our faith and fully believe. And when we finally get to the point where we throw out all doubt and know in our hearts that He is who He says He is and that His Son is our mediator, well, then we will also live out our lives in a way that is pleasing to God. We'll still make some humanly sinful mistakes, but we will please Him. But we can't give up then, for faith if not routinely practiced can be lost, so it is incumbent to follow forth with the use of all those tools for the faithful to remain in sync with Him until our dying day. At that point, when He calls us home, we never need worry again. Keep the faith always and live forever, that is the Salvation Ticket.
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