Knock Knock......

KNOCK-KNOCK……….We all remember the corny jokes and the infamous punch lines but just in case you don’t remember here’s one for you. Knock Knock! Who's there? Noah! Noah who? I Noah guy if you need an Ark, funny right.

What’s not so funny is that one day there will be a knock at our door. Question is, will we be ready to answer that knock. Have our hearts been pure, have we been humble, have we shared the Fruits of the Spirit during our time here on earth. On the flip side are we angry, envious, prideful and jealous of others.

What got me thinking about this is I heard Pastor Scott once say that “we might be surprised who we see in Heaven”. So as I often do, I looked at this from a different perspective. I asked myself this, is it possible we might be surprised who we don’t find in Heaven (Say What!!)? See many Christians think that their works and their works alone is what will get them to Heaven, some even believe that if you go to church on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, then on Wednesday nights and pay your tithe that these things will punch their ticket. My friends, guess what, those people might just find themselves on the outside, looking in trying to understand where they went wrong. Those things are not bad but works alone will not get you on the inside.

I believe that we are going to find all kinds of people who have sinned in Heaven. Including; murders, rapist, thief’s, people who have done some really repulsive stuff. We do not have to look very far to find this to be true. In the Book of Luke: verse 42 we find one of the thieves hanging on the cross with Jesus asking him to remember him when he came back into the kingdom. Then in verse 43, we see Jesus’s response “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise. The other thief, his heart filled with anger and hatred, mocked Jesus. I am sure that his fate did not end in Paradise but in a fiery pit of doom.

So many of us “Christians” want to label sin, rate it even in a way that makes it ok to be angry, hold grudges, treat people poorly. So that when we feel these things we can justify it, even look at it in a way that makes it ok (not sinful). This makes us feel better, we can look in the mirror and say at least I didn’t steal, rape or kill. Not realizing that things like envy, Jealousy and resentment are sins in themselves. Again we can find this written in the Gospel, “The Tenth Commandment forbids the wanting to or taking someone else’s property. Along with the Seventh Commandment, this commandment condemns theft and the feelings of envy, greed, and jealousy in reaction to what other people have. See it’s not just your works that get you to Heaven, It’s a pure heart, it’s Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Goodness, Kindness, Faithfulness and Gentleness, its these gifts from the Holly Spirit, that when lived out every day make us humble. It is these gifts that help us to SHINE OUR LIGHT, it is these gifts that allow others to see Christ in us, and it is these gifts that hold the Key to the Gates of Heaven. We are all broken, all full of sin but just like the thief on the cross, there is a way, the only way and that is through Jesus!

KNOCK KNOCK……are you ready.