To Be Least

I have talked earlier about salvation, and how we are first saved by God's grace, then because we love him so much we have actions or deeds to back up our faith. The way I see Christianity is this, it is not a decision that gets you into the kingdom of God, it is grace. We can not decide that we are going to go to heaven, even if we followed God's commands and did everything a "good" Christian should we still fall short of entering through the gates of heaven. It is only because God let his own Son die to pay for our sins that we could even have the choice to enter his kingdom. Too often we as Christians think it was by our decision by itself that we now can enter heaven if we continue to stay on the narrow path to life. Yes, we recognize that are sinners in need of a savior who is Jesus, God's own Son, but it is only and always only by God's grace that we can spend eternal life with him. So the grace of God allows us to enter heaven if we recognize that we a wretched sinners and need Jesus.

But it is also a walk. One way to think of it is our life as a Christian is a path. That path is can be riddled with temptations and obstacles, but if we continue to keep on that path we will eventually reach heaven where we can live eternally. What happens if we stray off that path? What if we begin to love the ways of our old selves, begining to take the road that everyone else is using? I believe that we if we leave that Christian walk by completely rejecting God and embracing sin, and we continue on this path until it's end [or our human death] God will say that he never knew us much to our surprise. When one wanders of the the path to life, he is not permanently blocked or stopped from repenting [to turn away from our sin]. God is allways ready to forgive and except you as a child once again. "21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?' 22Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." (Matthew 18) To sum everything up, in order to enter heaven we must walk with him until the end, we can not turn away from God and expect to enter God's kingdom.

If we show up using that common road that this secular world takes, will not God see this? Just because we entered through the narrow gate does not mean we will end up on the road that we entered.

2 Peter 2:15, 20-22
15 "They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness."
..."20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.""

I will close with that verse, God bless.