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While growing up, I lived in fear of making Heaven: “If the trumpet sounds now, will I make it?” I saw God like a neutral Being who didn’t care whether you come to Heaven or are banished to Hell for eternity. Christianity became a religion of fear and the question of “What of a man who has being doing good all his life and sins right before the trumpet blows?” kept ringing in my mind.
Now I know of Grace and Forgiveness and Righteousness. I know that God is not neutral; He actually destined me to make Heaven as recorded in 1Thes 5:9:
“For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,“
Hey, but does that mean that I will go about living my life in sin? A father that promises his son the management of his company when he’s old enough does not expect that the son will quit school (or learning) just because he has a promise. In the same way, certain things are required of me as noted in 1Thes 5:4-8:
“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.“
2Peter 3 also tells us more about this. So no, I don’t see God as a wicked headmaster just waiting for me to make a mistake; I see Him as a loving Father Who has blessed me with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
Quit living in fear today. Embrace the Grace of God.