Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
http://bible.com/59/psa100.4-5.esv
There are gates in heaven?
It all started when man wrote the Bible. Some may say that it is being made up through creative imagination of various writers in the early days. Some say it was written with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. People think that the Holy Spirit is made up too.
Made up or not, the message is worth examining.
I want you to think for a moment that the Bible is true (just pretend for a moment). Faith will start from that premise. “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God”. When you read a passage in the Bible, what you are reading is the Word of God – that is God speaking to you.
When our generation discovered the power of the Bible, some highly motivated and curious individuals conducted a deeper study of the Book, made some commentaries and wrote books about it to explain what it means and created some powerful doctrines. These doctrines later became the foundation of religion. From a high level perspective, the church appeared to be successful in evangelism and reaching the unreachable part of the continent.
I’ve shared the Gospel to the poor, the needy and the uneducated and when I told them about the story of Jesus, their eyes sparked with enthusiasm and reception. Without thinking too deeply, they understood and heard the message and processed the teaching without hesitation. But when I shared the gospel here in the US, where people has everything, the reception of the Gospel is different.
God wants us to reach out to all the nation. We can do that easily now … Blog about faith, study the Word openly in forums, online sermons, mobile application, websites, build a huge church building and people will come and hear the word.
But there is a bigger issue.
There are people that are “not easy” to convince about the gospel. They are skeptics, they want proofs and they want evidence that what they are hearing and reading is the truth. They want to see a miracle, a lame walking in front of them, eyes being opened, thousands being fed. Some want their problems fixed with one command like the storm in the Sea of Galilee where Jesus calmed the storm.
To some, believing in God is put on hold. “I don’t need it right now”. “I’ll get to it later”.
How to tell a 21st century intellectual that there is heaven without confusion? How to tell your coworker that Jesus is real without making them uncomfortable and hate you? How to tell your teenager son or daughter that there is such thing as eternity without driving them away from the truth? How to tell your non-Christian blog follower that there is God and God has a Son called Jesus and also there is the third person of God called the Holy Spirit without offending their own beliefs and personal doctrines and philosophy. How to explain to your readers about the wisdom of God and it’s benefits? How to explain here the power of the peace of God without being so elaborate and mind boggling?
From the perspective of a non Bible believer, the whole thing about faith becomes so confusing. No wonder they are not excited to read and study the Bible every morning.
When a human being is living a good life, healthy and full of vigor, the question of eternity is irrelevant. But when you are near the end of life or maybe you’ve experienced a near death situation or maybe you have a family member who is about to depart to the next phase in life – then your mind begins to question about the validity of heaven. Is heaven real? What it’s like? How to get in? What shall I do? Shall I go to church? Shall I do good and change my heart? Shall I deprive myself with material things and devote myself to spirituality? Shall I stop watching tv? Shall I turn off the internet? Shall I stop using my social media app? Shall I give away my money to the poor? Shall I sell all I have and go to a solitary place where I can communicate with God in the purest sense?
The short answer is NO. The answers to those questions are the effect of your faith. You don’t have to do a lot of things.
When we believe in God, our whole life will change direction and some of us will not anymore do things “the usual way”, hence our friend will think that we are weird or become weird.
The purpose and mission of Christianity is to build the Kingdom of God. Going to heaven is the after effect, the perks or the reward. I did not believe in God because I want to go to heaven. I believe in God because at some point in my life it was revealed to me. Without too much intellectual processing, one day I decided that I will start believing His existence. It was a decision that I made and so far the benefits outweighs the negative.
It does not benefit me when I recruit people to Christ or share a long journal about Him or my faith therefore I am not recruiting people to join me. I do not get points for heaven when I tell my wife, my children, my extended family, my friends, my blog followers . (If you’ve discovered or invented something marvelous, wouldn’t you like to tell the world about it?)
Back to the “gate” topic.
So how can you enter the gate?
The actual process is very simple. I dislike using the word “simple” because it implies “how come you have not figured it out yet”. The reason why to some people it is complicated is because the devil is making it hard for us to see. Sometimes he creates a scenario where it is impossible for us to see the truth. If you are reading this far, you’ve overcome the obstacle that the enemy had provided.
Simply:
1. Believe that there is God.
2. Start a conversation with God.
Once step 1 and 2 are established, the next instruction will follow.
I am not an expert on faith and Christianity. I am just an ordinary person who live a simple life. I am not a Bible scholar either. Join me in building this Kingdom in a different perspective. You don’t have to actually do anything.
Just say in your heart that you are in and you want to be a part of this silent movement of faith.
It’s not about entering the gates of heaven. It’s about enjoying/watching the people you’ve influenced with the Gospel as they enter the gates is what matters most.
The gates will always be open for us – to those who believe.
