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"Sure, I'll go to heaven.  I believe in God."
"Well, I think so. I have been a pretty good person."
"I haven't murdered anyone or anything like that."
"Well, I am not nearly as bad as [insert name here]."
"I guess so..  I go to church and I pray AND I give to the poor."

Did your answers resemble any of the above answers?  I know mine did, for 29 years. I'd gone to church since I was a baby.  I have always believed in God.  I tried to be good (ok, not always!)  I had always considered myself a Christian, but deep down, I knew that something was missing.  How good was good enough?  Sure, I was no Mother Theresa or anything, but I was no Ted Bundy either.

It was 1994.  I'd been married for a year and a half to a wonderful guy, who was on the same spiritual path as me.  We attended church regularly but continued to live a totally different life outside of church.  We moved during this time, and through the purchase of our new home, found a Bible-believing church through the sellers of that house!  Our new pastor explained the way to eternal life from the Bible, and we both made a decision for Christ and were baptized in the pool at our new home that very day.

So, what IS the way, you may ask?

Stated simply, there are three important factors.

1.  God loves you. No who you are, no matter what you've done.  The Bible tells us that Jesus forgave the thief on the cross next to Him, and assured the thief that he would be in paradise with Jesus that very day.

2.  We all have sinned.  Telling a lie is a sin.  Stealing is a sin.  Cursing using God's name is a sin.  You get the picture - all of us have done these things that the Bible calls sin.

Jesus Christ chose to pay the price for your sin.  Sin separates each of us from a holy God, and no amount of human effort can make us "right" with God.  It took Jesus, coming to earth and living a sin-free life, and allowing himself to be killed, to pay the penalty for us.  The cross "bridged the gap" between holy God and sinful man.

3.  The choice is yours.  Nobody drifts into salvation - a decision must be made to receive Christ's free gift of salvation.  The bridge is there; you simply need to opt to walk across it and receive Jesus into your life.

I've got good news and bad news...

First, the bad news.

Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." 

When Adam and Eve took the fruit, they disobeyed God.  In this day and age it doesn't seem like a huge sin or anything.  After all, they didn't KILL anyone or anything.  They just bit a piece of fruit, right?  Well, disobeying God was a sin and it was enough to separate sinful man from a holy God.

So what is the punishment for sin?  It's not good news, friend.  The punishment for sin is (gulp) death.  Not just a physical death, but a spiritual death, which is eternal separation from a holy God.

Then, the good news.

My friend, God loves us so much that He didn't just leave it at that.  He provided a solution that only God could come up with.  He sent HIS OWN SON down to earth to become a human being and live that perfect life that we in our sinful state could not do ourselves.  When Jesus died on the cross, he became the perfect sacrifice that God requires, because He never sinned.

Romans 6:23 clearly sums up the bad news and the good news:
"For the wages [penalty] of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."

Salvation is a free gift from God.  God's word, the Bible, tells you how you can receive this wonderful gift.  Believe, repent/confess, receive, and follow Jesus.

John 3:16  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life"

Acts 3:19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord

John 3:36  "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him"

Romans 10:9  "if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved"

Ephesians 2:8-9  "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

John 1:12 "to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God"

John 14:6  "Jesus answered, ""I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

1 John 2:3-6  "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

Acts 22:16  "And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.