So in the comments sections of the February 20th post, I was saying that the bible teaches that heaven is a free gift and that it is not earned or deserved. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Often we all have a hard time grasping the we don't deserve to go to heaven concept; usually it is due to the fact that we compare ourselves with other people we either know or hear about in the news like murderers, child molesters, rapists, etc. On the surface, it would seem that when we compare ourselves with other people we "should" go to heaven. However, that is exactly where we start to get into trouble, when we rely on our own thinking, our own standard as opposed to what the bible teaches.......God's standard.

The bible teaches that man is a sinner. In Romans 3:23 it states...... for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I know that this may sound simple, but what exactly is sin? Often we only think of the big ones like murder, adultery, stealing, but the bible teaches that sin is anything that doesn't please God such as things that we say or think. Things that we say like lying, cussing, etc. or things we think such as lust, pride, and hate.

Many times we think that sin is something that everybody is doing so it must not be so bad. Some of you may have heard this example before about how we often think we are not so bad...............Say one was a REALLY!!!! good person and only sinned 3 times a day. That is over 1000 sins a year and say the average lifetime is 70 years, that is over 70,000 sins in our lifetime. So our standard of a REALLY!!! good person who "should" get into heaven has 70,000 sins...............God's standard to get into heaven is..........PERFECTION. Something to think about until next time.