I have been raised in church ever since I was born. Every church I have ever attended has had an invitational service at the end of the regular service where the congregation will sing an invitational song and people will have the chance to walk to the altar and pray silently or to ask the preacher or other church officials questions. When I was six years old I began to notice people doing this so I started to do it. I really didn't know what it meant until my parents told me. And even then praying didn't seem to have any effect. One day when I was praying a lady of the church approached me and shared the story of Jesus with me. She explained to me why he died on the cross and how I can know for sure that I am going to heaven. Just then I asked Jesus into my heart and I knew I was going to heaven. Also, prayer began to mean something more than just praying over my food or saying goodnight prayers. It was my personal conversation with God.

Now I want to ask you...

If you were to die right now do you KNOW that you are going to heaven?

If you don't know wouldn't it be great to know?

First,

You have to know that everyone is a sinner.

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

This means everyone. It means you and me. It means everyone.

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

Second,

You need to know their is a punishment for sin.

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Death doesn't mean just death from earth, which is physical death, but it also means spiritual death, which is burning forever in hell.

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Third,

You need to know that Jesus died for your sins.

Romans 5:8 "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Fourth and lastly,

You need to know how to achieve salvation.

You now know that your punishment is death for your sins but Jesus has already died for you so you can have eternal life (heaven). All you have to do is accept Him.

Now, if believe and are sincere please follow along and pray this sinner's prayer to God accepting Jesus as your Savior.

Dear Lord,
I know that I am a sinner and I know that I deserve death for my sin. I know that Jesus has already died for me so that I can live forever in Heaven. I accept Jesus now. I ask Jesus into my heart. Thank-you for this conviction and for your gift of salvation.
In Jesus' name I pray
Amen.

Congratulations!
You are now a child of God and I can't wait to see you in Heaven!

volleyball_sarah@yahoo.com

Christianlty requires commitment, like everything else life-changing.

Just had to add that. I like the idea of someone talking about salvation here.

quote:

I assume, you sarah, are for punishment proportional to the crime? i.e punishment fits the crime?

The punishment does fit the crime, but we have trivialized sin. Similar to how killing of slaves or women isn't/wasn't considered bad by certain societies, various sins aren't considered bad by our mainstream society(-ies).

Volleyball_sarah:

I'll support yah, Haras!!

except for the being saved before you are baptized, which is a whole different conversation (that we should talk about sometime, but not on the computer, in the flesh)

When I die I will be buried and decomposed by microorganisms.

If i was to die, I would not want to go to heaven. Because you know what? devoting my life to god for the rest of eternity does not sound fun.

One day, I will write an annoying thread on Raël.

I hate saving.

I'm already Christian. Though I feel, sarah, that we would have very different views on topics.

Through this post, it seems very much like you are trying to convert or "save" people by having them go through this process. In fact, it sounds down right condescending, as if no one on here believes in God.

I don't believe in being "saved." When people ask me, "When did you first come to know God?" I tell them that He has always been there. I can't tell you a date when I realized it. God has just always been there. I think it's a load of crock when anyone tells you, "On that special day, March 18, 1985 I was saved by our Lord, Jesus Christ." You don't need a date to tell people when you began believing in God.

Cracking up, Ikki.

quote:

Did you just try to save us all.

I can save no one because I am not perfect. I'm a sinner and deserve death for my sins. Only Jesus can save because he lived a life of perfection and didn't deserve death because he never sinned. Yet, he still died for the sins of everyone else.

volleyball_sarah@yahoo.com

I assume, you sarah, are for punishment proportional to the crime? i.e punishment fits the crime?

If so do you believe that it is justified that you belive that for anything up to 120 years of sin, you are repaid with eternity of having your soul tortured on a rack? Not quite a fitting punishment.

Did you just try to save us all?

Well from my point of view, i know exactly where i am going. And neither of those places is Heaven or Hell, because i don't beleive they exist.

While Piety is a virtue, you seem to be very fanatical, maybe even fundamentalist...

I hope that I can clarify for you what I am talking about above. I'm just going to go a little at a time so if you wish to know what I know then you will reply back to me and stay active with me through post until it is clear. If you don't reply I want you to know that I am still praying for you.

You DO understand that everyone is a sinner...don't you?

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

Please reply in answer to my question through through post.

quote:

If you were to die right now do you KNOW that you are going to heaven? If you don't know wouldn't it be great to know?

Honestly, I wouldn't know if I would even be accepted in heaven or hell. I think that it would be awesome to know something like that. I don't know about everyone else, but I don't know that if I knew whether I was going to heaven or hell, than I would have some kind of peace of mind.