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A man determined he was going to go to Hawaii. Hearing others speak of the wonders of the Islands and the means whereby they traveled to arrive there the man determined it too restrictive. He rebelled at the idea he should be so limited in the way in which to reach his desired destination.
Knowing others were privileged to travel to Hawaii, and believing it to be a wonderful place in which to arrive, this man reasoned he too deserved to be in Hawaii, however, he determined he was going to do it his way.
His current location was somewhere in the middle of the continent of the United States. However, miscomprehending geography he elected to forgo the expense of purchasing an airline ticket to Hawaii, reasoning instead to follow his elected plan.
Being in possession of a reliable vehicle he determined that others might think they must fly or boat across the Pacific Ocean to arrive in Hawaii, but that was not needful for him; after all, he was a good person, and he desired to go to Hawaii, therefore he believed he could get there his own way, so long as he believed he deserved to be there.
Thus it is, when it was time for him to travel, he set out southeast, foolishly confident this road would deliver him to the place he desired to go .
Lisa Marie Presley died yesterday morning, January 12, 2023, when her heart stopped, despite efforts, in the ambulance, to revive her heart. Numerous publicly posted condolences expressed both sorrow over her death, but also intended to comfort assurances that she is now in Heaven with her dad, Elvis Presley as well as her son who preceded her in death.
I cannot claim to know the final destination of Lisa Marie, Elvis, or Lisa’s son, because I do not personally know them.
What I do know is there is a guidebook, that serves as a roadmap, which is very specific on how to arrive at the destination of what we call Heaven. If Lisa, and her son, and Elvis followed that roadmap, we can trust they arrived at the desired destination.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— (Romans 5:12)
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23)
Scripture (the guidebook whereby we learn there is a Heaven, and an eternal God that dwells there) tells us that the wages of sin is death, and every mortal human being that is born into this world, through Adam, is born in sin and thus it is we all sin.
No matter how “good” we want to be, or try to be, we all fall short due to our human nature because of the choice Adam and Eve made, while in the garden, to disobey God. When they willfully disobeyed God, and partook of the fruit for which he warned they should not:
“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17)
they died spiritually, and thus became sin natured, and all of mankind born are thus born with a sin nature.
I once questioned why God allowed this. Then I came to understand it is because our creator created us with the ability to choose. He, our eternal creator, did not desire that we be forced to choose Him, so he created us with a will, and we are granted the choice to either choose Him or reject Him.
However, God did not leave us all to die in our sins. While He knew the fall would come He allowed it to happen knowing, all along, He had a plan whereby mankind could be redeemed (brought back into fellowship with God).
That plan was to send Jesus to earth to atone for the sins of mankind. By way of the Holy Spirit, God the Father placed into the womb of a chosen mortal woman the spirit of Jesus. This way bypassed the “seed of man” so that the one born would not be born with a sin nature.
God chose one who was a virgin so that all could know this was a miraculous thing, thus we can know the child born is both God and man. This was essential so that there could be a “lamb without blemish” to atone for sin, as sinful blood cannot atone for sin.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, (1 Timothy 2:5)
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. (Colossians 2:9)
But emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:7)
Jesus came to earth to be our Messiah, our Savior. Through His sacrifice, willingly made, he allowed His blood to be shed for sin; He alone paid the price for sin. Because of this sacrifice, all mankind may be saved, however not all of mankind will be saved.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
Again, it is by way of the Holy Scriptures, that we come to learn of Heaven, that Heaven is the place where our Eternal Father, the creator of all living things, dwells. Through this “guidebook/roadmap,” we learn the road that leads to Heaven and how we can arrive there.
Scripture makes it abundantly clear that all roads do NOT lead to Heaven, and no man may come to the Father except through Jesus Christ.
Scripture makes it clear that in order to receive the gift of salvation we must “accept” that gift, and the way we accept that gift is by placing our faith in Jesus as the Christ, as our Messiah.
For Lisa’s sake, and that of her dad, and that of her son, I hope that each had put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord so that the gift of eternal life in the presence of God may be theirs.
Because, as scripture warns us:
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14
No matter how badly I desire it, if I want to reach Hawaii, from the United States, I have to follow a designated route that involves either flying or boating my way, west, across the Pacific Ocean.
If I try to drive Southeast I’m simply not going to arrive at the destination I desire.
The same is true for arriving in Heaven. Our Eternal Father/Creator who dwells in Heaven has given us what we need to know and do, to arrive at the destination that brings us to Him.
If we choose an alternate path, by default we will not arrive in Heaven.