MITRA: You need to be on the list to get into heaven
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 7:21)
Some strange things happen because of mistaken identity.
Many years ago, it was reported a gas-station operator was present at a meeting in the White House at which the president briefed officials on the subject of energy and security.
It happened an employee in a U.S. senator’s office gave the White House staff the name and address of the operator by mistake.
He received the invitation meant for a union vice-president with the same name who was a well-known visitor to the White House.
When the station operator left the important policy-making meeting, he commented to the reporters that he had received information “just like the big shots.”
Television cameras covered his arrival and departure from that famous Washington residence.
Someone told him he had become a celebrity, to which he responded: “Just for today. Tomorrow, I am right back from where I started from.”
Human judgment is continually subject to errors like that.
But, when we stand before the judge of all the earth, there will be no slip-ups.
2 Timothy 2:19 says, “The Lord knows them that are His.”
We can be assured the only people who will be allowed into His presence are those on His “guest or residency list.”
One of my friends used to say: “There will surely be some surprises in heaven — some will be there we did not expect. And, some others will be missing we thought would be present.”
No “big shots” will enter there, no not even for a day, but only sinners saved by grace.
In the same passage, Jesus told of a parable of two houses — one built on solid rock and the other on deceptive sand and their fate in the face of severe storm and deluge.
He said of the house that was built on rock that “yet the house did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (Matt 7:25).
Man’s most serious problem is not political or economic, it is spiritual.
He is a rebel against the King of kings, and all other problems are but the results of this rebellion.
The heart of every problem is still the problem of the heart and that problem can never be solved apart from faith in the Saviour.
Whether it is a problem at home, or in a nation (like what has gone on in Syria for so long) — is a projection of individual unrest.
A true Christian can weather any storm in life and still keep standing.
If we are grounded upon the rock (Jesus), we need not collapse.
Children, if they are surrounded by love, faith, godly example and scriptural teachings, will never stray but grow up normal in an abnormal society.
The economy might get worse, but it cannot blot out the promise of Matthew 6:33 which says: “First seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things will be added to you.”
Someone has defined a North American today as one who “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
In earlier generations, thank God, that definition scarcely applied.
People knew what things cost and learnt what they were genuinely worth.
Moses made his decision to leave Egypt on the basis of spiritual values that were important to him.
We, too, need to learn real values — the things that matter most.
These values are given in the Word of God.
Nehemiah built walls of Jerusalem in troubled times.
David wrote many of the psalms when Israel was in turmoil because of inefficient leadership of King Saul.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote his great book when the Babylonians were encircling Jerusalem, preparing to destroy the city.
Daniel and John wrote their books while in exile.
A crisis reveals what we are really made up of.
The family or the person who fall apart because of a crisis cannot blame the economy or the socialists — they can only blame themselves.
We who call ourselves people of faith must live by faith.
If the latest news about recession or inflation make us tremble, we need to ask ourselves, “Where is our faith?”
God is shaking things up before our eyes these days so “that those things that cannot be shaken may remain” (Heb. 12:27).
narayanmitra@hotmail.com
KTW welcomes submissions to its Faith page. Columns should be between 600 and 800 words in length and include a headshot of the author, along with a short bio on the writer. Submissions can be sent via email to editor@kamloopsthisweek.com.
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