My brother, my sister, it is in this life that we prepare our life in heaven. Let me tell you a story that made me laugh, yet teaches us so much about heaven. It is the story of a Christian couple. One day, the man died leaving his widow, a wife who treated him badly throughout their marriage. After some times, the lady also died. Now, she came at the door to Heaven, and there was a queue. To get in, everyone had to spell the word the man at the entry gave them… as she came near the door, she could hear the words given to those in front of her: “spell LOVE… spell GOD, spell JESUS”. Very simple words. Now her turn came. She was surprised to see her husband was the man asking to spell the word. She was very happy. Then he asked her “spell Czechoslovakia” (I have to admit that I needed to check the spelling to write it well)… so, imagine the woman’s surprise… she could not spell it right and was denied the entry to heaven! Of course, it’s just a tale!
My friend, God does not ignore our sins. The Lord hears, sees and even listen to our thoughts. We should therefore preprare our heaven according to His principles. You can religiously do everything right outwardly, while inside your conscience is burnt. This will lead you nowhere. Have you ever wondered why, despite the fact that salvation is by faith in Christ and not by our works, God is still asking us to obey, obey and obey and to follow His commands? It is simple: life on earth is the only place we can be prepared, trained to be able to live in Heaven. We cannot get it with our bad character, lest we would pollute Heaven’s purity; we cannot get in with our doubts, lest we would get in and start asking God “why, why, why?…” We cannot get in without having learnt how to submit to the authorities or to the Lord, lest we would get there and try to change the decorations, and bring our knowledge and know-how to try to change the things of God according to our taste. It is therefore the reason why the Lord disciplines His children. We need to be able to live with Him in the Kingdom, by behaving as the children of the King, not as strangers or rebels who cannot enjoy anything because they have a better place they could go to. Let’s learn to submit to the Word of God to prepare ourselves for life after this life. Stay blessed in Jesus’ name.