Love God.

I've been absent from my blogging for a few weeks, and there's a good reason for it. As usual, when I'm away for a while, God's been working through some things with me, and I was waiting to see where it was leading before I shared any of it. This is still a work in process, but He put it on my heart to share this with you.

About 6 months ago - maybe longer - someone who is very dear to me, and whom I love very much, asked me what you have to do to get into heaven. At the time, my answer was very simple, because I didn't feel like I had the ability to communicate a complete answer, and I didn't want to misspeak.

About a month or so ago, I shared with you that God showed me that we as Christians, collectively speaking, do not give enough weight to some very basic truth's of God's message - first that the Bible is TRUE, and secondly, that heaven and hell do, in fact, exist, and are, in fact, eternal. We may speak of the truth of the Bible, but many of us do not live our lives as though we believe in the Bible. We all like to think about going to heaven, but we never seem to be willing to consider hell as the alternative, and we definitely do not live as though an eternal judgment is approaching.

That was the start of the studying that I'm doing right now. The first book that I was led to was 'Driven by Eternity' by John Bevere. It's not a long book, and I thought I would be through it by now, but digesting this book has been a slow process...and has been the catalyst to some serious reflection on where I really am with God. If nothing else, I have become acutely aware of the fact that my decisions must be more motivated by eternal matters.

Through the course of reading this book, I have been continually challenged to check my own heart. Am I really what I say I am? Do I serve God for the right motives? Do I really love God? Or will I be like those who Jesus talks about will who stand before Him on the day of judgment, shocked to be turned away from heaven because He says He never knew them?

John Bevere very clearly illustrates the heart conditions of many who believe themselves to be Christians, but who are, in fact, deceived. That's scary! Imagine being so sure of your eternal destiny, only to find out, after it's too late to change, that you were wrong! To stand before God and be sentenced to eternity in hell because your heart wasn't right toward Him.

Do I serve God because He's worthy? Or do I serve Him for personal benefit? I mean, we all like to think about the blessings of God, and the promises of God, and what a change He can make in our lives here on earth. And it's not wrong to ask for blessing, or to ask Him to show you favor. But what's wrong is serving God for the purpose of getting those blessings. Am I willing to endure hardship and trials and difficulties and winter seasons, and still not be offended by God if His blessings don't seem to be pouring down? I had to take a long hard look at my heart. If I never see the benefits of serving God in this lifetime, would I still love and serve Him? I took my time, prayed about it, and gave it a lot of thought and consideration, because I wanted to get down to the true condition of my heart. I would rather know now, and work with God to change, rather than finding out the truth when I'm standing before Him and it's too late. This was not something I took lightly. But what an awesome process to go through.

Today I sat down and opened my book to read some more, and I got stuck at the first paragraph I read. And it just seemed to be the next step to this process.

'But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him' (1 Corinthians 8:3). Just like the last verse I talked about, this one seems pretty simple and straight-forward. But there's that word KNOW again. The amplified Bible expands on this verse, and it's very cool what it says.

But if one loves God truly [with affectionate reverence, prompt obedience, and grateful recognition of His blessing], he is known by God [recognized as worthy of His intimacy and love, and he is owned by Him]. This verse gives us a benchmark for where our hearts are with God. If we love Him, we affectionately revere Him. We promptly obey Him. We recognize His blessings in our life, and we are truly grateful. And the result of loving God this way is that He opens up to us and reveals Himself, and His nature to us. He deems us worthy of His intimacy and love. He calls us His own. So, when we love Him- when our hearts are right, and we really LOVE Him - we are known by Him. And when we stand before Him, He will not say to us 'I never knew you.'

It's that simple..... It's that simple. My answer to the person who, so long ago asked how we get into heaven, is this: 'Love God.'