Locked Out of Heaven
Former Self-reliant Extrovert Discloses an Unspeakable Truth
Scripture:
A. “…Be it known
to you all, and to the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom[Rulers of People & elders of Israel]crucified, whom
God raised from the dead, by Him this [crippled] man stands before you
whole.” Acts 4:10 MEV Emphasis by
essay author.
B. “There is no
salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men
by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
MEV
C. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me. If you had known me, you would have
known my Father also. From now on you do
know him and have seen him.” John14:6—7 ESV
D. “And someone
said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door.
For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able…” Luke 13:23—24 ESV
TOPIC:
Eternal destination is inevitable but without Jesus Christ you SHALL NOT enter Heaven. Hear my testimony. Revelation 12:11
NICHOLAS BEFORE HE KNEW CHRIST
Born & raised in a desert land
flowing with milk & honey. A great
place to be raised! The communities in
the region of Salt Lake City, Utah. The youngest of two brothers. Very
fortunate to have a family, not orphaned like his two grandfathers. Both mom, dad & the extended family
worked very hard to provide, protect & plan for the two siblings separated
by five years of age. The extended
family life was extensive and proactive in fellowship. Holidays and birthdays were common gatherings
filled with lots of activities. Infusing family virtues & values in the
soul which stimulated much joy & unity inside the family unit.
As
a child & adolescent person Nick was very athletic individually. Spending most of his time playing outside
& inside the house. He cycled all
over the community not much for academic excellence proven during the course of
the basic schooling years. Physical
& social activities are where he really flourished. Active in cub scouts & boy scouts,
football, basketball, roller skating, street hockey & ice hockey, BMX
cycling, street cycling & Mountain cycling.
This list of his interests go on and on.
He was confident at sports & other social activities. He was very creative & active within the
home gardening as well.
According
to Nick, his relationship with God consciously began at the age of 8 when he
decided to become water baptized. In
adolescence he noticed that his parents & older brother no longer attended
Mormon Church services. He also sensed a
social strain at scouting activities for not attending church, so he decided to
leave scouts. This was saddening to him
in hindsight but the desire to be accepted by the family seemed more
important. Although he left the practice
of Mormon Doctrine, he didn’t stop conversing & communing with God as he
understood God to be.
The lack of scholastic achievement & lack of acceptance in adult social circles stirred in him inadequacy riddled with self-pity & self-defeating traits. This seemed to be caused by a burning passion inside himself to find pleasure & achieve greatness. This ambition led to taking pride in having pleasure and fun whenever & wherever plausible. A sort of pleasure centered lifestyle finding himself bored & rarely having lasting satisfaction. His mind would fill with complaints and cynical perspective with a major imbalance in priorities. At the age of 30 Nick realized his spiritual need for deeper knowledge of God. To have God and know God personally. Not only know of or know about, but to truly know God. Meaningful true reliance on the Creator wasn’t conceivable in his finite mind.
HOW NICK CAME TO CHRIST
Profoundly convicted by the idea
that he could actually be locked out of Heaven, thanks to Bruno Mars music playing passively in the background of the Hawaiian community. Also, thanks to devout believers in the
community and their efforts to correct shallow theological understanding. In the midst of painful wounds, memory of a
promise made to his Grandmother Jackie before enlisting in the U.S. Navy
triggered a desire to seek spiritual counsel.
The Assemblies of God-Red Hill-Oahu, Hawaii fellowship supported
Nicholas & his family while in a return to faith practice. Broken, lost, confused,
ashamed, prideful, perfect, pretentious & shallow. Filled with misery & despair because of a
personal & private lifestyle, lacking self-control & strength to set
& keep healthy boundaries. Seeming
to only be saturated with chaos & pain at this very dark point in time, he
remembers asking God numerously to take control of his life before death
becomes him eternally.
Abusive
to himself & others in conjunction with moral, physical & emotional
injuries compilated with chronic illnesses that didn’t seem to have any promise
of healing solution. Crippled & struggling
to ask for help, get the help he needed and accept any help offered. Nicholas suffered excruciating pain that
caused sleepless nights & drunken fights.
Unable to heal from the injuries & illnesses, he felt deep down
beneath the layers of his stubborn mind & calloused heart that common life
force discoverable in all of us. He
realized this pain wasn’t simply physical; cognitive dissonance if you will. The physical pain was by-product of lifestyle which masked and
distracted him from prudence, contrast & healthy alignment with his environment. Poor judgment was common for him before recognizing this need for
change.
Finally
accepting the truth of quantifiable evidences observed in self-medication
through the consumption of alcohol. He
decided to try on abstinence from this legal substance, doubting its powerful
hold on him. Nicholas remembers a
feeling of helplessness while letting go of this friend, alcohol. Implementing execution of the idea of
abstinence for longer than one & two weeks proved to him very difficult
& extremely challenging. When asked
to describe memory of a weekend without the substance, Nick struggled to find
any memory. Secretly he began to
genuinely accept that he was alcoholic to some degree or another, committing to
seriously seek sobriety privately.
Application
of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) steps & AA principles initially gave him
direction and a sense of clarity and progress.
What seemed to help most were the prayers & literature. But in practice he became exhausted causing
the need for more social support.
While
continuing in prayer, now memorized.
Early one morning during his routine time of study & prayer,
Nicholas felt a sense of vanity & emptiness. He had lost his sense of direction &
purpose in the practices at hand.
Desperate for progress and sensing this despondency, he desired
miraculous change and didn’t seem to be getting it. He remembers his inner man during prayer
voicing agony and screaming to know who the missing person was in the prayer.
“…Taking as He did this sinful world as it is…” & “…Trusting that He will make
all things right as I surrender my will to Him…” Who does this pronoun ‘HE’
represent within the serenity prayer, crying out to God Nicholas asked, “WHO IS
HE?”. Wondering, who is this missing
person?
To Nicholas God was a Higher Power, a Great
Spirit that moved through all things, the Creator of all things yet wondered
who is “He”? In deep surrender, by grace
the name of Jesus Christ gently came to mind.
Thoughts inside Nick raced, “No way!”
he said to himself. Denial
continued as he reasoned through memory of his exposure and conditioning from
childhood to this present moment in adulthood.
The who, what, when, where, why & how questions flooded his mind,
filling his heart with curiosity, despair & joy. Inspired to understand where he had
misunderstood Jesus, his prayer became open to the leading of God as he
understood him to be. His knowledge of
God wasn’t as great as he self-righteously thought. Little did he actually know.
Inviting this deity to lead him in making a
fearless searching moral inventory of himself.
He further pursued the practice and application of the 12-steps within
AA, thereby gaining a greater sense of strength to endure the ongoing hardship
and the unforeseen hardships to come, because of grace & mercy stirred by
this relationship with the Spirit; the deity of Christ Jesus.
Despite the long-term view of progress seeming unbearable, God’s patience & love were with Nicholas the entire journey! This seemed to be when he first let Jesus’ gift of salvation take the lead. All these years later, 22 years after customary water baptism!
LIFE SINCE KNOWING JESUS CHRIST
Since choosing to trust in Jesus, life for Nicholas profoundly changed for the better! No longer an alcoholic drunkard, [10] years sober. No longer prideful in pleasure centered living principles. The wisdom of his Lord is allowing him to actually live out new priorities and learn to follow Jesus & His teachings. All of which he has a voice, regarding purpose, direction and living for the glory of God.
Nicholas
better understands the significance of the immaculate conception, birth, life, miracles,
death & resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In whom he now has a very real sense of hope(Revelation 21:3). More capable as a planner, provider &
protector for his own family & friends.
Simply ask any of them, they can testify to the change witnessed by
their own observations.
Improved
discretion and discernment between love, lust & greed; fruits of the flesh
& fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Enhanced biblical world view.
Shame & guilt are in proportion to the reality of mistakes &
errors committed by him. No longer
berating himself abusively for being an imperfect person. Growing daily a greater sense of resolve with
personal issues; feelings of inadequacy, self-pity, self-loathing &
self-defeatism.
Healing
he sought has been received and physically he’s back to being active again with
more wisdom & grace in the engagement and execution. The callousness of heart is healing, allowing
him to empathize & sympathize with his neighbors. Less apathetic and more able to love. More decisive and opinionated; easy going,
but not passive. Stoicism has its place
in high risk activity & emergency applications, but he better understands
what this means now spiritually & theologically.
Throughout
all of the hardships endured to contritely make repentance, restitution &
reconciliation, he learned how to do so none the less. Finding redemption, restoration &
recovery in Christ Jesus the Nazarene.
The thought of losing to win seemed illogical, a paradox if you
will. One example could be facing his
spouse with hidden secrets. Losing her
was ever realistic, but his bride still wants to be with him! And Kelli Sue not only loves him, she likes
him, most of the time. She has helped
teach her husband what real love is. Our
neighbor, Nicholas is growing to love her in a way that meets her needs and
honors God.
Letting
go of idols, addictions, abusive behavior, resentment, unforgiveness,
misaligned priorities and selfish ambitions.
God filled these former dependencies & character traits with a
dependence on Him, His Word, & His way!
Nicholas tells me:
“Jesus Christ is my comfort during pain, my
joy during sadness, and so much more. My
words are insufficient, but Jesus alone is sufficient! His grace is a gift!”
This
remark provokes thought about the act of giving gifts. Think about it, endowments given do not have
to be accepted. Opening the gift &
accepting the gift offered to us demand’s a decision at some point or
another. Like Nick did, will you choose
to open the gift of forgiveness? Will
you accept the salvation offered by the Jewish Messiah? He really did walk in flesh on earth and He will return soon ([see Isaiah 9:6, 40:3,
Matthew 3:11,Acts 1:11, Revelation 19:11) Will you be with the Church at the rapture? Will you be returning with Him for battle? Or will you be like chaff?
Not
all of the problems in this earthly life have been completely eliminated. His life in Christ is new & improved, but
it hasn’t become any easier. Self-pity
parties are less & less part of his character traits. Once upon a time in secrecy Nick sang about
being a child of God. Now, he not only
sings in the open air about being a child of God, he sings as a living child of
God! No longer the man he & the
world hardened him to be but, Nicholas is well on his way to becoming the man
of God the Creator meant for him to be! No
longer locked out of heaven.
Conclusion:
A.
Eternal
life is impossible without Jesus Christ.
B. His atoning sacrifice pay’s the wages of our sin and the wages of sin are death (Romans 6:23) by no other means or path can we receive spiritual salvation. Sustained meaningful relational knowledge is necessary to have the gift of eternal salvation preventing the second death(Rev. 20:14) (See Intro. B. Acts 4:12 C. John14:6—7 D. Luke 13:23—24).
C. Many will seek to enter the Kingdom of God in Heaven, few will enter. (D. Luke 13:23—24).
Exhortation:
So what? What's the point? You too can receive this grace & mercy that I have gained!
1.Reject the Gift and someday suddenly realize tHis Gift has rejected you (Matthew24:44). We are all sheep in need of the
Good Shepherd Isaiah. 53:6; for “…Iniquities of us ALL.”, John 10:7—11 …Jesus
is the good shepherd…”.
2. Find a Minister &/or Elder at the altar. Join us in the church within the sanctuary. The blessing isn't of us but through us. Not from us, we’re here to serve, He must increase, we must decrease (see John 3:30). The gift of forgiveness!! Who wants it? Come forward. Who has it? Come lay your hand on the shoulder of your brother & sister in Christ; God's children! All others choose to accept the gift right where you are. Invite the Lord into your inner self; your inner sanctuary.
Prayer:
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you & be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.
More simply put I found serenity. Thank you God!
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