Catholic

There is only one way to Heaven

Recently the FBI busted more than 40 American citizens, some well-known, in a college admissions cheating scheme.

According to news reports children of deep pocket parents, would bypass the standard admission process for entrance into top Ivy league schools, so long as their parents pay between US$250, 000 and $400,000. Some parents even paid as much as $6.5,000,000.

I scratched my head vigorously after reading the disturbing story. Then I started to imagine what I think would have happened if salvation was something money could buy. I saw all the rich people in heaven and all the poor people in hell. But thanks be to the God of the just as well as the unjust, Salvation is free because He sent His only Son to die as a ransom for our sins.

Jesus’ death and resurrection have made it possible so that nobody has to go to hell, but everybody can go to heaven

Folks, I am glad Jesus paid the ultimate price for my salvation. Because if I had to pay cash, I couldn’t afford it. And the way to heaven is not through some loopholes or back doors. It is through Jesus Christ.

Jesus closed all loopholes and back doors when He said the following:

John 10:9 New King James Version (NKJV)
9 I am at the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

Bible Gateway

Further, He made it crystal clear that status and notoriety would not be a factor:

John 14:6 New King James Version (NKJV)
6 …, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 

Bible Gateway

New direction

As we navigate the ups and downs in this wretched world, sometimes it becomes necessary to take a new direction. But change is a hard pill to swallow for some of us. So, many of us who are short-sighted and the narrow-minded put up barriers and resist every notion of change.

Then, one day a spiritual awakening happened, and suddenly you morphed into a completely different person. And for the first time you realised that you were wrong all along. It now becomes clear that the path you had chosen leads to a dead-end street.

Still, you have to decide whether to stay stuck in your old ways or reset and embark on a new direction. Thankfully, like apostle Paul, some of us choose to explore a new direction.

Today one of the most famous religious institutions–the Catholic Church, finds itself between a rock and a hard place. The head of the Church wants to take the institution in a new direction, but members of the ruling bodies vehemently oppose. Still yet, this hardened opposition is not base on Biblical principles. If anything, it is base on Church traditions sprinkled with some moral principles.

Therefore, it is not blasphemous to say the Catholic Church got stuck in tradition, in the same way, the Pharisees was when Jesus called them whitewashed sepulchres. For it appears that majority of its members both in the ruling bodies and the pews are more concerned about public opinion than winning souls for the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus was on earth, He ran into similar opposition. Luke 5:30-32 documents one of His encounters with the religious class. The Bible says Levi put on a great feast for Jesus, and there was a great company of tax collectors and sinners among them.”But the scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
31 And Jesus answering said unto them, they that are well needed, not a physician; but they that are sick.
32 I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

New day, New beginning

Happy New Year everybody!

024“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was at the beginning with God. All things have been made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5).

I would like to take a little time to thank all of you for your continued support of this blog. You guys have been simply awesome–beyond measure.

Even though we may not always agree on every point; we treat each other with respect. I wish the greater society on the whole would take a page out of our books.

I pray that the God of Abraham will continue to inspire you to inspire and lead others to Christ.

Remember the less fortunate this Christmas

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me’ (Matthew 25:34-36).

Unfortunately, not all of us Christians will hear those welcoming words. Some of us will hear these:

‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire. Prepare for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in; I needed clothes, and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me’ (Matthew 25:41-46).

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’