I can’t take you to heaven with me. And that’s a fact. The first thing we want to do when we become a believer in Jesus Christ is to take our loved ones to heaven with us. Becoming a follower of Jesus is a personal choice and no one can make it for you. You can fake it in front of others, but God sees your heart and knows if you’re truly a believer.
God created human beings in His own image. (Genesis 1:26, Then God said, “Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves…”) What that means is that we each have the will to choose God or the world. In this passage, God says “Let us” referring to the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Watching our loved ones make wrong choices is difficult. But watching them reject Jesus is the hardest thing to hear because we understand the eternal implications of that decision. Every decision we make during our lives has consequences. Some of them are financial, relational, or career decisions that carry consequences we must live through. But the most important decision of one’s life is to accept the gift of salvation. That one decision is what gets you into heaven.
Allow me to share the story of the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard found on Matthew 20:1-16 (NLT). The landowner went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. He found a few and offered them a denarius to work for the day. The landowner went out several times throughout the day and kept hiring workers that were idle. He offered a “fair pay” to each one—even to the ones hired at the eleventh hour. At night, the landowner ordered his steward to pay the last ones hired first. And the ones he hired first, got paid last. Everyone got paid a denarius.
Those who were hired first were angry. They asked the landowner why he paid the same to the ones who only worked one hour. They assumed they would get paid more since they had been laboring all day. The landowner responded it is his right to pay whatever he wanted to his workers. He assured them he had been fair with them by paying the agreed amount.
The point of this story is that the landowner (God) is always seeking for workers. Everyone who responds “yes” to His invitation gets the same reward—the gift of salvation. God prefers if you choose Him at the beginning of your life and walked with Him your entire journey. But if you choose Him during your last hour on earth, He will still take you. He’s interested in you choosing Him while you are on earth and then spending your eternal life in heaven with Him. That is the main point of this story.
The second point of this story is that there is plenty of work available. And God is always inviting everyone to join Him and become His worker. But few respond. He takes all who accept His invitation. Personally, I rather walk my entire life with Jesus alongside me than live through this life without Him. Living life without Jesus is like going on a long journey to climb a mountain alone and without any equipment or tools. If at the end of your life, you repent and accept Jesus, we will both spend eternity with Him in heaven. But I much rather you accept Jesus now and not wait until your last hour. You will miss the blessing of having His love, wisdom, discernment, peace, joy, and His overall blessings in your life.
I leave you with these beautiful Scriptures to encourage you to choose Jesus today:
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”