blooming with Brooke

Do you ever think about what will happen to your soul when you die? What will actually happen to your soul when your physical body closes its eyes for the last time and your lungs take their last breath? What happens to you – the core of you?

While this might feel morbid to think about, it is vital to consider now. I feel like every day I am reading on social media about car accidents, suicides, homicides, death. It shakes me to my very core, and I already know for sure what is going to happen to my soul when I die. So, the Lord has burdened me to share the following thoughts with you. It is heavy, it is deep, but it is out of love. I want you to come to heaven with me! I want you to know without the shadow of a doubt where your soul is going to spend all of eternity. So, grab your Bible and your favorite mug full of your favorite warm drink (I really encourage you to choose coffee), and let’s get started…

“I’m a good person!” “I believe in God!” “I believe in heaven!”

There are many popularized ways to get to heaven. These days it seems that the most common thing I hear has everything to do with if you are a good person or not. If you are kind, generous, and considerate of other people’s feelings…you’re in, right? Wrong. That is not how it works. I am absolutely sure that there are tons of nice people who are dying and going to hell every day.

In order to make sure that you get to come to heaven with me, you need to accept the Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Let’s get into what this means. I am going to give you a simple three step process. I am incredibly “type A”, so I love order and processes…which is why the “ABC’s of Salvation” are my favorite way to lead someone to Christ. Here we go!

1. Admit: The first step is often the hardest, isn’t that what they say? It is incredibly difficult for us to admit that we are wrong. We are brave, intelligent, and strong humans, and yet we must be able to humble ourselves enough to admit that we cannot make it into Heaven by ourselves. There is absolutely nothing we can do to get there on our own. Let’s just say you lived an entirely perfect life (you can’t by the way, but we’re just imagining here). You have never grumbled, complained, cussed, felt hatred or lied, never been jealous or lashed out on someone. You still wouldn’t make it there. You HAVE to admit that you cannot do it on your own. You need a Savior to wash you clean. You’re too dirty! You were born dirty. You were born sinful. Admit you are a sinner in desperate need of a Savior.
2. Believe: For me, this is the easy part. However, for anyone who struggles with faith, this may be the most difficult portion. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is your next step. Faith is the ability to believe without seeing. While we can see and feel some things from the Lord, a lot of Christianity requires blind faith. We have the Bible, but some days even that is hard to believe (just being honest here)! But we ultimately have to come to a place within ourselves where we can tell God that we know we can’t investigate this fully right now on earth because we are incredibly limited against His awesomeness. There are so many questions that we have, and we acknowledge that we may not get them answered until we actually get to heaven, but we believe in HIM. We believe that He sent His one and only precious Son to come and die on the cross for our sins, to pay a debt that we could never pay, and we believe that He raised Him from the dead, and He is living and active today. We must believe that when this occurred, Jesus (God’s Son) defeated death, sin, and hell forevermore. He redeemed us.
3. Confess: Confession is where you get to be vulnerable with God. What you say during your confession is between you & God alone. You can pour out your heart to Him. Tell Him all of the horrible thoughts and feelings that you’ve had, unleash on Him all of the dirtiness and sin that you’ve held inside for so long. He wants it all! He wants you to talk to Him. He can help you bear this heavy load. He is strong enough. When you get to this third step of confession, you are relinquishing control over to your heavenly Father. It is now in His hands, and they are big enough to cast your past into the largest ocean – never to be brought up again.

Admit, believe, and confess. It’s really that simple. There isn’t a magical prayer that gets you into Heaven. It’s just your real, raw emotion before the Lord. It’s the sincerity of your heart before the Lord. The vulnerability it takes to admit that you are a sinner. The faith it takes to believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and the courage it takes to confess the darkest parts of your hearts…it reveals your heart to God! Call upon His Name TODAY, and you will be saved! Salvation is immediate from the moment you call out.

Now, unfortunately sometimes we get caught up in feelings and vibes, and we might have this huge emotional conversion experience that feels like you’re on the top of mountain. Then a few days pass by, and it’s harder now. Your sin is tempting you to return back to your old ways, and your heart is drawn away from God. There are two possibilities for this scenario. First, the devil could be trying to upset you and make you doubt your salvation. Second, maybe it really was just an emotional high when you got “saved,” and it wasn’t a genuine conversion experience. How do you know the difference?

In my opinion, the coolest part about becoming a Christian is that God gifts you with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you. I think of it kind of like a better conscience. The Holy Spirit helps you to know the right thing to do in various situations, as well as convicts you of active sin in your life. So, let’s take a look at how this might work in a few different situations.

If you are a true Christian, you will feel incredibly guilty and wrong about having sex outside of marriage. The Holy Spirit will convict you of this sin, and it will become too great of a burden to continue to live in sin. So, your solution here would be to either get married, radically stop having sex until marriage, or get out of the relationship altogether.

Another example…lying. True genuine Christians won’t be okay with lying. Don’t misunderstand…they still CAN lie, but the conviction should be so severe that they do not WANT to. Even “little white lies” shouldn’t sit right within you.

One more – the way you dress. If your motive in the past for your outfits has been to be flashy and revealing, the Holy Spirit will grip your heart on this issue. The Holy Spirit will likely convict you and help your desire to dress modestly in order to save your dignity, as well as save that beauty for your future spouse.

I think that conviction of sin is the greatest indicator of true salvation because how could you be a child of God and yet go on living in sin? It doesn’t sit right with me. Again, we are all going to be continually living in sin because of the sinful nature of the world we live in, but that does not mean we are to be content with sin. No, rather we should be doing everything we can on a daily basis to clean up our lives and be more like Jesus Christ every. single. day.

There would also be signs in your life that you desire to love and serve the Savior more. The Lord changes the desires of our hearts when we accept Him. You will want to become a part of a church, and you will want to serve in that church (passing out bulletins, teaching children’s church, taking the nursery, cutting the grass, smiling and shaking hands). I have often wondered why people who have no interest in church think they will be happy in heaven. Think about it…heaven is a place to solely glorify, praise, & honor God, and you’ll be surrounded by other Christians, and there will be beautiful music…does it sort of sound like I’m describing church? Exactly! Of course, Heaven will also offer perfect harmony and community amongst all of us, but it’s seriously just all about God! So, use this as your sign to get involved in your local church! It is literally prep for Heaven!

Another popular way to present the message of salvation is by walking through the book of Romans. Sometimes this is called the “Romans Road.” I’m going to walk down this road with you quickly because this route offers specific Scripture verses, and I know there are many of you that are like my husband, and you want to see it in the Bible. So here we go – scriptural proof for how to accept your invitation to heaven.

First, understand that EVERYONE is a sinner.

“As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’” – ‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭10‬-‭12‬ (ESV)

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” – ‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭23‬ ‭(ESV)

Next, sin requires retribution.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23 (ESV)

Thirdly, God provided the solution.

“But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8 (ESV)

Then, admit you are a sinner, repent of your sin, and believe in Jesus.

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” – Romans 10:9-10

Finally, walk in the freedom of salvation!

“For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” – Romans 10:13

One last note…I pray with my whole entire being that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord & Savior because I want to spend eternity in heaven with you! However, it is important to remember that there is so much more to Jesus and what He has in store for you. Please don’t think this prayer is just a way out of an eternity in hell, because Jesus can do so much for you. He loves you. He wants to know you intimately. If you did accept Him today, please know that there is a literal celebration going on in heaven right now – the angels are ecstatic about your decision (and so am I)!!! I would encourage you to keep this fire LIT. Start reading the gospel of John and meet your Savior! Also, start checking out churches. Don’t wait…you need a Christian community around you ASAP.

I love you & so does Jesus!!!