Religious lives or not

ANYONE can go to Heaven, poor, rich, holy/unholy - all it takes is accepting God’s gift to mankind, Jesus Christ, and ask Him to come into your heart, your life - HE WILL !! - Here’s what I know to be true - God being pure cannot even look upon sin - man, even in his very best state is a sinner - on judgement day, either: your sins are covered by the blood-shed sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross (salvation and only salvation - being a nice person isn’t good enough - even at our very best, we are but filthy rags), and remembered no more or they are not (your sins are not covered) - where God’s great love comes into play is, He provided a WAY (Jesus) for us not to perish and live in Heaven with Him (He certainly didn’t have to do this but did because He loved us so) - if you read carefully John 3:16, this is exactly what it says - each person will either accept or reject, you must decide for yourself and yes, it’s so important, it has eternal consequences -He Loves you and wants you to accept God’s free gift to man - Jesus - look at this site and if you want to, pray the prayer: Http://WWW.Jesus-is-savior.Com/Basics/howtobesaved.htm

I wish you the best !!

Following the Christian rules isn’t what gets us into heaven. Because Jesus died for us, He has given the way into heaven for everyone who follows Him.

So yes, everyone sins. You can choose to be defeatist about that, and say, ‘Well, everyone sins so there’s no point in trying to be good’.

Or you can say, ‘I’m going to try really hard to be perfect, and when I can’t succeed, at least I’ll pretend to be perfect, and then maybe God will let me into heaven’. That’s pretty stressful and possibly hypocritical. It’s perhaps closest to the ‘religious life’ of your question title.

Or you can say, ‘Yes, Jesus, I’m sorry, I do sin. Please forgive me and be my Lord’, and then you have already got to heaven. Now you are trying to be good out of gratutide and pleasure, instead of fear. You also have the Holy Spirit in your life as a help and a conscience.

So the focus needs to be on Jesus in your life, not on a religious life or rules. It’s a pretty exciting life too. Not always easy - there is no promise that it will be happier or smoother than other lives. But you have that love and strength and forgiveness from Jesus all the way.

its not a matter of being holly or w/e it honestly depends on your heart and if you ask God to forgive you thats the difference

How can you be forgiven if you never ask?

silverwings, I don’t know any Christians who are free from ‘sin’, or even less ‘sinful’ than anyone else, so I don’t know how you can claim with a straight face that the Holy Spirit enables you to turn from ‘sin’.

When we come to Christ, he empowers us with the Holy Spirit. That enables us to turn from sin, and follow him. We are not left on our own, to battle sin. Sin has been defeated, by Christ, on the cross. The victory is ours to walk in.

Jesus gradually takes away our want to “to sin”. We find following him to be so rewarding, that we choose his way, over our way.

im a christian and we still do sin. all of us. but we ask god to forgive us. I mean even if you dont ask for forgiveness.. hmm lets sayy that you stole a piece of candy. you feel really guilty about it and decide to take it back but while going back into the store you get hit by a car. haha.. and you die.. you would be judged but its not going to keep you from going to heaven (if you are a christian) hope this helps :)

It’s better to realize heaven and hell don’t exist, and live your life according to enlightened self interest.