May 15, 2026
Today is a new day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.
Last night I listened to a podcast that quoted where the Lord says “Away from me, I never knew you” at the gates of heaven. The narrator asked if that would be the listener. That verse involves a sense of fear. What if Jesus said that to me when I die?
But I reminded myself that it was my pre-salvation state. I believed in Jesus as probably the way to get to heaven, after all, I went to church with my parents growing up. When a born-again believer asked me if I was going to heaven, I said yes because I was a pretty good person. Shortly after that I tried praying, something I had not seriously done since I was a child, and I ended the prayer “in the name of Jesus” like I heard my born again friend say at the end of her prayer.
Within a few days I found I was changing. The following week I told that friend that I thought I was born again. She asked if I was or wasn’t. I answered I was.
Shockingly it was like blinders came off my eyes. I saw my selfishness and my sin. I was not a pretty good person at all. The world was also under a spell of spiritual darkness that I could clearly see for the first time. It was startling to realize this and I began telling my friends. They did not believe me.
It has been 40 years since that revelation. I have shared the truth with many others and a few even put their faith in Jesus and began their own relationship with him. In truth, it’s been a rocky ride at times, whenever I went after fleshly desires of the world rather than following Jesus completely. But He is faithful and always calls me back.
I know when I stand before him when I die to this earthly life, I will not say, “Lord, didn’t I do all these works in your name?” I will say, “I am completely dependent upon your sacrifice, Jesus, for my salvation.” “Any good I did in this life was because of the gifts you gave me, and because of you.”
That is how I know I will be able to enter heaven. It is not my works but His.