You must repent and ask Jesus to clean your heart-house, taking out everything that is unlike Him.  Only then will He come into your heart and He will help you keep it clean every day.  If you, through Christ, keep your heart clean, when He comes back or you die, you will be able to pass through the pearly gates into a joyous eternal life.

“Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?  He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart;…”  Psalm 24:3-4

It is important to build a heart house that will last until you reach heaven.  The only way to do this is to build according to God’s instruction, most of which comes to us directly from His Word.

We must consider the following:

1.  Your treasure must be in heaven in order for your heart house to be built in a way that will  last.

     Matthew 6:20-21 “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” 

2.  Jesus must be the foundation.  He is the only way to heaven.

     I Corinthians 3:10-11  “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.  But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

3.  Jesus will help our walls to be fitly framed.

     Ephesians 2:21  “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord:”

4.  God’s hand will be the roof to cover your head. You can’t get any better protection than this. 

     Exodus 33:22  “…and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:”

The Master-Builder, Christ, can build your heart house correctly in an instant, if you’ll let Him.  Then He must live in it and all sin must stay out.  Every day, Jesus will help us keep sin out.  In this way, we will have a strong heart house that will last until we reach heaven.

Building your character is like building a house.  Some people are buidling their characters with faulty bricks, such as complaining, selfishness, laziness, and disobedience.  At best, you will have a weak structure that, although it may look good on the outside, will fail to withstand the storms of life.  Instead it will quickily crumble and decay.

Are you building a weak character?  If so, you need to tear down this weak structure and start anew.  They best way to do this is to repent of your sins and give your heart and life to Jesus.  He can help us build good, strong characters with bricks like love, forgiveness, kindness, thankfulness, and obedience.  These are sound bricks that, if built upon the foundation of Christ,  will produce a good, solid structure that will last through every storm of life.  In the end, it will enable you to attain heaven.

“Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:”  Matthew 7:24 

Have a clear vision of the end product.

1. Have the proper building materials.
2. Have a knowledge of how to construct it.

This also applies spiritually.  In order to build your life on Christ so that you can reach heaven, you must do as follows:

1. Have a clear vision of the person Christ wants you to be and a goal to make heaven your home.
2. Have the proper instructions that will lead you to this end product.
3. Have a knowledge of these instructions and how to implement them.

Sometimes we have built our spiritual houses incorrectly.  We have built them with bad attitudes, hatred, lying, cursing, sin – random materials.  We haven’t used a proper plan or had a clear vision of what will produce good in our lives and what will enable us to reach heaven.  This will at best produce a weak structure that will not have what it takes to be approved of God or enable us to make heaven.

When we see that we have built a mess of our lives, we need to tear down the old structure and build a new one.

How is this done?

1. We must have a vision of heaven and of the good that God can make of us.
2. We must study his word, which instructs us on how to build our spiritual houses – how to be what God would have us to be so that we can attain heaven.
3. We must seek God and ask that he would reveal to us his will and way as we study his word.  We must ask him to show us how to implement these instructions in our lives each day so that we can become that spiritual house that he would have us to be.   If we consistently do this, we will be approved by God and will make heaven our home someday.

“Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”  Psalm 127:1

         Are you a sinner

                                              or a Christian?

• A Christian has God to trust in and rely upon; a sinner has only himself and other people.
• A Christian gains help and strength by reading the Bible; a sinner can only gain help by reading books and seeking counsel from the surrounding world.
• A Christian loves Jesus and treasures his relationship with his Savior above anything else in this world; a sinner loves this world and the things it can offer him.
• A Christian loves others even when it is hard to love them; a sinner will hate those who treat him unkindly.
• A Christian does not sin; a sinner cannot help but sin.
• A Christian dies and ascends to his eternal reward in heaven; a sinner must descend to eternal suffering in hell.

Life can be like a complex web.  It is not always easy and at times does not make sense to us.  Both sinners and Christians alike must suffer some of the same difficulties.  Sometimes we may feel depressed, things may go wrong, friends or family may die, and/or people may treat us badly.  All these things happen to both sinners and Christians.  However, when Christian prays to God for help, strength, comfort, and peace, he can have confidence that he will receive all of this and more from his loving Savior.  A sinner can only hope for help from those around him and so many times people fail him.  God never fails his children, who put their trust in him.  He is alway there to help them through every difficulty in life.

This life and the next is so much better when one is a true Christian.

Won’t you choose the better way?

“…choose you this day whom ye will serve;…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  Joshua 24:15

“Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repaid.”  Proverbs 13:21

“…that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  Philippians 1:6

It’s the same way with a Christian.  There is a recipe for becoming a Christian and remaining a Christian.  This recipe is found in God’s Word, the Bible.  Unless we follow the recipe found there, we will not end up with the product of a Christian.  We cannot add our own or someone’s ideas as to what we or others think is a Christian.

Several ingredients go into becoming a Christian.  Repentance is the very beginning.  We must ask God to forgive us of our sins and then turn away from all sin.  We must forgive others as Christ has forgiven us.  We must be humble and turn away from pride.  In order to remain a Christian, we must have the ingredients of staying humble, a closeness to God, thankfulness, possessing the love of God, and many others.  It is especially important to read the Bible and pray so God can continue to reveal to us this Christian recipe that will keep us saved and enable us to obtain eternal life in heaven.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”  John 14:6

Christian Recipe

1.  In all thy ways

2.  Acknowledge him

3.  And he shall

4.  Direct thy paths.

Proverbs 3:6

“A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”  Matthew 12:35

If you were a treasure box, what kind of treasures would come out of you?  Do unkind words, complaining, arguing, gossip, selfishness, or laziness come out of you?

If we are true Christians, we must be like Christ.  His treasures are love, joy, peace, mercy, compassion, kindness, thankfulness, and many other good character traits.  These traits are obtainable by everyone who truly gives their heart to Jesus and allows his Holy Spirit to rule their lives.  We must choose the good and reject the bad.  We must seek God with all of our hearts in casting away the bad treasure and claiming the good.  It is possible through the power of God.

This week, choose one trait that you would like to reject and a good one that you would like to incorporate into your life.  Prayerfully concentrate on adding the good and subtracting the bad.  This is so important in gaining eternal life and being a proper testimony of Christ to those who are lost in sin.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”  Galatians 5:22-23

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”  Galatians 5:24-25

“…If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” Mark 9:23

When we pray to God, it is important to be respectful, humble, and thankful.  We must not demand of God what we want.  It is fine to ask God for things that we need or want, but we should always thank God for what He has done for us and praise Him for his greatness and power.  We should also pray that He will help others besides ourselves.

Communication can become twisted when it is passed along as gossip and rumors.  God does not want us to gossip.  It is important to keep our communication clear and to the benefit of those around us.

“…the prayer of the upright is his (the Lord’s) delight.”  Proverbs 15:8

“Speak not evil one of another, brethren…”  James 4:11

The story was told of several people who took a timed test in a college class.  When the time was expired, one young man continued to work until his test was completed.  He took his test to the teacher, who informed him that the test was invalid since it wasn’t completed in the allotted time frame.  The young man merely replied that the teacher didn’t know him and mixed his test amongst all the others in order to confuse the teacher.

We can perhaps fool people, but we can never fool God.  We need to be honest before Him and own who we really are – He knows anyway – and seek His way of holiness and purity that we might obtain eternal life.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  Psalm 139:23-24