Home | Stories | Praise & Prayer | Who Am I?
How To Earn Your Way To Hell
 
By NiteOwlDave
Perhaps the above statement—that one can earn his way to eternal damnation in a literal, horrifying Hell—sounds totally absurd.
We've all heard of the suggestion that one can earn his way to Heaven.
Well, here's how a person can guarantee he will wind up in Hell after drawing his last breath on earth.
1. Be born a robust, blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby into a fine, upstanding family.
2. Grow up healthy and turn out to be a model kid.
3. Earn straight "A's" throughout high school and college
4. Avoid drugs and the other pitfalls of youth.
5. Captain the football teams; excel in chess.
6. Be voted "Most Liked" and rack up a trunk load of scholastic and sports' honors.
7. Spend an hour a day reading for the blind.
8. Be loyal to the homecoming queen and other lookers who hang from your arm until you marry Miss Perfect upon completing college, debt-free.
9. Quickly march up the corporate ladder without trampling on anyone.
10. Correctly raise your 2.5 children, assisting them with schoolwork and serving as an-always-there, listening, assistant coach.
11. Attend your community church every Sunday. Become an active deacon and applaud your wife's work in all her church-related activities.
12. Volunteer on numerous community-betterment committees.
13. Be named "Man of the Year" in your community in a landslide vote.
14. Be kind, gentle, forgiving, and a friend to all.
15. At age 78, die quietly in your sleep after a healthy, productive life.
16. Over 3,000 people attend your funeral and a statue in your memory is erected in the park.
You wind up in Heaven, right?
Wrong! Dead wrong!
You pushed all the right buttons in life and assumed it was good enough for God.
A major goof!
You failed to acknowledge that you were a sinner before God.
Your life was quite sterling, but you were born a sinner and you did rack up a few sins by your own choice.
The Bible points out that:
"All our good works are as filthy rags... that all have sinned."
The only sinless man was Jesus Christ who took on our sins when He died for us and rose again.
We each must admit we are a lost sinner, and ask Christ for His forgiveness, which He freely offers to all who will ask.
Romans 10:13 states:
"Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved."
Have you called?
Living an upstanding life is admirable.
Accepting God's free gift of salvation completes it.