My pastor Frank Wray was fond of saying how humans like to plan - especially in the western civilization.
We plan from the time we are young: where we are going to college, what we will study there, what kind of person we will marry, where we will live and what kind of house we will live in, how many children we will have, if we get fortunate, how we might get a vacation house or a boat or an RV, how we will save for our retirement, where we will retire and then we repeat this by becoming the counselors for our children and grandchildren and what they will study and become and so on.
But how many really plan on where they will spend eternity? A lot of people kick the can down the road.
Speaking of cans, a friend named Denny Empie started a soda survey where he’d give out a free can of soda at a public event just for filling out a survey entitled, "What is REQUIRED to Get to Heaven?"
Over 90% would not get the answer correct from a biblical point of view.
To digress, it would seem unfair for God to leave to serendipity where you and I would spend eternity. The genius of the Denny’s soda survey is that it showed that people can plan on where they are going spend eternity as sure as they plan all the other things in their lives.
The correct answer on Denny’s Soda Survey is that the sole requirement for going to heaven is a sincere confession of our sins, a recognition that Jesus paid the price for our iniquities and that his Good Friday sacrifice cleanses us and makes us righteous before a holy God.
There is no other way.
Denny Empie recently went to be with The Lord. His assurance of an eternal home wasn’t based on anything he did, it was based on what Jesus did for him.
It’s unlikely that there is soda in heaven. But it is very likely that there will be some people there who received a soda from Denny. And it will be their turn to extend their hands to Denny as a way of saying “Thanks.”
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: Portals open up through truth whether in a soda survey or a conversation that doesn’t beg the question, “Where are you going to spend eternity?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us…while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son... John 14:6 NIV, Romans 3:23 NIV, Romans 5:8,10 NIV