Ever since I saw the movie Top Gun at 15 years old, I wanted to fly jet airplanes. At 23 years old, my life’s dream was about to become a reality. I was in my last semester at the university and a few months away from being sent to flight school to become a Marine Corps aviator. I was “soaring high” being on the verge of achieving my lifelong dream, but strangely, at the same time, I felt empty and unfulfilled inside.
I believed that I was going to Heaven because I believed in God and was a good person. However, the desire to know God personally and have a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ began to stir in my heart. I knew God was real, but He was not real to me. So, I started attending a weekly Bible study on campus that led to several one-on-one Bible studies with the group leader. Imagine my surprise when I learned from the Bible that I was not going to Heaven as I thought but rather, I was on the road to Hell. Let me explain using God’s Law the 10 Commandments.
How many lies have I told in my life? Too many to count. That made me a liar and the Bible says that all liars will have their part in the Lake of Fire (Rev. 21:8). I had used God’s name in cursing and showing disgust many times. That is blasphemy and it is so serious that the Bible says, “The LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” (Ex. 20:7). Did I ever take something that did not belong to me, regardless of its value? Yes. That made me a thief and the Bible says that a thief cannot enter God’s kingdom (1 Cor. 6:10). Jesus said that looking on someone else with lust is adultery in the heart. Every time I looked at pornography or looked on someone with lust, that made me an adulterer. The Bible says that fornicators and adulterers will not enter the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9). These are only 4 of God’s 10 commandments. God’s Law showed me that I was a lying, blasphemous, thieving, adulterer at heart and I had to face God on Judgment Day. Would I be guilty or innocent? Guilty for sure! Would I go to Heaven or Hell?
Before I started studying the Bible, I would have answered Heaven because I thought that a loving God would never send anyone to Hell except for really bad people like Hitler. However, God’s 2nd Commandment warns against idolatry which is making a god that suits oneself instead of the One the Bible teaches about. You see, “a loving God who would never send anyone to Hell”, and “who does not mind a white lie here or there” and is ok with a little lust as long as you “look but do not touch” DOES NOT EXIST! He was figment of my imagination. I was also guilty of idolatry.
I knew I was “sinner” but, in my mind, I thought “so was everyone else in the world; nobody is perfect”. That is like driving down the highway where everyone is going 80 mph in a 55 mph zone. I’m thinking, “Everyone is doing it so it must be o.k.”, that is until I see the red lights in my mirror and the police pull me over for speeding. At that moment, I understand that just because everyone else was speeding, that it was not an excuse to break the law. I was speeding. I was guilty of breaking the law.
In the same way, I now realized that just because “everyone is a sinner” was not going to be an acceptable excuse before God on Judgment Day. God was going to find me, a lying, blasphemous, thieving, adulterer at heart GUILTY! Not only that but God’s place of punishment for the guilty is the “prison” of Hell. I now realized that not only was I guilty before God, but that I was going to Hell as well. At that moment, I saw my need for a Savior to deliver me from the penalty of my sin in Hell.
Then I understood the significance of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. God made a way where His justice and His goodness could meet. Man broke the Law, but He became a man to pay the fine. Jesus suffered and died on the cross to satisfy the Law. God can forgive us and grant us the gift of eternal life if we obey the gospel that is by humbling ourselves, turning away from our sins in repentance, and receiving the gift of eternal life by trusting Jesus Christ alone as you would trust a parachute before jumping out of a plane.
I knew I was a lost, hell-bound sinner. I knelt in prayer and admitted to God that I was a hell-deserving sinner and I turned away from my sin in repentance and by faith received the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. The “chains of sin” fell off, and from that moment on, I no longer desired my previous lifestyle. He changed my life, and I wanted to live for Him. I thought my life’s dream was to fly jet airplanes, but instead, I discovered my real purpose was to know God and have a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. That dream became a reality for me on February 26, 1995.
Friend, it is a fact of life that we must all die one day. From that point on, we will be in either Heaven or Hell forever. If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity? You have an appointment to stand before God. Are you prepared to give an account of your life to God? Jesus Christ is your only way of making it to Heaven. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Please contact me if you are interested in learning from the Bible how to know God personally and have a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. I have FREE resources available to help you. Email me at jntlange@gmail.com or text me at 701-491-2199. You can also visit the “7 Steps to God” website at www.7stepstogod.org or the Finding Hope Ministry at www.bbministry.org/FindingHope.