God's Wake Up Call.

Hebrews 10:26-31
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

As I'm getting more and more involved in my faith, I realize that it's not possible for God to save and redeem everyone if they just say a little prayer asking God into their heart. Still, I don't want you to think that in order to be a Christian you have to follow a laundry list of rules. There's really not much to it. However, you do have to accept God and do as he would do, and do so full heartedly.

Not to scare you, but this passage tells us that God WILL judge us. That judgment can involve either conviction or vindication. The judgment in this particular passage has a connotation of conviction and condemnation. You've heard the saying, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when...Well, it's not a matter of if a person will be judged by God, but it's a matter if their judgment will lead to conviction or vindication. In the book of Deuteronomy, he says the "wicked will be condemned."

The book of Hebrews indeed mentions that our judgment is in our own hands and the decision is ours: we must, one or the other, accept or reject the Son of God. The tricky part is that we can't just go a little bit one way and a little bit of the other. That means, don't just go to church because it's the right thing to do. Prepare your heart for the experience. Get into the right mindset. Be accepting toward the loving and merciful God so that when you are judged in the end of time, God will justify and support you for living up to his word.