John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates me hates my Father as well.

I have been thinking about our pathway to heaven a lot lately. Some theologians would say that Jesus is the only way to heaven, as per the Bible. I would tend to agree, as long as someone or something in our lives has caused us to cross pathways with Jesus. Ask me a few days ago, and I would even have said that for those who have not had a chance to hear about Jesus, He is still the only way to salvation. But then... this scripture: "If I had not come and SPOKEN to THEM..." Well, we know Jesus speaks through all the people converted to Christianity and that we (said Christians) are supposed to take the gospel to all nations. Here, Jesus is saying that He came and people heard of Him. So, if they have heard of Him and chose not to believe or dig deeper to figure out if they believe, then there is no excuse. They had their chance. But when He said "them" did He mean all of the world after His death and resurrection? Or did He mean only the people who have actually heard of Him somehow?

Does that even matter? We know that the Bible says we have all rejected God (when Adam first sinned). We also know that the Bible says that somehow, some way during our lives, God reveals Himself to each one of us, verbally, spiritually, through His awesome creation... somehow. But then, we choose not to worship God (the Creator of heaven and earth). We choose to live for ourselves--hence, our need for a Savior. So, then the question is: if we reject God in the first place, does it matter if we never hear about the saving grace of Jesus? Is a rejection of God the Creator without knowledge of Jesus equivalent to rejecting Jesus?

Either way, we are left with those who have definitely heard of Christ, been taught of His saving power and then choose to live without Him. Believe me, life is not all peaches and cream after we choose Jesus. In fact, He said our lives might be hard, we might be persecuted for our belief in Him (as are many who live outside the USA, and as many have been throughout the history of Christianity). But He also said our reward would be eternity in Heaven with Him. I'll take that. And I will also hold onto the call to take the gospel into all the world. I am still figuring out what that looks like for me. But my desire is to see people know the saving grace of Jesus... and since I know that is His desire as well I want to figure out how best to do my part.

To all of you reading this: I love you very much. I know some of you I have not seen in years and others I see and talk to all the time. You are my heart. I hope you feel the love of Jesus through me, that you have seen me become better because of Him and that you all know how much He loves you... and that He came for YOU.