What happends when you die?

Pastor was talking in Church today about fear and how great that fear is when you don't know where you are going when you die. I was remembering back to that point in my life before I was saved. I was about 8 years old and I was thinking about what would happen when I died. I had heard people talk about many different things. My parents were never practicing Christians. Dad was Catholic and Mom was Baptist, but neither one talked about what would happen when we died. I knew the typical answer was, "Well if you were good, you were going to heaven." But I didn't know if that was true or not. If people were just making it up or whatever. The more I thought about it, the more it scared me. Imagine, being 8 years old, and thinking about dying, if you died not knowing what would happen to you or where you would go. My worst fear, was it was an eternal sleep, as some reffered to it, and I would have dreams and nightmares for eternity with no way of waking up or getting away from them. Talk about scary. But then one day, years later, I found out the truth. I learned about Jesus. How God sent his son, Jesus, into this world just to save me. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 That day, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I believed in Him as the Christ and the one who came here to save me. Now, I have no fear. For the scripture says to not fear, but have faith. I now know where I am going when I die...do you?

"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the Lord is the Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Romans 10:9-13

Do you know Jesus? Is he the Savior of your life? Do you know where you would go if you were to die today? You may say, "Well I am a good person, so I am definetly going to heaven." Or, "I serve in the Church and do all these great things, so I know my place in Heaven is saved." I tell you, it is not by works that gets you into heaven, but by God's grace and faith in Jesus Christ.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:23

As Christmas day comes, remember the reason for that day. Jesus Christ was born into this world to one day save us from the fate which, so deservingly, awaited us. Jesus Christ, God's only son. Let us remember and rejoice. And if you don't know him, get to know him...before it's too late...