The Grand Prize

      There is one piece of mail that many of us have received and is not from the government.  It is the announcement that your name has been selected as a possible finalist in the grand prize of the Publisher's Clearing House.  All you have to do to be eligible is to follow their instructions, place all of the stamp indicators in their proper place, check certain boxes and then, you will be eligible to be a possible winner.  In my younger years, i did all of that a couple of times than it became clear that I would have a better chance of being hit by lightning while walking between the 9th and 10th hole of a golf course in Sweden on a Saturday in December than winning or even coming close to winning the Publisher's Clearing House.  There is, however, a Grand Prize that is far better than $5,000 a week for life for you and another person in your family.  The odds of winning this one hinge only on one condition.   Acts 16:30-31 says, 'And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?   And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. "  
     The way to heaven is given quite often in the Bible.  The information is accurate and simple to follow.  There can also be more than one Grand Prize.  In fact, the Grand Prize is offered to "Whomever."  The Jailer from Philippi asked the famous question of how he could be saved and got the simple answer.  That simple answer seems to have perplexed the world for centuries.  All they had to do was to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  That must really be difficult for many people because they go on searching for what seems to them to be a more plausible way of entering into heaven.  There are those who believe that you need to be born and die over and over again until you reach heaven.  Others will believe that you have to cross a certain river after you die and that the equipment in your tomb will help you get there.  Others just simply give up and place their Bible on the stack of Publisher's Clearing House Notices.  If you really want to know how to get to heaven, then just follow the instructions in Acts 16:31 or Ephesians 2:8-10 or Romans 10 and countless other sections of God's Word.  Perhaps the Bible can be summed up in four words.  Man's Problem, God's Solution.  I know that is over simplification, but the answer is plain.  No special degrees are necessary nor giving records from the church or your baptismal certificate will suffice.  Review once again what Paul said as an answer to that profound question:  "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."  Praise God today that the offer is out there for all to accept.