How many 'heaven miles' does it take?

Hi all, this is Juan. I have recently learned a HUGE spiritual lesson. My friend Marc has learned this truth during his time in Egypt so far, and it had to be explained to him a few times before he understood it, and he had to explain it to me a few times before I could understand it. It is so simple, yet it reveals that most of us may be living our spiritual lives backwards. I hope I get this message across...

Christine and I were asked to talk to the youth here in Egypt. I gave a short talk about bikya, which is a new fun word I learned that means junk. You see, every morning, a man walks around our neighborhood yelling bikyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. He's buying and selling people's junk, like a walking garage sale. The morning of the day we were giving the talk, I was listening to the book "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne - AN AWESOME AWESOME BOOK. I've only read the first 3 chapters and I've been blown away. Seriously, go buy this book. Chapters might have it, iTunes definitely does. BTW the intro is lame, so skip it. Anyways, my homie Shane was talking about the miracles that Jesus did. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, yet some years later, Lazarus died again of old age. Jesus healed the sick, but most likely, those people got sick again sometime later. Jesus fed 5000 with 5 fish and 2 loaves of bread, but all those people were hungry the next day. Shane's point is that the beauty of Jesus is NOT that He performed miracles...the beauty of Jesus is that HE SHOWED PEOPLE LOVE. St Paul says that even if you have the power to move mountains, yet have not love, you have bikya.

SO, WHATEVER GOOD WORKS YOU DO, THEY MUST BE DONE OUT OF LOVE, AND NOT IN ORDER TO EARN GOD'S LOVE NOR TO GET INTO HEAVEN, FOR THESE THINGS HAVE ALREADY BEEN GIVEN TO YOU.

Again, no works that you do can get you into Heaven. How can we possibly earn enough 'heaven miles' to make it to Heaven? We can't, but Jesus died so that we could inherit The Kingdom of Heaven. His death GAVE us The Kingdom as a gift. It is like my marriage to Christine: Christine has given me her heart. Nothing I can do can help me earn her love - I already have it - it is a gift. Without this understanding, I would spend my days trying to do good things for her in order to earn her love....but we are already married, so it doesn't make sense, or even seem possible. Instead, I am free to love her and everything I do for her is purely out of love for her. Likewise, God's love and The Kingdom have been given to us as a gift. We are now free to love Him and do everything out of love for Him.

You might have to read that a few times before it clicks, but when it does, MAN, what a relief!!! No longer do I feel the pressure of having to do countless deeds in order to get to Heaven. The love I have for my Father is all that is needed. That love will produce the spiritual fruit that was always discussed in our youth meetings at Church. Marc always used to tell me to 'seek The Father, not His house'. I never understood that until now.