Change of Heart

So, with Easter fast approaching, I have a question for you.  If you died today, would you go to heaven?  If your answer to this is yes, then my next question is, why?  Think about that for just a minute.  No seriously, take a minute and figure out why, if you died today, would you go to heaven?  Is it because you've been good?  Is it because you think you are a nice person?  Maybe because you go to church every week, or almost every week?  Is it because it scares you to think you wouldn't?
I have to admit there was a long period in my life where my answer was one of these, if not all of these.  I would go to church every week and while I wasn't a perfect person, I surely was a nice person with good morals.  Why wouldn't I go to heaven, right?  Well, after living a "good life" for many years, I started to feel like something was missing.  Something spiritually that is.  My answer, go to church more!  Surely if you are lacking spiritually you should be able to find the answer at church.  Unfortunately, I figured out pretty quickly that church wasn't the answer.  I'm not saying don't go to church, but I am saying that what I was lacking, couldn't be found at church... not the church I was going to anyway.  That's when God sent a special person in my life that started to educate me about God and the Bible.  Yes, I went to Sunday school all growing up, but I started to learn things that weren't even touched on in Sunday school... or at least I never paid attention to.  Did you know that in the Old Testament (before Christ came) that every time you sinned against God you had to sacrifice an animal?  No joke! And not just any animal, it had to be the best, not the one that was laying in the corner about to die anyway.  Why?  Because man was sinful and God couldn't be around sin.  Can you imagine how many animals you would have killed in a lifetime?  I'll choose not to share my projected number with you right now :)  I also started to learn more about Jesus.  The funny thing was, when it came to Jesus, I already knew a lot about him: he was perfect, he performed miracles, he was beaten and hung on a cross, he died a horrible death, he rose three days later, he will return one day to judge those on earth... yeah, yeah, yeah, I knew all of that.  What I started to realize though, is that while I had a lot of head knowledge, I didn't have the heart.  Jesus was a man that I'd learned a lot about, but I'd never really ACCEPTED HIM.  Let me say it this way... the knowledge, is that God can't be around sin (remember the animals in the Old Testament), so he sent Jesus to be the PERFECT sacrifice.  Perfect meaning, Jesus never sinned and led a perfect life.  He died perfect, for us sinners, so that we wouldn't have to sacrifice anything again, it was finished.  So, through Jesus' death and resurrection our sins are forgiven, God sees us as perfect because of Jesus, and we can be with God in heaven. That's the knowledge.  The heart comes from making that personal.  Inserting YOUR name in all the "we's" and "us's" above and realizing what scum I really am without Christ!!!! 
So what's the real answer to the question, "If you died today, would you go to heaven?".  Well, if I have to answer that, then you weren't paying very close attention.  I'll give you a hint though... it is free, and all you have to do is say a prayer and make it personal.  My boys did that a couple of weeks ago.  Said a prayer and made it personal.  Do I think they fully understand it at ages 6 and 4?  Probably not, but at least they realize they need Jesus.  Do you?