I was recently asked by a close friend, “When I die where will I go?
Will I enter the pearly gates of heaven, or end up down below?”
I asked if he had accepted Jesus Christ as his savior — did he know?
“Yes,” he told me, “many years ago. But, in my life it sure didn't show.”

I told him that if you truly accepted Jesus you were then “born again.”
You were adopted into the family of God and forever since then.
God doesn't cast you out of the family when you sin, because sin we all do.
Some religions preach that you can lose your salvation, that is not true.

It's like your own family, when your kids do something wrong
You don't cast them out of the family and tell them they no longer belong.
No! You still love them, and care and hope and pray they will repent.
God, our loving Father, loves us and knows how and why astray we went.

He is like the father of the Prodigal son in the Bible, always watching for his son.
His love for him didn't change because of what he had done.
When we go astray and don't live our lives as we all know we should,
A true “born againer” will enter those pearly gates of heaven, I hope that's understood.