The Kingdom of Heaven

There are so many books that are coming out about heaven and peoples' experiences  ' while they died for a short time'  and  these books  attract the most attention and sell the most. Recently a friend of mine gave me her old Kindle. There were so many of those books there with different titles; "5 minutes in heaven" ,
"2 minutes beyond the body", and many many more of that type. As I listened to some of them one thing struck me the most. People are talking about their experience while seeing heaven , seeing all their relatives but not seeing God, not seeing Jesus. What kind of hope these books give to you? I wondered. Knowing that heaven is for real  should be our hope? Of course there are so many people who are looking for any sign of life beyond the grave and these  books might give some evidence -yes- there is a sign, somebody experienced death and saw heaven. Personal experience , but how much of it is true? Don't satisfy your faith  by only believing in heaven. The Bible tells us clearly such place exists, there is no secret, Jesus Himself talked about it many times; " my Father in heaven",
"(...) there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents (...) Luke 15;7
"But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Act 7;55-56

These are just a few examples of reading  in the Bible that there is a place called heaven. The thing is we should be more concerned about whether we are on the way to it or not!
 Just believing in heaven doesn't make a person saved, knowing how the place looks like doesn't either.
Jesus said “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it."
  Luke 16;16
He also says; "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
Matthew 7;21
We read here about two important things; " everyone forces his way into it" and that  " not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter it.
Our concerns should be whether we are doing the will of the Father who is in heaven. Some people weren't sure what does it mean and asked Jesus;
" Therefore they said to Him, What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
John 6;28-29
If you already heard what the Bible talks about salvation, how to be saved you will see it is all in agreement with the verse above; "believing in Him whom He ( Father) sent" which is believing in His Son Jesus Christ.
 He said in many ways how we should respond to Him;    "come to me" " repent",
"Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that believes on me has everlasting life." John 6;47
"You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,  yet you refuse to come to me to have life." John 5;39-40
He is a point. Without coming to Jesus we can't have everlasting life, we can't get to  heaven.
When we come to Him, then we will understand how much He did for us, we will understand the significance of the cross and His blood shed for our sin. That will open the way.
Heaven is for people who came to Jesus, who responded to His call.
Jesus said  to those who believe in Him
" And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." John 14;3
He doesn't say this to the whole world, to people who go to church or trying to work  their way to heaven by good deeds. No such thing.
The verse 1 of John 14  says " Believe in God, believe also in Me". You have to be a believer in Jesus. You have to know the way to heaven . And the way is Jesus.
"You know the way to the place where I am going.” He said;.
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14;6
One day Jesus told people a parable about the Kingdom of  Heaven.The end of that story is really interesting.
"The Kingdom of heaven is like a King who arranged a wedding for his son..."
 The king prepares the banquet  He wants us to be His guests  He sends out an invitation  and with that invitation he provides the proper wedding clothes. Then the wedding day comes. The guests arrive . There the man enters who is not properly dressed. He is asked why he is dressed like that.? Did he not get an invitation? Yes, he received an invitation, in fact " I was asked to come so I came". Why then did he not put  on the proper wedding clothes? Did he not receive the clothes with the invitation? Yes, he received the clothes but  but was it really necessary for him to wear them? Was` it not far more important  that he was here  and had accepted the invitation? After all, the King did invite him.
Then just the King arrives. And that is what they have all been waiting for, to see the king. A silence  falls over the assembly. The king spots the man not properly dressed.
" How  did you come in here?" he asked  " Without being properly dressed for the wedding? The man stumbles  about for words , but can  find none.
 " Tie him up and throw him into darkness outside. There will be weeping and gnashing teeth"
The end for that person is really terrifying
.
You can not  play with  God's invitation. You can not come shamelessly with  your sins on you. You need to humble yourself. Your sins have to be ashed away, so your clothes are white. That can only happen if you come to Jesus and receive His forgiveness. Somebody said " You can not play a little game with the grace of God."   You either received it or not. You might know a lot about heaven, read lots of books, forced your way into it, but the question of the King will stop you. " How  did you come in here?" " Where are your clean clothes?" You might be disappointed  about heaven if you newer knew Jesus.
The King of the universe invites you.
The Kingdom of Heaven is for those  who" have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."