From the Home Place

October 14, 2025

A few years back, I started watching videos of a certain horse. He belongs to a lady that I consider to be my little sister, and as such, she and her horse have always been special to me. I watched video after video of Opus winning contest after contest. In my eyes he was a star! Then one day, I finally had the opportunity to see him in person. He was in a stall at a large horse show where he was competing.

I had been given clear instructions as to where this wonder horse was stalled, and that she would be showing another horse at the time we were set to arrive. As such I was to follow the directions and introduce myself to a horse I had longed to meet. I followed the instructions, walked down the long alley of stalls, each containing a beautiful horse, but none containing the horse I had come to see. Something wasn’t quite right, maybe someone else had him out for some exercise, maybe I had misunderstood the instructions???

The reality was, I had walked past the horse, twice. The horse that I had waited years to meet, the horse that I had watched in dozens of videos, the horse that I knew I knew, I didn’t recognize. I walked right past him, looking for him. I didn’t recognize the anointed one I was searching for.

The same thing that happened to me, also happened to the Jewish religious leaders during biblical times. Most of them didn’t recognize the Messiah (the Christ), whom they had waited for generations to meet, when Jesus stood in their presence. Because Jesus didn’t fit their pre-conceived notion of what He was to look like, Jesus didn’t do what they thought He would do, because Jesus came on the scene in a way they didn’t think He would, they too walked right past their Anointed One.

Per our topic on Heaven, I fear that many will do the same as the Jewish leaders awaiting their Messiah, and the same that I did awaiting a special horse, I fear that many will miss the door to Heaven because of their preconceived ideas.

Some folks think that being good will get them into Heaven. Others think that because God is so kind, He will allow everyone to enter. Some are determined that because their membership is in a certain church, they will be allowed in. Yet others think that if they give enough money, or if they serve the “less fortunate,” God somehow owes them entrance into Heaven. The reality is that folks with such ideas will walk right past Heaven’s door, while they are looking for it.

OK, lets understand one primary principal – Heaven is where GOD is. After all, if a person has even a smattering of religion in their life, they have most likely prayed, “Our Father who art in Heaven…” The entire Bible is filled with page after page informing us that Heaven is the abode GOD, yet many will walk right past the entrance, while they are looking for the entrance.

In John 14:6, Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one come to the Father but through Me.” Jesus is “the way,” the door, the entrance into Heaven, but most religious people of our day will miss finding Him because of their preconceived notions of what the entrance into Heaven looks like.

In Colossians 3:1-4, we are told twice to keep our focus upon “things above.” Why? Because if we lose our focus upon Heaven, we are quite apt to walk right past it, all the time looking for a different door than the One GOD has provided for us.

Even a good Jewish leader of the Old Testament would have told us that there is only one Messiah and that there will be only one way to enter into His presence – obedience. But then they would have told you that not only do you have to obey God’s holy Law, but you also have to obey their man-made laws.

Loved ones, may we not allow man-made ideas keep us from finding Heaven. Please, do not allow your preconceived ideas of how to get into Heaven keep you from finding the “One” who is “the way” into Heaven. Accept Jesus as your Savior, and when your time is up, He will take you directly to your Father who is in Heaven. For you see, if we keep our “eyes fixed upon the author and the perfector of faith,” we have already found Heaven’s door!

Keeping a biblical focus with you, Neal