My mother, who is 88 years old, and I were out for a drive the other day. We have our house listed for sale, and the buyers were going to view our home for about half an hour.
We passed by a tattoo shop and I jokingly asked my mom if she would like to get a tattoo. She immediately looked at me and said, “No, God does not like tattoos!” She is a very devout Christian, as you can tell by her answer.
She then told me a story about a pastor associated with her church long ago who had tattoos. He tried desperately to get them removed but was unsuccessful. I asked her what had happened to the pastor. “Is he going to hell? I asked with a smirk on my face.” She didn’t say no to my question but explained how maybe God would forgive him.
I said, “Yeah. Christians won’t know if their sins are really forgiven until judgment day.”
“But, Jesus died on the cross for our sins,” she reminded me.
“Yes, but only for those who believe in him according to John 3:16. So, why is Jesus coming back to judge us?” I wasn’t trying to be a smart ass. Well, maybe a little.
“It’s a two-step process,” I explained. “First, you have to decide for yourself if you are a believer or not. And if you think that you’ve done all those things that Jesus said to do, the red-letter parts of the Bible, then you can assure for yourself that you are a believer and have been saved. Then when Jesus decides to come back, he’ll tell you whether or not you’ve been saved. He will allow you to enter the narrow gate. Am I not correct?”
She looked at me funny. I didn’t say anymore. We drove around a while longer. I picked up sushi from our local Kroger on the way home.
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