Ponder this brief study with your heart, mind, will and emotion.  Consider the changes in your life short term and the long term effects that can take effect.  Consider God's Word and promises that WILL come to pass because of your choices each day.  

            "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

            The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life—only to take it up again. John 10:17        

The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:25 

            Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19 

Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said: "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father's glory with the holy angels."  Mark 8:34-38

            Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves Me must follow Me; and where I am, My servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves Me.  john 12:23-26

This may sound drastic, but drastic measures are needed to enter the kingdom of heaven!!  The war for your soul and mine is very real and dangerous.  The stakes are eternal.  Never take for granted that the pleasures of this world are eternal.  They are not.  They are temporal.  The pleasure of this world can be just a lure for hell when they are meant to be a glorification of God and an invitation for each of us to have a relationship with living God Creator based on His Son Jesus.  

“For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.   For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” Romans 1:20, 21,18,19  

The entry out of this earth and into heaven is through a very narrow door.  It is in the shape of Jesus Himself. John 14:6  And it IS Possible, for all things are possible with God.     Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  John 14:6  Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." Mark 10:27  

So who will you trust with your soul, with your eternal life?  Yourself, other people, or Jesus alone?  How will you exemplify   your faith, your choice, and your heart’s desire??  

            26"So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 

            32"Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns Me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. 

            34"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn " 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - 36a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'    37"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.  39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.   Matt 10:26-39

The Word of God, Jesus the Christ  = John 1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.  3Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.  14The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, Who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 17grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, Who is at the Father's side, has made Him known. 29The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world! Jn1:1-3,14,17-18, 29