To Truly Be Saved....

The Bible says in order to be "Saved" this is what you need:If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (NIV) Romans 10:9.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – (NIV Ephesians 2:8
       So in order to be saved we need to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Our Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.  Many times this can get taken out of context.  It is very easy to open your mouth and say "Jesus is Lord" People will want to say that so they can get their ticket to Heaven.  The truth is that God looks at our heart, and that is something you cannot hide from God.  You can say it from your mouth but not believe it in your heart, and if that is the case, then you are not saved.  Once you actually believe it in your heart, the true transformation happens.  You have to fall in love (head over heels in love) with Jesus and realize what he did for YOU!!!  You were going to hell, You were going to have seperation from God for ETERNITY!!  But because of Jesus dying for YOU and suffering for YOU, you can spend ETERNITY with God.  God needed a blood sacrifice, in the Old Testament the way to pay for your sins was always through sacrificial animal sacrifice with blood.  So in order for the new covenant, there needed to be a blood sacrifice, so Christ was the sacrifical lamb for our sins.  If you were the only person on this earth, (population: 1) Christ would of went to the cross just so you would be able to go to Heaven!  Once people actually understand that, they understand they NEED Christ, it isn't a choice anymore.  They NEED Him EVERYDAY, EVERYSECOND.  That is where in your heart you actually believe what he did for you and that he was raised from the dead.
      There are points in my life when i was an early believer and actually thought i was saved, but as i matured into a mature christian i really wasn't.  So it is so important to actually understand this, and appreciate what God did for you.  We are all sinners and fall short of the Glory of God, but because of Christ, we can be with God forever.
       I imagine this: when we die, we are standing infront of Gods Throne, and we can stand their boldly because of what Christ did for us.  We can look over to the right of the Gods Throne and see Jesus standing there with his blood scarred hands and understand that we were bought and only there because of his sacrifice.  Man, do I love the Lord and I cannot wait to do an indepth study of Christ in "Experiencing the Heart of Jesus" and truly get to fall more in love with Our Savior.