Is Money The Key to Heaven?
Amy Lee always assumed rich people were more likely to go to heaven.
She thought that a rich person had the opportunity to do more good works and therefore had a greater chance of getting through those “pearly gates.”
Attending a Christian high school in South Korea, Amy naturally surrounded herself with Christians. Still, Amy did not fully comprehend that it was not by her good works, but by the gift of grace through faith in Jesus alone that she could inherit eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
“I always thought that heaven and Jesus were not directly related,” Amy says. “I thought the only way to get to heaven was if I acted kindly toward others.”After traveling to America to further her education at the University of Texas, Amy got involved with Bridges, Cru’s international student outreach. She met Meagin Goff, a Bridges staff member, and Febby Rudolf, a Bridges intern, for a weekly Bible study.
“Every week she would ask some really profound questions about things and was just really insightful about what the Bible was saying,” Meagin says. “I could tell it was really moving in her heart.”
Sitting outside Starbucks, reading the Bible had become a weekly routine for Amy.
However, one Thursday was different.
Amid the congestion and commotion on campus, Amy sat motionless, shocked by something she had just read.
In Mark 10:25, Amy read that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. For the first time, she realized that nothing she ever did would be good enough to get her into heaven.
Sitting across the table, Febby assured Amy that it is by grace we are saved, not good works. There at Starbucks, Amy prayed and received Christ.
“At that moment, I felt like I was free,” Amy says, “Believing in Jesus and having that access to eternity really freed all of my concerns and worries. Even though I still worry a lot about my life and my future, as a whole, I know that God will lead me to a place where I should be, where He wants me to be.”
Do you want to know how you can be free, like Amy? Learn how to enter into a relationship with God.
What’s your story? Did you become a Christian through Cru or any ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ? If so, tell us more at stories@cru.org.
