Sing it Loud

Stupid unmarked borders...had to click 3 or 4 times before I could conclude that my keystrokes were resulting in text being entered into this blogpost.   rrrrrr

ANYWay....I was just going through my thoughts and just really got thinking.  An old Facebook friend said his atheism stems from a discomfort in wondering if he was pleasing to God.  I have to say, I sometimes wonder the same thing.  The simple fact, I've concluded, is that most of the time, what I do is not pleasing to God, but it's not necessarily unpleasing to God.  True, there's times I feel like I've overspent my free time on stuff that is by no means productive, but that doesn't mean I'm doomed or anything.  If you truly want to know if you're pleasing to God, A) realize that you ARE inherently evil and everything you do right is going to be tainted in some way B) Read Jesus' commands.  A good chunk of The Old Testament is not meant to be a morality study.  It's essentially THE LAW.  The Jews had an opportunity to adhere to it by the last detail, but they'd chosen not to from the very beginning.  That's why Jesus' plea for mercy was summarized in the famous statement he made: "May he who is without sin cast the first stone".
You also have to pray that God changes your heart and mind to conform with His.  He probably won't do it instantaneously all at once.  You have to be obedient to what you've already been plainly given as commands, so, depending on how obedient you are, or how disobedient you are, you may never see your life utterly and completely transformed by The Holy Spirit.  That's bad news for everybody because this world could sorely benefit from as many manifestations of Jesus as possible.  However, Jesus is not out to punish anyone.  Believers will face a difficult time entering Heaven if they don't trust God.  I get the impression by a couple bits of The Bible that entering Heaven may almost be like LITERALLY being born again, or, perhaps better stated, akin to being pureed, bones and all, and then sifted.  I really have to wonder how that works.  Is that like being half in Heaven and half in Hell?  Does the chaff feel any pain?