Week 7

I is for impossible.

According to the Bible, it is impossible for us to get to heaven on our own. The Bible tells us in Eph. 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Grace is usually defined unmerited favor. It is something that we receive but don’t deserve.

If we tried to save ourselves we would fall way short. Very short. Not even close. How much do we need to do to make up for the laws and commandments we’ve broken? Remember the verse under “A?” “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That right there is why we need forgiveness. How are we to buy that forgiveness? We’re not! That would like trying to bribe the judge. “I know I murdered that person, but I give to my church and I even helped an old lady cross the street.” Will the judge let you go for the good thing? Of course not. He is going to throw the book at you. If the judge is good and just, he must punish crime.

The only way you can go free is to have that penalty paid for you. That is exactly what Jesus did 2000 years ago. He paid the debt in His life’s blood. There was a legal transaction. God’s wrath and punishment was put on Jesus, who knew no sin. In exchange, we receive His righteousness. A legal transaction was made. We can now go free in God’s court room. So if you repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus, you will be saved. We know that is that He will save us because of what it says in Romans 10:9-10.

You see we can’t save ourselves. That is why we need a Savior. If we claim we are saved by what we do, we are stealing the honor and glory that God rightfully deserves.

Our visit

We went door knocking around Victory Baptist School. We are now having an early service at the school campus and we were getting the word out in the surrounding areas (actually word about the new service and the Word).

When talking with people, if we got anything but a faith answer to the key question “In your personal opinion, what do you understand that it take for a person to go to heaven”, we would share the gospel. We had one good visit. We ran into an officer that had a Catholic background, but his wife went to Fellowship North. His answer to the Key Question was “faith in Jesus Christ”. Surprisingly there was no works added in his response. We had a good dialogue with him in his driveway. He shared with us struggles about an incident where he had to use his gun on duty. Even though he was totally justified, it still bothers him. I could relate to him because I’ve seen that situation in my own family and understand how hard that is. Before we left we prayed with him that God would protect him both physically and mentally.

Another team had great news. They had the privilege of leading a girl to Christ.

Prayer Request

Pray for this officer. Pray that the little girl that was saved will grow in the Lord and that her mother will come to know the Lord also. Another team had a guy that was clearly under conviction. Pray that God will continue convicting him and that he’ll surrender to God’s will.

Week 6

The Letter A

Class was good we studied about the “A” in FAITH. A is for available. God’s forgiveness is available to us. It is available to all of us. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Even though it is available to everyone it is not automatic. Jesus says in Matthew 7:21 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven”. There are a lot of people out there that believe that everyone will be saved or that all religions lead to heaven. They read into John 3:16 and say see He died for all of us, so we all are going to heaven. We need to also look at the “whosoever believeth in him.” This is why the “F” that we studied last week is so important. Every one has sinned and needs forgiveness. That forgiveness is in Jesus only. If we don’t understand our sins, how can we receive or even understand the cure. We compare ourselves too much to other people (horizontally) and not to God and His holy standards (vertically).

In class we also learned that people often ask “How can a loving God send someone to hell?” Again, the need to understand who we are (sinners) and who God is (Holy and Righteous). Like an earthly judge, if a convicted criminal went unpunished then the judge would be corrupt. The same with God, we wouldn’t think that God would let a murder or a rapist go unpunished would we? How about a lair, a thief, or a blasphemer? When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus in John 3:18, a few verses after John 3:16. He said “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already”. Jesus didn’t come to lead people to hell they are already on their way. He came to save us from it.

Our Visit

We visited a family from the school. When we got there we found out that that attend church at Central Baptist Church. Our goal is not to pull members from bible believing churches; our goal is to spread the gospel. Our first inclination was to just move on, but we were invited in. We had a great visit. We found out that they were trained in FAITH evangelism but had never been out on a visit because of fear. We just encouraged them to share their faith and the importance of evangelism. We just learned in class that the forgiveness is available but not automatic. Josh gave his new and improved testimony and I went over the gospel presentation “for practice”. I say for practice because, even though the 3 people we were directly talking to were saved, there were two others in the house that could hear what we were saying. Sometimes God is working on someone other than the person you’re talking with. Since this family was from Central, I gave them an example of that exact thing happening a few semesters back. The team that I was on was door knocking and came across the pastor’s house for Central Baptist Church. He was already saved, of course, but we just talked back and forth about God and the things he has done. They were just starting the FAITH program and we encouraged each other in sharing the gospel. What we didn’t know was the daughter was standing behind the door, and our conversation got her thinking and convicted of her sins. We later found out that, she was saved that night. We weren’t talking to her and the gospel wasn’t even really mentioned. It was nothing our team or the pastor said. It was all God. When God draws people to Him he’ll use anybody and anything. Be ready for God to use you.

Prayer Request

Pray for my mother-in-law and my family. It is her and Don’s anniversary this Saturday. Pray for those that are sick in our Church family and have been out.

Week 5

Forgiveness

At the heart of the Gospel is forgiveness. We need forgiveness because we have all sinned and fall short of God’s standard (Romans 3:23). Sin is the transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4). We a lot of times may dismiss sin as not being “that bad”. When we compare ourselves to other people we may not seem “that bad”. It is not until we compare ourselves to God and His holy standard that we realize our need for forgiveness. Everyone can find someone worse off than they are, but Gods standard is perfect. If we’ve kept the whole law and yet offend in just one area we are guilty of it all (James 2:10).

The Bible says in Romans 6:23 that the penalty for those sins is death. This is why we need a savior. We have a sin debt and that penalty is death. God didn’t want that to be, but if He is just and fair, He must punish sin. Thank about it this way if a earthly judge let someone off, who rapped and murdered someone, simply because they are now a good person and said they won’t do it again, the Judge would be corrupt and should be punished himself. How much more holy, fair, and just is our God. If we’ve sinned that sin must be punished.

God didn’t want it that way, so He provided a way. He sent his only Son (John 3:16) to earth in the form of a man. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again the third day. Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us. A legal transaction was made. He took our penalty in exchange we received His righteousness. We can go free in God’s court room because that penalty has been satisfied in Jesus.

How do we get that forgiveness? By repenting of our sins and putting our trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Robert said in class, “good people don’t go to heaven, Saved people do”. I’m glad that is true, because if I had to rely on my goodness I’d be in real trouble.

Our Visit

We were scheduled to visit a family from the school. When we got there the child was sick so we told them we’d come back at a better time. We were in the area of another member of our Sunday school class, so we dropped by. It was a great visit. You know how God closes doors so that others can be opened. I feel that this visit was one of them. We had a good discussion and prayer while we were there.

Josh gave out our bible to a lady at a car wash in Jacksonville and earlier in the week he had a chance to share what he has learned in FAITH with a friend on the computer.

Prayer Request

Pray for our age group. Satan is hitting us with sickness and just all sorts of things to keep us a way from serving the Lord. Pray for our visitors and potential visitors we’ve meet the last few weeks for our class. Pray that they feel a connection and the love of God through His people. Pray for our outreach both on our scheduled Tuesday night visit and our everyday lives. Pray for my family and the White’s. We will be traveling Wednesday and be gone through Thursday. Pray that we’ll be safe.