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.