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.