Let God Be God!!!

           This site is all for God’s glory.  In that light, and to honor God’s command that we all be witnesses for Him, I would like to take a moment of your time to tell you a story.  I hope you have heard it before and responded to its content, but if you haven’t, hold on, there’s something really important here just for you.

             We are commanded as Christians to spread the gospel.  Gospel means “good news.”  The good news this refers to is the gift God gave us.  That gift is Jesus Christ, God’s son.  And, thus my story must begin.

             Why do we need a gift anyway?  Good question.  The answer:  To save our lives.  See, a long time ago, at the beginning of time, God made man and woman.  They were perfect in every way.  God gave them everything they could possibly need or want, because He loved them so.  He also gave them one rule.  If you are interested in the rest of this story, you can read it in the book of Genesis in the Bible, but as I am telling a different story here, let’s just say that they broke the rule.  Through this first man and woman, sin entered the world.  It is because of this sin, now contained inside every man and woman from birth, that we must die.  But, even though we disappointed God, He loves us still, and wants us to have a right relationship with Him.  But, what could He do, for someone must pay for the sin?  God’s answer was to send His own Son in the form of a man to be a sacrifice for all our sins.

             What I haven’t explained before is what dying in sin means.  If you die, and you haven’t accepted God’s gift, you will be forever separated from God.  You will go to a place He prepared for the lost called hell.  Hell is like trying to live inside a volcano.  Normally you would burn to death, but since you are already dead, you get to stay here forever.  But, as I said before, God made a plan for us to escape this end.  Not because we deserved it, but because, in spite of all the ways we fail Him, like murder, selfishness, pagan worship, adultery and every other sin in the world; He still loves us and wants to save us from this end.  That is why they call it the plan of salvation.  So, back to the plan.

             God’s son Jesus was born perfect, and never committed a sin in His entire life (33 years)!  He had to be perfect to pay for all the sins of every person to come in the next 2000 plus years, but the sins were so horrible that Jesus had to die a really horrible death to cover them all.  It goes something like this:  The people Jesus ministered to, healed and helped for His whole life, delivered Jesus to the Roman government to be punished because Jesus said He was the Son of God, which broke Jewish law.  I don’t have room to write everything that they did to Him here, but if you are interested in reading it all, you can find it in the Bible, located in the books Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  The part of it I am going to repeat is sufficient to get the point across.

             This innocent person was sent to die for you and for me.  He was both human and God.  He was afraid to die, because He knew they would hurt Him with a vicious hatred.  He prayed to God (His Father) to ask if there might be another way to save us.  God knew there was no other way.  I can almost see Him saying to Jesus, “Son, it is either you or all of them.”  I can imagine Jesus looking out over the sea of faces belonging to all the people that would ever exist, bowing His head and saying, “Father, I understand.  Not my will, but thy will be done.”

             The Romans beat Jesus with a whip that had inch long nails tied to its rawhide ends.  The nails tore into His back, leaving long, bleeding tears.  They tore off His clothing and gambled to see who should have it.  They jeered Him, spat upon Him, and mocked Him.  God watched it all, without interfering, for He was thinking of you and me while it happened. 

             The soldiers then tied the battered and bleeding Jesus to a t-shaped cross, forcing Him to carry it up the hill to the place of His death, called Golgotha hill, which means “hill of the skull.”  There they nailed Jesus’ hands and feet to the cross with iron spikes.  He hung there, between two thieves, for six hours, enduring further punishment and mockery.  Jesus endured all this for you and me.

Now comes the really hard part.  When Jesus had become the sacrifice, and all our sins were transferred to Him, the sky went dark.  Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  You see the sin Jesus took from us did the same thing to Him that it does to every lost person.  It separated Him from God.  For Jesus, this was terrifying, and the ultimate insult.  He could endure anything as long as His Father was with Him, but now He was alone!  Jesus died there, alone.

             I want to tell you about the most amazing part of this story.  Remember how I said Jesus was both God and man?  Well, after He died, He did something that no one else in the history of the world has ever done (Lord, there is none like You!).

             Jesus, after being buried in a cave tomb for three days, rose from the dead!  He defeated death and hell that you might be free of its bonds!  Not only that, but after walking with His disciples for forty days, He ascended into the sky on a cloud right before the disciples eyes.  As He disappeared from sight, two angels stood with the disciples.  The angels promised that Jesus was going to prepare a place for people who accepted God’s gift of sacrifice.  This place would be more beautiful than people could ever imagine.  They also said that when it was done, Jesus would come for His people in the same way He had left.  This is the good news, the gospel.  Now how can you accept this gift?  It’s easy.

             You must exchange gifts with God.  Give Him all the nasty sin such as petty jealousy, selfishness, lying, stealing, and so on that is in your life.  This is called repentance, which means “to turn away.”  A warning here, you can’t give your sins to God, and keep them too.  Repenting is a promise to do your very best not to ever do these things again.  If you fail in you promise there is forgiveness for the asking, but God knows the difference between on accident and on purpose!  The gift that God gives you in exchange is the blood of Jesus Christ, which is what God uses to cast your sins into a sea of forgetfulness, which means they will not be held against you anymore.

             What you need to understand is that this gift may not make your life easier.  Some people will promise you great riches, or joy and peace.  The truth is, these may be gifts of the spirit, but accepting Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for your sins will do exactly what I said in the beginning.  It will save your life. When you die, and are judged for the things you have done in this life, you will be able to say, “I claim the blood as payment for my sin debt.”  You will be accepted into heaven, because no sin will be charged to your account.  If you don’t accept this gift, you may or may not have a pleasing life.  But, when you reach the end of the road, you will be paying for your sins alone.  Since sinful you isn’t a pleasing sacrifice in God’s eyes, you will spend eternity in hell.  Now you know the truth, the gospel truth.  Ask yourself if this is a gift you want to receive.  If so, welcome to the family of God.  If not, I hope you have a long life, because after this life, you will find out that I have told you the gospel truth, but it will be too late.  Now you won’t even be able to claim you didn’t know.  I have told you this truth in love, and pray that you will make the right choice.