Foundations of Faith – The Gospel is about as upbeat, happy message as you will find on the interwebs! Who doesn’t like hearing that they are loved by God?
Give Me A Sign
The old joke goes like this… A man is stranded on top of his house – on the roof. The flood waters are rising. He prays for God to rescue him. A rubber raft, canoe, speed boat, and helicopter all attempt a rescue of the man. He refuses them all thinking that God will save him. Upon death – the flood waters won – he asks God why he wasn’t saved! God says, buddy, I sent you a raft, canoe, speed boat, and helicopter! What more do you want?!
God sent his Son, Jesus. We just celebrated this event at Christmas. What more do people want?!
The Character of God
I think part of the problem is that people don’t know God. How can they? The only way to get to know God is through Scripture. True, you can consider the natural knowledge of God in your conscience and creation, but it’s not enough. No eye has seen, no ear has heard what God has done for us in Jesus – apart from the Bible.
So much of what we do is reflecting the love of Jesus into the lives of the people around us. As we love our neighbor there are more and more chances to share Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can put the pieces back together in a life broken by guilt, shattered by sin, destroyed by the devil. Jesus’ death on the cross won the victory, paying for every sin and paving a path for us – now forgiven – go to heaven.
The best defense…
…is a good offense. Christians don’t need to hide under rocks with the message of the gospel. There is a fair amount of rock hiding for the Christian church. The persecution is real. But so is the kingdom of God that kicks in the gates of hell and takes back souls on the daily.
Want to hear more? Watch this week’s study the third in our series Foundations of Faith – The Gospel.