Watch the Good Person Video

Watch this video to understand the Gospel more clearly. Are you ready to die and stand before God? Where will you be in 5 billion years from now? Please take a few minutes to learn about God and how you can have a relationship with Him. You cannot be in your sins when you stand before God. There is a way to remove them before your date with death (appointment to die). God has given you a certain amount of days to live on earth. You do not know when your last day is. Please look at your heart and make things right between you and God.

What is the Gospel?

What is the Gospel and why is it important? The word Gospel means, "good news". It comes from the Greek word, 'euangelion', which is where we get our word for evangelism. Evangelism is preaching the good news. If there is good news, then there must first be bad news, or else the good news really would not be good news, would it? Well, before we figure out what the good news really is, lets talk about the bad news. Throughout history, God has been revealing Himself to human beings and His workings are recorded in our Bible. Throughout the time period of what we call the 'Old Testament', God made promises to mankind about someone He would send to us that would redeem us. God tells us what He is like and what He expects out of us. The problem is that we could never reach that expectation. When Moses was living, God gave him what is known as the 10 Commandments. Actually, there were about 613 laws that God gave to people at that time, but we will focus on the 10 Commandments. They help us to understand about God's character and nature. For example, God tells us we should not lie. God cannot lie. Well, it would be pretty hard to find a person who hasn't lied, or been deceitful at some time in their lives. He tells us not to commit adultery, or murder. We cannot covet (desiring things that other people have or their status, etc.). How about taking God's name in vain? God will not hold that person guiltless if he or she has taken His name in vain (using it without any purpose or as a cuss word). How about God being our first love and priority 24/7? That's what the first Commandment is about. Have we always loved God perfectly all the time, throughout our lives? What about creating an idea of what we want God to be like, or making a god to fit our own desires and preferences? That's covered in the second Commandment. And then there is the Commandment that tells us to honor our father and mother. Who has done that perfectly all his or her life? If that isn't enough, we find in the book of Proverbs some things that God considers abominations, like pride, murder and lying lips. Then when we go to the New Testament, Jesus expounds on some of the variations of breaking the 10 Commandments. One of them has to do with committing adultery. He said that if we look at a person that we are not married to, with lustful intent, we have committed adultery in our hearts. He covered slander, hatred (which is considered murder) and pride, along with several other things that make us unclean. Jesus also made it clear that each person will give an account of every idle word that he or she has spoken. What we say reveals what's in our hearts! We could go on and on with this, but here is the point; every day we live out our lives and we fall short of God's glory each day. God calls this 'sin'. Breaking a Commandment is sin, but also failing to do good and right in every situation is sin. Sin requires a payment. That payment is death. Whenever we sin, something has to die. In the days of the Old Testament people, they would offer a sacrifice, usually a lamb, to cover their sin. How many times would you have to offer a lamb because of your sin? This is really bad news. The priest who was in charge of the sacrifices was continually at work because people always had to bring sacrifices to cover their sin (note: this covering did not take away their sin. More on that later.) The sacrifices that were required are a picture of what God was going to do about our sin. Many prophecies were made about a special person who was to come. He would give sin a death blow and would win over Satan, the one who is always tempting us into sin. This person came about 2000 years ago, and did exactly what the Bible said He would do. He came and lived a perfect, sinless life. He never broke any of the 10 Commandments, which made it possible for Him to become the Lamb of God, that was offered one time for our sin. When He was on the cross, God the Father put all of your sin and my sin on Jesus. He died a terrible death. Not only was it physically painful, but the pain of being separated from His Father was unimaginable. But this would have to be in order for us to be able to be pardoned for our sins against a holy God. Notice how many times Jesus is referred to as the Lamb. Now we don't have to sacrifice lambs when we sin. That is good news! We can trust in God's only Son, and what He did on the Cross to pay for our sin. The payment has been made and now we can go free. Of course, we can know all about this and still die in our sin. That would be terrible. God calls us to repentance, which is turning from our selfish ways, and letting go of our sin, and He also calls us to trust in Him. We turn from our sin and turn to God. The good news is that we don't have to die in our sins anymore. The Bible tells us that the person who has the Son has life. The person that doesn't have the Son doesn't have life. Also, the person who believes in the Son has life, but the person who rejects the Son does not have life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Please consider the Gospel and put your trust in the Savior. He rose from the dead on the third day after he was killed, and will come back to earth to take those who belong to Him to be with Him forever. The people who are left on earth with suffer without any more chance to repent and be saved. They will be judged for their sins and will pay for them eternally in hell. Now we can understand why this is called the good news! Please consider the good news that I have shared with you. If you have any questions or if you don't have a Bible, please let me know.

Why the 10 Commandments?

Why did God give us the 10 Commandments? Were they given so that society would become more civilized? Were they given so that we could become better people, so that maybe we would have a chance to go to heaven? Maybe God had another reason altogether for them. The Bible actually tells us what the 10 Commandments are for. In Galatians 3:24 it says this, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." The Law (10 Commandments) actually brings us to Christ. How can the 10 Commandments bring us to Christ? First, let me ask you another question before I give the next answer. Do you think you have kept the 10 Commandments perfectly? What happens when you break a commandment? How does God respond to us when we break His Commandments? Here is another verse that tells us how God uses the Commandments: Romans 3:19 tells us this; Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Now you might be thinking, "Why does God want us to be guilty?" "Why should we be penalized for breaking the Commandments?" Well, first, you have to have something really important. Most people miss this one. But, God is so holy and perfect. He cannot allow anything flawed or imperfect in His sight. So does this mean that God enjoys the fact that we have broken the Commandments and He must punish us for that? Absolutely not! You see, most people think that God can just change His mind about His holiness, or His righteousness. They think He can just overlook our sin like a parent who gets tired of hearing their child pester them for something, and the parent gives in because he is tired of hearing this child's whining. God isn't like that. He cannot stop being holy, or He wouldn't be God anymore. That is impossible to happen. So you ask, "What then is the answer to this dilemma?" "How can I escape God's judgment?" That is a great question, if you are wondering. God took great pains so that you could escape the wrath that He is going to send on the world. One day, a terrible judgment will be taking place. Every person will be judged. If every person has broken the 10 Commandments at one time or another, there must be a way for this penalty to be taken away. No one will be justified by keeping the 10 Commandments because everyone has broken them. What is needed is someone to come along and rescue us from our sin. That person did come 2000 years ago. God sent His only Son, who lived a perfect life, and died in our place for our sin. Jesus died a terrible death, and He was the only one who never broke the Commandments. Then He was buried and rose again from the dead on the third day. As He was dying on the Cross, God the Father was putting all the sins of the world on His Son. There was darkness over the earth for three hours. This is the most important event that ever took place on earth. Jesus is now back in heaven with His Father and will come again and take those who belong to Him back to heaven with Him. Jesus will either be your advocate or He will be your judge. There is no other option available. Please put your trust in Him now, and turn from your sins to Him. Please leave a comment if you have any questions about this. I will be glad to help.

Why the Passover Lamb?

What is the significance of the Passover Lamb? In the Old Testament times, a group of people called the Israelites, lived in the land of Egypt. They were under heavy oppression as the ruler of that country did not like them. Moses was the leader of the Israelites, and God was giving Moses instructions on how they were to prepare to leave the land, to go to their homeland, Israel. Well, Pharoah, the Egyptian leader kept changing his mind about letting the Israelites leave. He would tell them to go, and as they were planning on leaving, Pharoah would say that they had to stay. God sent terrible plagues on the Egytians, and Pharoah still wouldn't let them go. Finally, God instructed the Israelites to take a lamb and kill it. They were to take the blood of the lamb and put it on the door posts of their houses. The Death Angel was going to pass over the land that night, and any house that did not have the blood applied to the door posts would have the firstborn son die in that home. Here is what the Bible says Moses did:
"Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.
And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning."
Here is what happened during that night:
"And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead."
Every house was affected. The Israelites that applied the lamb's blood were not harmed, but the Egyptians were not prepared. The Bible says that 'there was not a house where there was not one dead' talking about what happened to the Egyptians.
The Passover was an ordinance to be observed by the Jews from that point on. Throughout Jewish history, we see various people keeping this command or reinstating it. Throughout the Law (first five books of the Bible) we see the purpose of the lamb sacrifices. The lamb was to cover the sins of the people. The lamb itself could not take the sin away, but it would cover it. The lamb had to be without blemish. A person could not offer a lamb that was deformed or weak. By the time we get to the New Testament, we still see the Passover being carried out. Lambs were still being sacrificed. The priests were busy at the Temple. But why the big deal with lambs? What was the issue? Well, two things are involved here. The first one is the God is absolutely holy. He has no imperfections in any way or degree. He cannot have anything to do with imperfections or flaws. Further, He is also just. He has no choice but to punish sin. That means when we die, we will stand before God, whether we like it or not, and give account of our lives. Every sin we have committed will be before us waiting to be judged. That is the other problem. Every person has sin in their hearts. We have hearts that love ourselves instead of God. We find ourselves angry with God because He doesn't give us what we want or what we think we deserve. We break the 10 Commandments constantly. We deserve God's judgment for our lawbreaking. What a sad situation. What do we do? Can we offer a lamb for our own sins? The good news is that we don't have to. Two thousands years ago, a lamb was sacrificed for our sins. We don't have to find a lamb without blemish, take its blood and put it on our door posts and hope that the Death Angel doesn't pass over our house tonight. God sent His Son to earth to take the punishment for our sin. That is why He is called, "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world".
When Jesus died, God the Father put all of our sins on Him. There was a heavy darkness over the earth while this was happening. Then, just before He died, Jesus said, "It is finished." A big heavy curtain in the Temple split in half and opened up the holiest of all rooms. A room where only a priest could go in once a year with the appropriate sacrifices, and his sin dealt with correctly or he would have died. Now this room was exposed showing us that we can now have access to God through the blood of Christ, which was shed on the Cross. Here is a New Testament verse telling us about Christ being our Passover Lamb: 1 Corinthians 5:7
"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us..." So that is the reason why lambs had to be killed in the Old Testament times, and the reason why Jesus became our 'Passover Lamb". He became the Ultimate Sacrifice to pay for our sins. Of course, He rose again on the third day after this and appeared to many people, and went back to His Father in Heaven. Now we can trust in Him as our Savior as we repent of our sin and turn to God to save us.

The Gospel Conversation Welcome Message

Welcome to the web page for The Gospel Conversation. You may have been directed to this site because of a conversation I had with you concerning the Gospel message. I will be working on this page in order to serve those who will be reading this page in response to hearing the Gospel message. Please feel free to ask questions if you have any. I will work on updating this page periodically. If you have further questions about the Gospel conversation we had, or if you want to understand the Gospel in a more clear way, please feel free to email me your questions at awestruck@bellsouth.net. I will look forward to hearing your comments and questions and hope I can serve you by pointing you to the right web sites and resources.