Helloooo from Nepal!
I just wanted to make a brief blog post here about the most important thing.
I’m here in Nepal doing amazing things and experiencing these amazing people, and it’s for one purpose: to spread the hope of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. The word “gospel” simply means “good news,” and the good news of Jesus is what has changed my life and given me purpose in my life.
A famous Christian guy named John Piper expresses, and I am in agreement with him, that GOD is the goal of the Gospel. The goal of the Gospel is NOT getting people to heaven or having a happy or better life or having all our dreams fulfilled.
God’s entire purpose of the Gospel was to make a way for sinful people to have a way to relationship with Him in all His perfection. It’s simply the reality that this Almighty Creator God fashioned man to walk with Him–for us to be known and understood completely by Him and spend eternity growing in knowledge and experiential understanding of who He is.
The Gospel is profound, and yet it is simple. It seems almost too good to be truth and yet no other explanation of the world or worldview seems to add up, as this truth about Jesus does. I’ll present that truth of the Gospel as simply but honestly as I can here. And though the Gospel is so much deeper than a few main points, it’s a good starting place to begin the search of understanding. May the Holy Spirit open my eyes and your eyes to see the truth of who Jesus is and what that means for us.
The Gospel leads us to know God personally through Jesus. Here are 4 main points about the Gospel (credit to Cru’s Knowing God Personally booklet that explains the Gospel SO well and concisely!).
1. God loves you and created you to know Him personally.
-God loves you: “God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him.” -1 John 4:9
-God wants you to know Him: “And this is the way to have eternal life–to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the One you sent to earth.” -John 17:3
Think about this: Why do most people NOT know God personally?
2. We are separated from God by our sin, so we cannot know Him or experience His love.
-What is sin?: We were created to have a relationship with God but we all have rejected Him and this relationship was broken.
This rejection of God and the building our lives around anything else is what the Bible calls sin. We show this by having selfish actions and attitudes, by disobeying God, or displaying indifference toward Him.
-Everyone is sinful: “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” -Romans 3:23
Sin leads to brokenness, and I think we can all see evidence of brokenness in the world around us: suffering, poverty, sickness, emptiness, etc.
-Sin has consequences: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” -Romans 6:23
God is perfect and just and will hold us accountable for our sin. There is a penalty for rejecting God. If we look at the verse just above, a “wage” can be considered something we earn, like a minimum wage in the US. Because of all our sinfulness and rejection of God, we all have earned death and separation from Him.
Picture you’re standing on a shore somewhere facing the ocean, maybe on the Atlantic or Pacific coast. God is SO perfect and we are so sinful that there is a great gap between us. He stands on one side of the ocean, and we stand on the other side.
We may try to bridge this ocean gap between us by trying to be good or following religions that require rituals and rites from us. Maybe you try to read your Bible a lot or try to be generally good to other humans, hoping the good will outweigh the bad. However, all our efforts fail because they can’t solve the root problem of sin that keeps us from God. If I’m standing beside Michael Phelps on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, and we’re both trying to reach the other side (figuratively to reach God), we may have different results from our efforts. Michael Phelps will SURELY be able to swim a further distance than my doggy-paddling self, and yet it would be impossible even for him to swim all the way to Africa as an Olympian.
Perhaps you go to church every Sunday or only gossip about girls who are jerks to you, and I openly mock other human beings and have never set foot in a church. It doesn’t make a difference. Different levels of perceived “goodness” will still always sink in the gap of God’s perfection compared to our sinfulness. We ALL have earned separation from God, and no amount of our trying could make it right. We are essentially helpless to sink in our sinfulness and selfishness into death, apart from God.
Seems like a pretty bleak state of humanity, right?
Yes. It is. And yet, my third point reveals the only solution to our problem.
3. Jesus is God’s only solution for our sin. Only through Him can we know God and receive His love and forgiveness.
-Jesus IS God. “Christ is the invisible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.” -Colossians 1:15.
-Jesus died in our place: “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but He died for sinners to bring you home safely to God.” -1 Peter 3:18
Jesus, being perfect always, had never “earned” this consequence of death and separation from God like we have. Yet, He willingly walked into death and suffering so that we wouldn’t have to pay that price. He paid that price for us in full.
-Jesus came back to life: “During the 40 days after His crucifixion, He appeared to the apostles.. and He proved to them in many ways He was actually alive.” -Acts 1:3
His resurrection proved that He was God and that He had suffered the punishment we deserved in our place.
-Jesus is the Only Way: “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” -John 14:6
-God proves His love: “For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:16.
Picture you’re standing on that shoreline again, overwhelmed by the amount of water that you’ll never be able to cross on your own. Although we deserve to stay separated by this ocean and be cut off from God forever because of our rejection of Him, in His love God sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins by dying on the cross.
Through Jesus, God has bridged this ocean that separates us from Him, and provided a way for us to be forgiven and restored to a relationship with Him, as was His intention from the beginning of time. Jesus is the sturdy, established bridge from our shore to the shore where God stands in perfect holiness.
Thank God for His provision in Jesus!
–>It isn’t simply enough to read through these points and consider them..
4. We must each respond as individuals to Jesus by placing our trust in Him as our Savior and Lord. Only THEN can we know Him personally.
This response involves:
-Agreeing: with God that we are sinful and are in need of His Son Jesus, and deciding to turn from our sin.
-Trusting God: to forgive us COMPLETELY because Jesus died for our sin. We owe no debts any longer if we trust that all the “work” is finished by Jesus’ sacrifice and that no other work needs to be done for us to have access to God.
-Choosing: to follow Jesus; putting Him first in our lives.
This relationship is personal: “But to all who believed in Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God.” -John 1:12
This relationship is a gift: “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it’s a gift of God… so none of us can boast about it.” -Ephesians 2:8-9.
“He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life.” -Titus 3:5
–>After all this information, it isn’t enough to just hear or feel that this is true. We each have a choice to make.
There are two lives we can live.
Picture a circle with a chair in the middle, and you’re sitting on the chair. Picture Jesus outside the circle. This represents a life where you yourself are in control and Jesus has no influence in your life. If you’re living in this way, you have never trusted Jesus and welcomed Him into your life. You remain guilty of sin and cut off from relationship from God out of consequence.
Picture another circle with a chair in the middle. Instead of you sitting on the throne, Jesus is. You are sitting beside the chair. You have let Jesus in to have control of your life here and have received His gift of forgiveness of your sins because of His own sacrifice. If you live in this circle, you have been forgiven, and you have access to relationship with God and can experience His love for you in light of that forgiveness.
Now, which circle are you truly living in? And which circle would you like to live in?
To begin a relationship with God, you must place your trust in Jesus alone. Not in your own actions and trying to be good enough.
God is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart.
IF you desire to live in the second circle I mentioned above, you can express this desire and attitude to God in prayer, which is simply talking with Him.
Here’s a suggested prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. I’m sorry for going my own way. Please forgive me for all my sins. Thank you for dying in my place on the cross to pay for the penalty of my own sin. I agree to turn from my old ways and follow you as my Savior and Leader and Lord. Please come into my life and take first priority there.”
If you choose to pray this prayer, Jesus WILL come into your life as promised. I can attest to the fact that it is true. Jesus has come into my life and changed everything.
-If you have prayed this prayer, you are now and forever forgiven of your sins, and your slate is wiped clean before God. He looks at you and sees the perfection of Jesus applied to your life because You trust in Jesus’ sacrifice as completely enough to make you new and pure.
-You are now a child of the Living God! “You have become a child of God. He is your heavenly Father.” -Galatians 3:26.
-You have been empowered: God has given you power to live a transformed and new life! -2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 3:14-21.
-You are now a friend of God: “You have started a friendship with God that will last forever.” -John 17:3.
You can TRUST that Jesus has come into your life because He has promised Himself to do just that. “Jesus has come into your life by the Holy Spirit and He will never leave you.” -Hebrews 13:5
Even if you don’t “feel” any different, feelings don’t determine what is true. A follower of Jesus lives by trusting in the reliability of God Himself and what He has said. As an example, imagine you’re flying in an airplane. You may not feel that you can trust the construction of the aircraft, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t truly capable to carry you from one destination to the next. In the same way, we rely on God and trust His promises from the Bible, not on what we feel.
IF you prayed this prayer above, that is AMAZING! AND I want you to email me ([email protected]) and tell me right this moment! Go ahead and tell someone else too! I wanted to share this truth with you because it has CHANGED MY LIFE. I have hope and purpose and love that is eternal and unconditional now in Jesus. I want you all to experience the same!! Next steps for you would be to read scripture, maybe starting with the book of Mark or John. You can respond to God in prayer and thank Him for forgiving and loving you, and ask Him to show you who He is, starting now. He most certainly will. Find fellowship with other Christians in a smaller community, and they can help you as you have begun this journey.
Also, if you have any questions about what I believe and who Jesus is, email me also. Or check out resources like the Bible or startingwithgod.com.
Talk to you soon, guys!!
