-The Gospel of Christ-

The Gospel of Christ – (a)

-Just a Step Ministries-

My name is Benjamin and I am a disciple with Just a Step Ministries.

We are here today to spend time with you and to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with you. 

Many people say many things about being a Christian, but there is one single most important thing and that is that you believe the Gospel.

The Gospel is this:

…that God has always been, is now, and will always be in existence.  He is self-sustaining and has no creator.  Nothing crated God but God has created all things.  God is in control of everything and wants to share His love and power.  Humanity, or mankind… you and me, was created from the earth and made living by God.  We (humanity) were created to have a relationship, to spend time with God; to be friends and family of God.  Now, God knows all things and knows who will choose Him as only those whom He has first chosen to choose Him will, and all whom He chosen to shoose Him will indeed Choose Him. 

Even so, we can make choices that do not glorify God.  He knows about these and permits them.  He also causes our heart to see this (our sin) and to break over it... leading us into repentence and a deeper desire for relationship with Him.

There was an angel in Heaven who chose to try to be in control instead of letting God be in control and so this angel fell from Heaven and became evil.  He was and is satan.

satan came to the first two humans and coerced them to disobey God, that is, he was deceitful and tricked the first woman, Eve, who was created from the first man, into making the choice to also disobey God and attempt to be in control.  The first man, Adam, watched Eve do this and then did the same when she asked him to.  Because of this all humans have been cursed and will always choose to be bad without God.  They will try to be in control instead of to be good and obey God.  Because humans chose this, Jesus was sent to earth to defeat satan and his power and to create a way for humans to again spend time with and have a relationship with God; to follow Him and eventually go to Heaven and be with Him forever. 

Jesus is also God.  He came to earth in the flesh, that is, in the skin and likeness… under the temptations of a human so that He could be tempted to be bad and made fun of and hurt as all of us have been and still sometimes are.  Jesus went through everything we go through so that He can relate to us and understand what we are going through.  He did this so He could help us and comfort us and so none of us would have an excuse not to follow Him.

The way Jesus made it possible for us to experience God again was by living a perfect life even though he was tempted not to and even though people made fun of Him and hurt Him.  He did this and then died on a cross, but the story didn’t and doesn’t end there.  You see, all this was necessary, but the way Jesus ultimately defeated satan and created a way for us to be with God again is by what God did after he was murdered.  God raised Jesus from the dead three days later!  By doing this, by sacrificing His life and being sacrificed, by being resurrected and risen, Jesus indeed defeated evil and death and enabled His Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God to be given to all who from then and now on believe in Jesus and trust Him… that’s us!

Now, because man is sinful; becasue all people are born into a sinful nature in rebellion against God, and will always choose to be bad without the Holy Spirit living within him, we must have the Holy Spirit of God living in us to lead us to Jesus and to God.  He is the only way to righteousness and Heaven.  We cannot be good ourselves, we cannot just try harder to be better, we have to believe that Jesus is God and that He died to save us from death and evil, and we have to trust that He is bigger than anything we face and that He is helping us through it even if it doesn’t look or seem like it sometimes.  We have to be honest and tell God that we’ve done bad things; that we are sinners and that we’re sorry.  We have to ask Him to forgive us and to live in us.  Yes, we have to tell God that we want to be a part of His family.  The most important thing is that we have to believe the Gospel and believe that God is in control, even when we get hurt or made fun of or when we don’t understand.  We have to believe with all our heart in Jesus and God.

Once we truly believe in Jesus and truly ask Him to live in our hearts, He will, and He will never leave.  When we truly believe in Jesus, He will start living through us more and more, transforming not just our actions and words, but our thoughts, our wants, and our intentions.  Everything about us will start to change.  We will become broken and softer people, humble people; we will become unified and encouraging, loving people, as Jesus starts to live through our lives.  Now, this does not mean once you accept Jesus you will be perfect, or never sin, but it means that you will be honest about those times when you do and will bring them before the Lord your God, who already forgives you.  Having accepted Jesus means that you will be sorry about your sins because you realize that they aren’t helping people know Jesus.  Your salvation also means that your heart will begin to be focused on Jesus and that more and more, everything you think, feel, say, and do will begin to thank Jesus for His sacrifice and tell others about it and Him.  Once we really believe in God and ask Him for forgiveness, He will always take care of us, that is, He will always give us exactly what we need.   This is what God promises to do for us once we give Him our heart and truly ask Him to live in it.  He does this and also promises that He will always be with us, no matter what… again, He will never leave.

So, if you sense it on your heart to know Jesus and spend time with God, if you are being led to be a part of His family and let Him live through you, then we are excited to inform you that God is calling you to Himself because He has chosen you to be a part of His amazing Kingdom of total truth, honesty, kindness, love and power!  Stop trying to be in control, or to be better, instead watch as He conforms your heart to rest in Jesus Christ´s finished work of salvation to you and so brings forth honesty in you before Him, causing your heart to feel brokenness over your sin, and then to cry out like a child to God, asking Him to be in your heart... to live through your life forever.

The Gospel of Christ - (b)

-Just a Step Ministries-

The Heart

                Do you know Jesus?  Do you know that He loves you?  Do you know that that love which Jesus has for you is a love far beyond that of this world… far beyond that with which you love your mother, your father, your sister, brother, wife, husband and child?  These things indeed are His love living through you yet the totality of  His love, the fulness of the love with which He loves you is so much more.

                You are a sinner.  Yes, you are a sinner, one who has done that which displeases God.  Sin is anything that does not truly worship God and you are guilty of sin.  Yes, you are a sinner.  I know this without a doubt because we all are sinners.  The richest among us and the poorest among us, both are sinners.  The happiest and the saddest, the quietest and the loudest; the most still among us and the one who moves most, all are sinners.  The most righteous one among us and the greatest wrong doer, both are sinful and even all in between, we are all sinners.  Indeed we are.  For all have stolen, or lied, or said an intentionally unkind word.  We have all been selfish or ungrateful.  We have all looked upon another with lust and or hate.  All of us have refused to forgive.  All of us have turned our backs on God and or not given Him the praise we should, the praise which He deserves.  We have all at some point in our lives dismissed the amazing sacrifice He gave for us and so acted in a way that did not proclaim unto Him, “Thank You, oh’ beautiful Savior.”  This is sin and we are all guilty of it. 

                So the question when we lay our heads down to rest at night and when we look up into the sky as in the morning we rise is not, “Am I a sinner?”  Rather the question is, “Am I forgiven?”  The beautiful thing about God’s forgiveness unto us is that it is not something which we, any of us, can earn.  God’s forgiveness is something we can only accept… as a totally free gift.  God so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ (totally God also) to earth as both totally God and totally human in order that He may endure the many sufferings of our broken world and be murdered on a cross.  He was sacrificed and so sacrificed His life for us in order that He could defeat death and be risen by God His Father in Heaven three days later and so suffering the entire weight of God’s amazing wrath for our sin that it might be forgiven and forever done away with concerning those who will believe in Him. 

                Consider these things!  Jesus Christ- fully God- left Heaven, a perfect place of total bliss and ultimate harmony free of any hurt and came to earth, a place of disgusting deceit, rampant greed and amazing idolatry for the sole reason that He could be brutally mocked, made fun of, spit on, tortured, abandoned, and murdered for you, that the cloud which your sin causes to rise between you and God might be removed in order that you might be able to know God by accepting and so knowing, not just knowing about, but actually knowing - experiencing your personal Savior.  

                Knowing God is much more than understanding a set of rules my friends!  Knowing God is not about subjecting yourselves to a religion that aims to control you.  Knowing God is about being so utterly in love with Jesus Christ who died for you when you were His enemy that heart is overcome with contrite compassion for Him and so willing to surrender everything just to know Him, to experience Him every day in your own personal heart and life.  Knowing God is accepting the forgiveness that you do not deserve and yet that He so amazingly wants to grant you… once and for all, forever.    Furthermore, knowing Jesus Christ is not about rules but about experiencing His Spirit in the most intimate places of your heart.  The Spirit of Jesus Christ transforms our hearts from shame, guilt, anxiety, pressure, worry, stress, anger, envy, and rage to Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faith, Gentleness, and Self Control.  Knowing God is about experiencing what the hearts of those who are His children truly desire even when they are living is sin.  Be honest with yourselves.  Don’t you desire to be at peace?  Don’t you desire to be provided for and not worry?  Don’t you desire not to stress?  Don’t you desire to trust?  Don’t you desire to rest and be patient, to have the internal ability to be kind always and above the reproach of others?  This desire in you is a desire for Christ who IS those things.  My friends, knowing Him isn’t about gaining those things only, it is first and foremost about being in love with His love for you.  Knowing God is accepting that you don’t deserve the amazing gift He has given you and that you can never ever attain it with any amount of work of money or possessions.  It is accepting this and being so drawn to humility that you embrace it with everything you are, with your entire passion and interest.  And as that occurs and remains the center of your focus and life, the Spirit of Jesus, true, lasting internal Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faith, Gentleness, and Self Control will begin to ever more growingly overtake your life. 

                God loves you.  Accept His love and truly invite Him to wreck your life that you may find His… that you may know your Creator, your Savior… that you may know GOD.

                You don’t need anyone to do this for you, you need only to respectfully bow before Him in your own heart.  If God is placing such a desire within you, then you can do this even now, right here.  Just close your eyes and confess your sin to Jesus Christ.  Tell Him that you recognize He has come to you today and helped you see how much you need Him, Tell Him you recognize that He is asking you to trust Him and love Him.  Say, “Thank You Jesus.  I am so sorry for hurting You with my sin.  Please, overtake my heart and invade my life.  I believe that You love me so much that You sacrificed Your life for me and amazingly have justified me before God our Father.   Truly, You are Lord of my life and I want to know You.  I want to be so in love with You that I give to You everything.  I know I can not do this on my own, so please Christ, do this amazing work within me.  And Friend, please keep me throughout all days to the very end, that no matter what, I would not be discouraged and that I would never forsake You even in the hardest of circumstances.  May I grow to know You more and more every day and throughout every year of my life.  Help me Jesus, to never become complacent or lukewarm, but to desire You.  O’ God, You are good.  I love you.  Thank You for everything.