Living the Journey

Here is the tenth of twelve verses to be memorized by April 23rd as part of The Challenge II!

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“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. ” – Romans 10:9

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The act of speaking – or confessing – out loud is essential. Notice how it says “confess with thy mouth” and not just in your heart and mind. Why would this be so? For one thing, it humbles you. For instance…when we offend God isn’t it much easier to say “Oh God, please forgive me,” then it is to go to a person and tell them what you did and ask them to forgive you? It shouldn’t be this way! It should be harder to go before a Holy God – the Creator, then mere man – the creation. We are more concerned for the approval of man then we are in pleasing God. Thus in reality, we have made man an idol. Confession is also made with the mouth to proclaim the wonderful works of God; for our mouth was created by God for the purpose of bringing glory and honor to His name. If a man confesses faith in Jesus, acknowledging his sinful state, Christ in turn will regard him as innocent of all charges and qualify him for eternal life.

Believing in our heart is also a vital and very important part. We must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, thus showing that He has accepted the Atonement, which is the righteousness of Christ imputed to any man who believes through faith. 

Let me end with these thoughts of Matthew Henry:

“Justification by faith lays the foundation of our title to salvation; but by confession we build upon that foundation, and come at last to the full possession of that to which we were entitled. So that we have here a brief summery of the terms of salvation, and they are very reasonable; in short this, that we must devote, dedicate, and give up to God our soul and our body – our souls in believing with the heart, and our bodies with confessing with the mouth. This do, and thou shalt live.”

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Here are the eighth and ninth of twelve verses to be memorized by April 23rd as part of The Challenge II!

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“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” – Ephesians 2:8-9

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I was reminded of this verse while on a recent trip to Germany. My uncle, a lover of history, was giving us a tour of The Dom a cathedral built in Cologne Germany. Upon entering the huge cathedral, I was in awe of its grandeur. However, as we walked through and a comprehension of its history and present representation to the world began to sink in, I was deeply troubled. I saw people lighting candles, paying homage to saints in an effort to gain eternal security. I saw them reciting prayers and sitting in reverent silence communing not with the God who had paid the price for their salvation, but to a god they have created in their minds; it grieved me to see this. Little did those in history and those presently worshipping know that Christ had already paid the price for their sins. God’s gift to men had already set them free!

Hundreds of people would visit The Dom the day I was there. And hundreds would walk away from it still not knowing this great freeing truth. Praise be to God that He has given us the knowledge of this gift and how privileged we are to be able to share this with those around us.

~ Brooke

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Here is the seventh of twelve verses to be memorized by April 23rd as part of The Challenge II!

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“But God commendeth his love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us” – Romans 5:8

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Jesus already proved with His life death and resurrection that He loves you and there is nothing that you can do that would make Him love you any more or any less! Just as John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” His very motivation for everything in our life is love. He desires a deep relationship with us and it is our choice to receive the gift of His Son on the cross . . . the ultimate gift!!!

When witnessing, we must remember that the deepest need of every person’s heart is to know that they are loved. If we don’t receive this kind of appreciation or attention that we need, we start to look to other things and that is where we get hurt, whether is was by friends, family members, coworkers . . . etc. These all become competing affections, but more importantly–if we are not saved–we will try to find other ways to get to heaven. However, there is only ONE way and that is through Jesus Christ, who came that we can be saved from our sin and our eternal consequence of hell., He now invites us into a personal relationship with Himself! All our needs can be met in Him! Life is about relationships: relationship with God and our relationships with others. We cannot be a successful and joyful person until we receive His gift of love and make Him the Lord of our life!!!!

~ Elizabeth

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Here is the sixth of twelve verses to be memorized by April 23rd as part of The Challenge II!

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“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life:
no man comes to the Father
but by Me” – John 14:6

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How does a person know when they’ve done something wrong? Did someone tell them that it was wrong? Is it because their mom told them so when they were young? And what even makes it wrong? How does any person know the difference between good and bad?

We know because of something commonly referred to as a conscience. Every person, believer or not, will probably tell you that they have a conscience. They may not like it, but it’s there in every spirit of every person. When God created man in the beginning of earthly time, He inscribed His Law on the heart of every human being. He gave us a built-in device to be able to determine what is sin. (See Romans 2:15.)

When we commit sin there is often a small, yet overpowering voice that screams in our spirit, “No!” Afterwards, there is that awful gut feeling you get when you know that you have no power in you to redeem yourself from what you’ve done. Often we unsuccessfully try to defy it, or rid it of our minds. So, what do you do? How can you possibly make right the countless sins you’ve committed throughout your whole life?

Because we have no power in ourselves to make restitution with God, we must receive His forgiveness. Rooted out of His unconditional love for us, He sent His only Son to the world in the form of man to be crucified, rejected, mocked, and scorned for every wrong thing that we have ever done. He was explicitly perfect. Yet He suffered in our place as payment for the wrong things we’ve done, no matter how great or small.

By dying on the cross, Jesus was interceding with the Father for us. If He had not done this, we would be paying the price forever in hell. But He made a way for us to come to the Father. He gave up His life and breath, so that we could spend life in Heaven for all of eternity! Three days later, he rose and conquered the grave—He is Life!

When you share this verse, you can focus on man’s inability to save himself and his need for a Savior. Jesus made the Way to the Father, to bring us to the Truth, so that we may have Life with Him forever!

~ Mandy

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Here is the fifth of twelve verses to be memorized by April 23rd as part of The Challenge II!

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“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” – John 3:16

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This verse is probably one of the most well-known of the entire Bible. But don’t allow familiarity to influence you to brush over it too quickly! Every word is so important. Spend time meditating and thinking about each one. Billy Graham is famous for his statement that he has spent his whole life trying to preach from John 3:16.

Are you familiar with the context of John 3:16? One time I shared the Gospel message very clearly with a young man simply by reading and explaining John Chapter 3.

The Wordless Book

John 3:16 is a key verse in the Wordless Book Gospel presentation used by Child Evangelism Fellowship. In the following video, David presents the full Gospel message using the Wordless Book. Take note of the questions that he asks, the verses he uses, and the main points that he makes. These would be helpful to know as you have the opportunity to use this verse in sharing the Gospel.

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You can watch another example of someone presenting the Gospel using the Wordless Book at Evanglism Training International.

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Here is the fourth of twelve verses to be memorized by April 23rd as part of The Challenge II!

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“For the wages of sin is death;
but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord” – Romans 6:23

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Notice how the principles in this verse were effectively used in the following story:

A Divine Encounter

At the Indianapolis Training Center, all able young men are given chore assignments for the week. Since our family lives at the Training Center, I was one of those able young men. I was given the responsibility of picking up trash in our parking lot and on the four corners of the property.

One day, as I was heading out to fulfill that responsibility, I felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit to grab my Bible and some tracts. At that moment, I thought to myself that surely no one would be saved even if I did make that simple effort of get my Bible and tracts. But the Lord reproved me in my heart, and showed me that I had a lack of faith in the Him. So I trusted the Lord and grabbed my tracts with my Bible went outside to start picking up trash. (Little did I know what the Lord had in store for me!)

As soon as I got outside–before I even had a chance to start my job–the Lord divinely placed a man walking down the side walk right in front of me.

continue reading…

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