While we were in Peru, we made a craft with the villagers often referred to as a "Gospel Bracelet." I would then get up and, using the bracelet, explain God's great news for all humanity. This week, I'd like to share with you how I shared the message with them.
YELLOW - GODGod is our creator, our maker (Acts 17:22-31). As our maker, he has the right to command how we should live. And he expects us all to live according to his way.
Also, our Creator loves us and wants to be a Father to us. He wants us to know him and be with him.
But to be with him and to know him, we must live by the rules that he set forth, which are perfectly summarized by Jesus in this way: "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31).
Basically, God expects us to love him more than anything else in the world, and he expects us to love others and always do what's best for them and serve them.
BLACK - SIN
Sin is not living up to God's standards. Romans 3:23 says that "all have sinned." Every person on the planet has not lived by God's standard of life. We have not loved him more than anything, and we have failed to love each other with selfless service.
By not living God's way, we have earned his punishment. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). God must cast us "away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might" where we "will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). This is called Hell, and it is not a pleasant place to be.
Yes, God loves us and wants us to be with him, but he also must punish sin. He is holy and cannot stand sin (see Habakkuk 1:13). He must punish wrongdoing if he is to remain righteous. We cannot fix the wrong we have done. Going to church and doing good things cannot save us from the punishment.
RED - CHRIST
God is the only one who can deal with the problem of our sin. And he sent Jesus Christ as the solution.
Jesus came into the world and lived the way God wanted him to - he did not sin. Because he lived a perfect life, he could die in our place and pay for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). After dying for our sins, he rose back to life (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
Because Jesus died for our sins, he is now the bridge to God (1 Peter 3:18). He is the only way that we can get back to God.
WHITE - CLEANSING
John 3:36 tells us that if we believe Christ for salvation, then we will receive eternal life. God will forgive our sins and make us "white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18).
What does it mean to believe? It means to turn away from everything that we have done wrong and everything we have tried to do right and to not trust in that to save us. It means to trust in Jesus and Jesus ONLY for forgiveness and salvation from the penalty of our sins. It means to trust who he is and what he has done as our only hope. It means to receive him as Savior and Lord of our lives.
When we do this, God says that we will "become children of God" (John 1:12). He calls us his children, and he becomes our Father. He will not cast us to Hell for our sins and will instead let us be with him in Heaven after we die.
GREEN - NEW LIFE
Because of what God has done for us, we do not stay the same. We begin to grow and become like he intended us to be. We learn to love God as we should through reading the Bible, through prayer, through obeying his commands, and through worshiping with other believers. We also learn to love others and serve them through good deeds and through telling others about Jesus.
HAVE YOU BELIEVED THIS MESSAGE? WILL YOU? WHY OR WHY NOT? HOW CAN YOU SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH SOMEONE YOU KNOW THIS WEEK?
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