Holding on to Reason

Does God Exist? (a list and short summary of the most common arguments for God's Existence)

This is just a simple brush through of the most commonly used arguments for God’s existence. The descriptions here are as basic and simple as I could make them and each of these areguements are way deeper and more complex than appears here.

Every human mind is different. We each understand certain things better than other things. The purpose of this list is for you to see which one sparks interest in your mind. You can use this list as a diving board as you delve deeper into the studies surrounding whichever thought process appeals the most to you.

The Cosmological Argument

Something must have caused everything else.

Everything that happens has a cause and that thing has a cause and that thing has a cause—>does this go on forever?

It’s not possible for this to go on forever. At some point there needs to be a first cause of everything else, there needs to be an unmoved mover, an uncaused causer, an unchanged changer. 

William Blake ”The Ancient of Days”

This uncaused, causer needs to be:

  • Eternal because if it ever stops or starts existing that’s change and it can’t do that.

  • Outside the universe because everything inside the universe is caused. 

  • All-powerful because if it can’t be moved but it can move everything else then it is all-powerful. 

This is what we would call God.


Another way to explain this idea goes as follows:

In Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy, act and potency are terms that describe the relationship between being and change:

Everything is a mixture of “act” (meaning what it is) and potency (meaning what it could be).

Act: What a thing is in the present moment.

Potency: What a thing could potentially be.

For example, an oak tree's act is its color, density, branches, and it has the potential (potency) to become a table, firewood, or a child's toy.

So if you eat an apple you are actualizing its potency to be eaten, but you also are a mixture of act and potency. For example you have the potential to be strong but you’re not, every time something changes you it’s actualizing a potency in you.

Anytime a change happens you have one thing actualizing another, but if you follow all the actualizing events back in time, you either have to go back for eternity, never stopping, or you will have to eventually come across an unactualized actualizer. That’s what we call God. 

  • God is a being that is pure Act, meaning He already is everything He could be. So, He has to be eternal because if He is not then He has the potential to not exist, but there is no potential in God, so He has to have always existed. 

  • Also, if God is already everything He could be then no one can do anything to Him because that would cause Him to change, so He has to be all-powerful, making it impossible for anyone to do anything to Him.

The Moral Argument

This argument claims that God's transcendent character is the source of morals.

People often disagree on what is right and what is wrong (i.e. abortion, cannibalism, the death penalty, etc.). Everyone thinks they have the moral high ground. But, for the moral high ground to even exist—in order for there to be an answer to these disagreements—an ultimate right and a wrong—there has to be something outside of us all—something above us, greater than us—some sort of higher power determining what is right and wrong (a moral lawgiver determining objective morality).

This higher power is God.

  1. Good and Bad (objective morality) are real. When people are honest with themselves, at the core of our being we know there is a right and a wrong (otherwise it’s might makes right, or survival of the fittest and we would have no right to tell anyone they are wrong for anything they do).

  2. For right and wrong to exist, a higher power declaring what they are has to exist.

  3. That higher power is what people consider to be God. So, therefore, God is real.

Teleological

Stuff in the universe seems to have a purpose so that means the universe must have had a designer.

  • If  you found a machine lying around you would assume that someone designed the machine.

  • The universe works like a machine so somebody must have designed the universe.

  • Things in nature, like the human cell or the ecosystem of the world, are very complex and they work like a machine.

  • Darwinian evolution can claim to try to explain why that is, but there are other things it definitely can’t explain like the four constants of the universe:

  • Gravitational Constant

  • Electron Charge

  • Strong Nuclear Force

  • Weak Nuclear Force

These are perfectly fine-tuned–if there were even the slightest bit of difference the universe would immediately collapse in on itself. The way evolution works is these all would have had to build to perfection with time and random mutations. But, the reality is if any of these universal constants existed alone or at a slightly different state than they are, nothing would exist at all. They had to come into existence fully formed and functional in just the right way at just the right time.

This is the argument of “Irreducible Complexity” which states that things cannot exist at a less complex state.

Evolution requires things to have existed at a less complex state. So, evolution cannot be true and things had to be created complete in all their complexity. This argument works on smaller scales as well with things like animals, the human eye, or even human cells.

Transcendental

Without God nothing can make sense at all. God's unchanging nature is the foundation for the laws of logic, which are necessary for deductive reasoning.

There are a lot of things we assume but can’t prove scientifically, some of these things are necessary conditions for knowledge and experience.

For example, there are basic assumptions we need to make to do science:

  • Logic works

  • There’s consistency in the natural world

  • Truth exists

We can’t prove these things scientifically and yet we need them to be true to do any science.

These things all make sense if we presuppose a worldview where God exists, because we can say these things are set up by God.

If God doesn’t exist then we have no justification for the things we assume, it would be impossible to prove anything because universal laws cannot be justified or accounted for in an atheistic world, and everything just collapses.

Ontological

God exists because of the way He is. If you can imagine the ideal of something, it must exist.

God is defined as “that of which nothing greater can be conceived”. That means God must be:

  • All-powerful–because it’s greater than having limited power

  • All-knowing–because it’s greater than having limited knowledge

  • All-good–because it’s greater than being flawed

  • Exist–because existing is greater than not existing 

Let’s take a look at how this is described by princeton.edu:

(1) Suppose that God exists in the understanding alone (people understand that the concept of an all-powerful God exists but they don’t believe He actually exists).

(2) Given our definition, this means that a being than which none greater can be conceived exists in the understanding alone.

(3) But this being can be conceived to exist in reality. That is, we can conceive of a circumstance in which theism is true, even if we do not believe that it actually obtains.

(4) But it is greater for a thing to exist in reality than for it to exist in the understanding alone.

(5) Hence we seem forced to conclude that a being than which none greater can be conceived can be conceived to be greater than it is.

(6) But that is absurd.

(7) So (1) must be false. God must exist in reality as well as in the understanding.

This reading of the argument is amply confirmed by the final paragraph:

Therefore, if that than which nothing greater can be conceived exists in the understanding alone, the very being than which nothing greater can be conceived is one than which a greater can be conceived. But obviously this is impossible. Hence there is no doubt that there exists a being than which nothing greater can be conceived, and it exists both in the understanding and in reality.

Mind/Consciousness

This isn’t exactly an argument for God but it is an argument for the human soul because it says you need something immaterial to explain consciousness. 

Consciousness cannot be explained by the natural world.

The atheist explanation of consciousness is that our brain is a very advanced biological machine, but unlike our minds, machines can be reduced to their parts. Our brain can be reduced to its brain cells but that’s not the same as our experiences of consciousness. For example: you could find the part of our brain that sees the color yellow but that’s not the same as the experience of seeing yellowness. 

You cannot study consciousness scientifically because one can only observe one’s own consciousness.  For example there is no way to know if we all see the same colors.

A single atom is not conscious. Two atoms are not conscious. A bunch of atoms are not conscious. So even if you have a complex system, it’s still just a complex arrangement of atoms which aren't conscious.

So where does consciousness come from? It has to be supernatural.

Personal Experience

I’ve seen God do something so I believe He exists.

  • Supernatural Experiences

  • Answered Prayers

  • “Coincidences”

These types of arguments are good for convincing oneself, but not good for convincing other people. There are exceptions to this, however. For example: if someone really trusts you as a friend/mentor/parent, then your opinion and experiences may actually mean more to them than anything else. But, even if you open the door to their relationship with God by using your personal experiences, you shouldn’t leave them with only that. They will need to start building their own personal foundation of knowledge about why they believe in God as well in order for them to continue standing strong in the future.

Don’t underestimate the importance of this in your own life. Keeping track of the ways you know God has helped you in your life gives you a solid foundation to fall back on when life gets hard.

Pascal’s Wager

(more of a thought experiment than an argument)

This is the idea that if you’re going to “gamble” on your eternity, choosing to believe in God is the better/safer bet.

  • If you’re an atheist and atheism turns out to be correct, then you don’t really gain or lose anything.

  • If you’re an atheist and atheism turns out to be wrong, then you may lose everything for all eternity.

  • If you believe in God and it turns out atheism is correct, then you still don’t gain or lose anything.

  • If you believe in God and God is real, then you could gain everything for all eternity. 

So, between these two possibilities, which one do you want to bet on?

The worst case scenario for a theist is that nothing happens to them in the end, while the worst case scenario for the atheist is that they suffer punishment for all eternity. Meanwhile, the best case scenario for the theist is that they exist in paradise for all eternity, while the best case scenario for the atheist is that nothing happens to them.

Believing in God gives you a much better chance at getting the best outcome while avoiding the worst outcome, so it is better for you to believe in God.

Math

There’s an infinite reality higher than our physical universe which determined how our physical universe functions and math is one of those set functions.

(This is a combination of the Intelligent Design argument, the Irreducible Complexity argument, and the “supernatural things we can’t explain naturally” argument.)

There’s basic math which isn’t all that special.

For example the number 5 corresponds to five kittens and five times two correspond to two groups of five kittens.

Then there’s advanced math and the more you get into advanced math the more it starts to get disconnected from our physical world. And, yet, it still works.

For example: there’s real numbers which correspond to real things, but there are also imaginary numbers that are just as mathematically real but don’t correspond to the real world. But they still exist mathematically even though they don’t exist in the real world.

Let’s look at two specific equations which are argued to be proof of God’s existence:

1) Euler’s Identity:

5 Most Important Numbers in Mathematics:

  • 1 (basis for all real numbers)

  • 0 (necessary for doing algebra)

  • i (basis for all imaginary numbers)

  • e (important for doing exponential functions)

  • Pie (necessary for doing math with circles)

All these numbers are seemingly unrelated to each other but they fit together in the equation named “Euler’s Identity”.

This equation was discovered by Euler–one of the greatest mathematicians in history–and he saw this as proof that math was created by God.

2) The Mandelbrot Set:

Set= a collection of elements with a common defined property.

  • In most sets, some numbers are included while others are excluded (i.e. an even numbers set, an odd numbers set, a negative numbers set).

  • In some sets you can easily tell if a number belongs just by looking at it, other sets are more complicated than that, like the Mandelbrot Set.

The Mandelbrot Set also includes the “complex” and “imaginary” numbers.

The Mandelbrot Set is generated by a simple equation in the complex plane but it produces infinite detail. You can keep zooming in on the shape it creates and it'll keep showing more and more complexity even though no human designed this.

It is infinite and not found anywhere in our universe, so whatever created it needed to be infinite and not from our universe. 

Evidential

Giving Evidence of Supernatural Events

This method obviously includes all other methods, but I included it in order to cover a few more reasons to believe in God which haven’t been pointed out yet. (Note: this is not even close to an extensive list of the Evidential proofs for God’s existence, just a small taste)

Historical Example:

Roman Sleptsuk, The Resurrection

(Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Christ” Series; Gary Habermas “The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus”, etc.)

Archaeological Evidence:

Scientific Examples: 

Supernatural Evidence:

  • Demonic/Angelic Encounters

  • Near Death/Temporarily Dead Experiences

For even more information about why you should believe in God, visit our “Why Should I Accept What the Bible Has to Say?” page which answers the question “Why Should I Believe God Exists?” along with many other related questions.

(Just Click Here.)

Click here for a printable version of this to hand out.

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written by Amanda Hovseth.

How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 4 of 4)

Transcribed from Sermons by Bruce Peterson at Grace Chapel in Scottsbluff, NE. The video of this sermon can be found by clicking this link.

For a printable list of the primary verses to use when sharing the Gospel via this method, click on this link.

Click here for “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 1).

Click here for “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 2).

Click here for “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 3).

Good morning Grace Chapel! We are on week four of “How to Lead Someone to Christ.”

This is a fun week. This week we get to tell them the results of believing in Jesus. There are so many passages you could go to to talk about the benefits of what happens when you believe. The list is…like 25 things happen instantly the second you believe, the second you put your trust in Christ, the second you understand what God has accomplished through his Son for us.

We are not going to go through that whole list; I don't go through that whole list when someone first believes it would be overwhelming.

That's really the journey of our whole Christian life—to learn what happened at salvation and to learn to walk in it. That's learning to walk by faith, it's a journey. But there are some things that are really important right up front that they need to know.

As you think through passages in Ephesians…the whole book of Ephesians really, it says, “You know you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ,” and then Paul begins to enumerate them.

Colossians is also full of them…really, all the books are, but we are going to stay in Romans for this week.

But, whatever your favorite ones are, the basic idea is that you are trying to get them to understand that salvation is not just something about the future, it's not about only going to Heaven and not going to Hell, it's not only about experiencing the promises of God and avoiding the wrath of God, it's about right now.

I think it’s Peter who says (correction: 1 John 3:2), “Behold now we are sons of God.”

We don't know what we're going to be like in the future. We know we're gonna be like Jesus when we see Him. We're gonna see him face to face. But, “Behold now we are sons of God.”

If I could say there's one struggle in the Christian life that all the New Testament authors are going to appropriate and try to give to their audiences—it’s: now, right now, your whole status has changed. You're now a Son of God. You're now on team Jesus. You're an ambassador. You now have a mission. The work of your salvation is done.

That's the big idea: the work of your salvation is done. Stop worrying about that and now only worry about growing. Only worry about the mission. Step into your faith. God's promises are real and they're true and they're dynamic and they’re essential for life and faith and growth.

Without faith it's impossible to please God. What is faith? It's believing the promises. It's taking God at his word and acting like it.

Faith is demonstrable. Do you have faith in a bridge? Then you'll walk over it. If you have faith in the promises of God, you will walk in them.

So, let's back up a little bit…When I try to lead someone to Christ there's four phases of the conversation, and I really want to engage every single phase of that conversation.

The first phase

Put the weight of Holiness right on them.

No one no one is declared righteous in God's sight by works of the law. No one can even pass the two big commandments:

Moses and The Ten Commandments - Artwork4Jesus

Commandment 1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength.

There's no one no one who loves God with all their passions, with all their effort, with all their energy, with all their thoughts, with all their life, no one does it, nobody.

You can lay yourself out as the sacrificial lamb when you're having that conversation (pointing out how you, personally can’t do it) and the person across from you is probably not that much better than you. If you crush yourself in front of them they will feel crushed too. “We’re equals in this, we’re good people, but we don’t measure up to God.”

Commandment 2) Love your neighbors yourself.

Again, nobody loves their neighbors as themselves. When Jesus was asked who's your neighbor, He said every single person who is in need is your neighbor. We do not meet other people's needs the same way we meet our own. We just don't. We might help somebody a little, but we don't give them half of our stuff. We don't love our neighbors the same way we love ourselves, not if you consider your neighbor to be everyone who has need.

The Law crushes us. Put the weight of Holiness on their shoulders, that's the first phase of the conversation.

The second phase

Take the weight of Holiness and put it on Jesus.

Jesus does love people. He does meet their need. He's going to go to the cross. He's innocent and yet He's going to pay the price for everyone. He isn't just loving them as Himself, He's not splitting what He has, He's taking all of God's wrath on Himself and giving us all of God's righteousness. Jesus can bear the weight of Holiness and we cannot. That's why He is a great Savior.

Make Jesus big, big, big!

The third phase

How how do I get it?

Jesus Walking on Water- ReverentReflections

By faith. We have to believe.

We have to understand what God is accomplishing on the cross. We have to understand our need and how Jesus saves us and then we have to appropriate it to ourselves.

We have to make a decision: do I want to trust it? Do I want to put my eggs in Jesus's basket? Do I want to put my hope in the anchor that God provides? If God tells me He provided a sacrifice for me, do I want to believe it?

Faith, faith, faith, that is the third one.

The Fourth Phase

We want to help them move forward.

Salvation isn’t just “check the box, I'm going to Heaven, phew”. At the cross every single thing changes:

New Creation in Christ - PropheticVessel

  • Who we are

  • Our relationship with God

  • The purpose of our life

  • How we view suffering and trials

  • How we see other people, etc.

Paul says, “God's love compels me. I no longer look at people the way the world sees people, I see them as a mission.”

Everything about our life is supposed to change. We're now citizens of Heaven and we're no longer citizens of this Earth. We're supposed to live as aliens and strangers and we are now intimately related to God.

So, I want to explain some of this stuff to them. Let's jump into some texts and we'll walk right through it. They're amazing. They're all out of Romans, because you could overwhelm someone at this point and that's not the goal.

Let’s start with Romans 5:1-5 and walk them through it.

Romans 5:1-5 (NIV)

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

You want to point out that these verses are written in past tense. You have been justified through faith when you believe.

What does it mean to say you “believed it”? If this makes sense to you and you have chosen to put your trust in the work of Jesus.

Then the results are spoken of in past tense.

You have been justified. Justified means to be declared innocent. It means to have no books, no guilt, nothing, no debt to God.

Therefore, since we have been (past tense) justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Always With You- WorshipInk

He's at peace with me now; no longer an agent of wrath; no longer against me; no longer punishing me. I can't get on His wrong side. I have been past tense declared innocent.

People who are innocent before God have ‘present tense’ peace. I have peace with God through Jesus. Jesus accomplished continuing peace. Peace today, peace tomorrow, peace a month from now, peace a hundred years from now, peace ten thousand years from now. That peace doesn't start when I die and go to Heaven, that peace starts at the moment of belief.

The unbeliever sees God as wrathful and judgmental and out to get them and out to punish them for their failures and sins. For a believer that is no longer true; we have peace with God through Jesus Christ.

All we do is have faith; all we do is believe. In the text, those are the two things we do, God does all the rest of the work.

through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

We stand.

Our standing—our state—before God is grace.

What is grace? Everything Jesus accomplished for me on the cross; all the promises of God from the cross: that I am in Him, that I am safe, that I am forgiven, that I am a Son of God.

I now stand in all of these promises.

Remember when we were in point number three? Ephesians chapter 2: saved by faith.

Ephesians 2:1-9 (NIV)

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Everyone starts as an object of wrath; we started in wrath. Romans 3 said:

Romans 3:9-20 (NIV)

What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

Thomas Blackshear FORGIVEN

No one is justified before God, all have sinned, all have walked away, all have become worthless.

But, we now stand in grace. Our standing is now totally in Christ. I am in Christ. When God sees me He sees the finished work of the cross. When He sees me He sees His son dressed in Jesus' clothes. That's outrageous!

How did all of that come true? Faith, faith, faith. It just says it again and again. That's the beauty of these verses in Romans 5, they reinforce the previous points all the way through.

Look how verses 3, 4, and 5 go on:

And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Paul is saying here that our entire perspective on life can now change.

“Suffering is not promised to go away for a believer. We’re going to suffer just the same as the world. We’re in a world of sin. We are the light in that world but we’re, nonetheless, still in this world that that we brought sin into.”
— Bruce Peterson

An unbeliever doesn't see…and God doesn't use suffering in an unbeliever's life the same way. With suffering in an unbeliever's life, they're suffering in the world.

A Light in The Dark - Tummymountain

Suffering is not promised to go away for a believer. We're going to suffer just the same as the world. We're in a world of sin. We are the light in that world but we're, nonetheless, still in this world that we brought sin into. We are the light and hope drawing people out but we're in the world with them so of course we're going to suffer. That goes away in Heaven, but for now we're going to suffer.

But, notice that in our suffering we now have a totally different perspective. Because God is no longer an enemy, now He's a friend. He's no longer treating me with wrath, He's now treating me with grace. The sufferings I go through are now trials or opportunities for me to lean into the promises of God.

I can lean into God’s promises and go through the struggles and I can still find that God is my friend, that God is with me. Through the suffering I'm finding areas in my life where I'm not trusting God and I can lean in to God—who is the Good Shepherd—who also suffered for me, who understands suffering, who understands the cruelty and the injustices of this world.

I can remember that the God who loves me is with me and He is wanting me to be light in the midst of the struggle so that I can give hope to other people in the midst of their struggle. In the end all of it gets made well, all of it gets redone, all of it gets rewarded on my behalf.

All of life's struggles get changed because I've now entered into a relationship with God. The spiritual has been made visible to me and I am able to be used in a totally different way and view my life in a totally different way than before I knew God.

And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

I have changed; I have shifted. What is this grace in which I now stand? I now stand in the love of God.

Paul's going to lean into this in Romans chapter 8 when he says, “Who can separate us from the love of God?”

I now stand in the love of God. I am now a child of God and his relationship with me is that of a child which he is raising up. My sin is not counted against me any longer but that doesn't mean I am mature.

I like to use this illustration: When a human baby gets born they are fully human but they are not mature in any sense. In zero sense are they mature but they are fully human. They're not going to become more human later in life, but they are going to mature. They're going to be able to walk as a successful human being. That's exactly how the Bible talks about us, about maturity.

Jesus is going to talk about salvation with the euphemism of being born again. You start as an infant and the goal is to put on the full armor; to put on Christ; to put on the Word.

I'm supposed to learn to use the weapons of righteousness that I've been given. God is now going to work in my life maturing me and as I mature in Christ I will put off sin and I will put on righteousness because I will mature in my spiritual growth.

How does that all work? Through the Holy Spirit who is given to us like Ephesians 1 says.

Ephesians 1:13-14 (NIV)

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

When you believed you were marked in him with the promised Holy Spirit who is a seal guaranteeing your inheritance until that day comes. We now have God living in our chest. I have I've been justified. I have peace with God. I stand in Grace. I walk in the love of God and I have God in my chest.

That's what happened and; therefore, I can have a totally new perspective on my life; on my struggles; on how I relate to people in life; and on the worries of this life. All have radically shifted because of Christ.

It's an amazing passage and you can literally take the entire afternoon talking to someone about all those truths, but the goal isn't to bring them to full knowledge on these subjects, the goal is to get them inspired. For them to go, “Oh wow I should look into this stuff.”

You're not teaching them a theology class, that would last forever. That's what church is for. This conversation is to inspire them to learn more about this because it's not just salvation, it's something even more awesome.

All right, let's jump to Romans 8:1-4. Paul has accomplished a lot of work through Romans, but, again, we can't teach everything, so we're just trying to show them that everything has changed at the moment of Salvation.

Romans 8:1-4 (NIV)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Archangel Gabriel Recording in the Book of Life -Michael Rucker

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation. Not now, not later, not when we die, not at the Great White Throne Judgment.

We will have a name in The Book of Life; we will not have books, they've been taken away. Like Colossians 2 said, everything written down that stood against us got nailed to the cross. It got taken away. Jesus triumphed over it. I now stand in peace. I now stand in Grace. I've been declared justified. I'm innocent before God who took my wrath away.

Where did the Wrath go? Jesus took it. It was nailed to Him on the cross. Jesus took our sin.

Paul sums that up in 2 Corinthians five:

2 Corinthians 5:21

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

But here in Romans he's kind of going a little slower.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

We get the spirit who gives life.

What's the law of the Spirit? This is the promised Holy Spirit this is life in Christ Jesus.

What's the law of sin and death? The Ten Commandments: love the Lord your God with all your heart soul, mind, and strength; love your neighbors as yourself; have no other gods before me; tell no lies; have no lust.

The law crushes you.

For what the law was powerless to do…

What do we need? Holiness. The Law, though it itself is holy—it’s a demonstration of holiness—it didn't have the power to make me holy.

Why? Because I don't have the willpower to obey it and neither do you.

For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,

The flesh is me. I can’t follow the Law. I can't do it. I can't and neither can you.

The Law was powerless to  make us holy; to give us a way back to God. And because we couldn't do it, God did it by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful men to be a sin offering.

The Law couldn't get me back to God; make me holy; make me acceptable; get me access to Heaven; get my get my books taken away. The Law couldn't do it. The law is actually a record of how I break the Law. That's what the books which record our actions are. The books can't help me; the Law can't help me. But God wants to give us help.

For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.

So what the Law couldn't do, God accomplished by sending Jesus.

What is the Law? What I should do. How I should be holy. My holiness, or the expectations of my holiness. That's what the Law is.

Jesus is my holiness. I get credit for Him. That's why it's Grace. We don't stand in performance or effort, we stand in grace. It’s what God accomplished for me by sending Jesus.

That's a crazy gift. It's the gift of God.

And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

Jesus is flesh and He defeated sin on the cross.

in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us,

What are the righteous requirements of the Law? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbors as yourself. And 611 more laws. All of them.

in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us,

Wow, wow! Who's the “us”? Those who are in Christ Jesus.

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

How do I get in Jesus? By faith, trust, promise, follow,—whatever word you want to use—born again, citizen of Heaven. I have “thrown my eggs into the basket of Jesus”. I have I have aligned myself with Christ.

And when I did that—the moment I believed—Paul says in Ephesians:

Ephesians 1:13-14 (NIV)

Divine Encounter, The Conversation Between Jesus and Nicodemus- EternalLightPrints

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

The minute I believe these things become true of me. They didn’t happen when I believed, they happened on the cross, but they get credited to me when I believe by faith. I get credit for it.

Let's go further down in the Romans chapter:

Romans 8:15-17 (NIV)

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

This passage is talking about our new relationship with God. We were by nature objects of wrath. By nature, who we are, our relationship to God, we're condemned. We have books that are bringing wrath. That's who we were before we got saved.

When we get saved there’s no more fear. Fear is gone.

1 John 4:18 (NIV)

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Perfect love casts out fear because fear has to do with judgment. We do not live in fear now. The Spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again; it's not just a different kind of fear. This is release from fear.

Back to Romans:

rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.

Let's stop there for a second because it's really important to understand this word here : “adoption”.

In the West in 2023 people would rather be a natural born kid than an adopted child. Adoption is awesome. It’s powerful; it's meaningful. I'm not trying to minimize it at all. But there's an insecurity about adoption in our day, I assume. I'm not adopted so maybe I'm wrong. But I presume that there's some insecurity that comes with that. Some unknowing; some some instability.

In the Roman world it was different. They had a pretty low view of human life and not a lot of birth control. So if you had a kid and you didn't want that kid you would take that kid and put it out in the field.

The early church is actually known for rescuing those children and raising them themselves, which is a great testimony to us.

But, until the family deemed them wanted and human they had no rights and could be left out in the field for the for the animals. It was pretty tragic.

In that world they had a totally different idea of adoption.

Your natural born child you couldn't really prevent and you couldn't really decide between girl or boy; blue eyes or dark eyes; curly hair or straight hair; whatever. You didn't get to choose any of it. The kid just just came

Jesus with Child - PatriotToday

Adoption on the other hand has the parent’s full intent. It’s fully obvious that right up front, “I am choosing that child there to be mine. That one right there is mine now. I am choosing to adopt it.”

So once you adopted a child in this culture it was yours forever; you couldn't disown it later, you couldn't give it back.

Adoption was a statement of security. Your parent wanted you. They chose you out of the whole “nursery” full of kids. They chose you and they want you. It also brought legal security that a natural child didn't have.

On some level that makes sense because, “I'm choosing you, so I don't get to give you back.”

God wrote these verses with that culture as the primary audience. That's what it's like when we become His child. He is choosing us. He intentionally sent Jesus to save us. He knows us and He wants us saved, so He is putting Himself on the hook.

Jesus And The Lost Lamb - InkedInThyme

God is saying, “I have chosen you.” That's why there is no more fear.

What would the fear be over? I can get lost. I can get abandoned. My sin could kick me out. My sin could make God mad and I'd no longer be welcome. No, no, no, no. No more fear.

There's no more insecurity. Insecurity is gone, you are now secure.

And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

This is a crazy story:

It says “Abba”. Nowhere in the Bible is God the Father called Abba. which is

It is just the common term like “Daddy”. It’s nowhere in the Bible except when Jesus was in the garden.

Moses - Burning Bush - AnimManStudios

If you go back to the Law when God reveals himself to Moses, God says they're supposed to speak the name of God to each other and Yahweh is His name.

But then in the Ten Commandments God says, “Don't use my name in vain.”

So, the Pharisees wanted to protect themselves and were wondering how they could know if they were using God's name in vain. So they just put a fence around that law by adding other laws that said to never use God’s name. It's just safer not to use the name of God.

Even today Jewish people won't even spell the name of God. They'll write “GD”.

Gethsemane - AuroraWallPrints

Jesus totally breaks that in the Garden of Gethsemane when He's at his weakest; when He is suffering the most; when He is bearing the most weight; when He is needing God's comfort the most; Jesus—in that intimate moment, when He is talking to his Abba, to his dad—He is referring to Him out loud as Abba.

“Dad, look at me here man, I need help. I need strength. I need I need you. I need, I need, I need the confidence of those promises to be brought to my mind. I’m going to be dying literally for the sin of the world.”

Jesus is leaning on Abba to help him, to get him through, to remember his promises.

Then Paul says because we are now in Jesus we get that kind of a relationship with God. God is now ‘Abba’ to us.

Pictures of Jesus Christ - UpliftYourFeed

So, it went from ‘Yahweh"‘ and don't use my name in vain to ‘Abba’—dad, dad, dad. The audacity it would take to be so trivial with our unholiness that we would refer to God as Dad.

But, I don't have unholiness. I sin still, I do. But it's on Jesus' account and that breaks my heart. I am immature. I need spiritual growth, but God loves me as a dad. He's in my life hoping that in the struggle of life and in the temptations of life that I don't get waylaid.

Because you believed, now your whole relationship with God is different. He is no longer your enemy. He's now a loving father who's going to help you mature.

Does that mean suffering is going away? Nope, you're still going to suffer. But He's going to walk with you through it. Like David said, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil because you're with me… (Psalm 23:4)”

You’re relationship with God is totally different. God is no longer your enemy, He's your friend.

Look at this:

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…”

Who I am has changed. Who God is to me has changed.

I am no longer an outsider; I am now a family member. I'm no longer a beggar on the curb of Heaven hoping to find a crumb; I am now a co-heir with Christ I have rights. Jesus said, ‘Whoever believes in me has been given the right to be called The Son of God.”

Grace gave me these rights: Real sonship, real relationship, God is obligated to be on my side.

That's awesome! And if that's true, then what would be the consequences of that?

Here's where I'll shift to Romans 8, starting at verse 31.

Romans 8:31-39 (NIV)

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

For the first point, lets focus on the following:

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

God couldn't give anything more than Jesus to save me. God gave it all. No father is just going to offer up a son he loves, his one and only son. God went to the very limit of giving when He gave us His Son to save us.

Now that I'm his child God is going to give us all things for godliness—not all things in the world. I'm not going to just become physically fit. I'm not going to become taller. I'm not going to become richer. Those things are not what we're talking about here. We're talking about way more substantial things than that, not the trivial things of life.

“ If you’re not bold enough to talk to your friends about God, lean into this promise. Just start talking and see if God doesn’t embolden you in that conversation. Just start, take Him at His Word, enter into these conversations with your friends.”
— Bruce Peterson

God is now in my life making me His son, making me into a person He can be proud of and He will give me everything I need for godliness in this life. He will give me everything I need for boldness. If you're not bold enough to talk to your friends about God, lean into this promise. Just start talking and see if God doesn't embolden you in that conversation. Just start, take Him at His Word, enter into these conversations with your friends.

God is never going to be against us. He's not against you; He isn't your enemy; He isn't out to get you. If you get sick it's not because He's punishing you for sin, that's not how it works. Your whole relationship has changed. He is not against you; He's for you.

The proof of this is that He gave you His Son and with that He's going to give you all things.

Here’s the second point:

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

Who could bring any charge against us when the Judge, Himself, has declared us innocent.

There's no books left, where would the charge even come from?

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

God is for us. God the Father loves us. We're now His son, His heir.

Who's the judge? He is. and he has justified us. More than that, Jesus, the one who caused my justification, is alive in Heaven and His role is to pray for me.

So God already loves me. I'm already His son. He is already on my side. And Jesus is constantly praying to Him about me.

I Am a Child of God — Howard Lyon

That’s pretty good, like a minute ago before this conversation you were an enemy of God deserving of wrath with books stacked up that had your death in mind. You are now innocent, book free, and team Jesus in the family of God. You are an heir of God with God, Himself, living in your chest and your whole life is now on a different trajectory.

This is pretty good stuff, right? That's pretty good. That enough to try to get the person you're talking to to lean into church.

Why go to church if you're already going to Heaven? Why be good if I'm already going to Heaven? Because you have this whole relationship with God which you can develop.

Imagine building a relationship with the God of the universe who wants to change this world through you; who wants to bring life to your circle of influence. You just got saved, yes, but you know lots of people whom you love who aren't saved. You can put this stuff on, you can learn it, and you too can go bring life to those people. You can partner with Jesus in this world.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Let's slow down. Paul is taking every possibility of being separated from God and putting it there.

Can the heavens, themselves, separate us from God? No. No powers, no demons, no angels.

What about the future? I don't know what's the future holds. The future is this mysterious Pandora's Box. What about the future? What if God changes His mind? What if I fail? What if disaster happens in my life and I panic? What if I begin to lose my mind? What if I get dementia, start cursing God? What if I get angry? What if I become an alcoholic a decade from now? What about the future? No. No, not even the future. Not the present. Not the Future.

…nor any powers, neither height nor depth…

This is spiritual. Not the heavens and not the abyss. There is no dark force, there's no chaos force out there that can come in between the cross and you. The matter is settled, you have been declared innocent. Jesus has taken all your guilt—not just the guilt up to that moment—your whole life got paid for on the cross, all sin for all time with one sacrifice.

Just so you know, if this was one conversation where I was sharing the Gospel in two hours, I'd refer back to Hebrews 10:11-18 (NIV):

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy…

One time for all time. One sacrifice and we have been made holy. That's this hear:

neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation…

Are you part of creation? You are. And even you cannot separate you from Go. You are now a legal heir with legal rights. You might go sideways. You might become the prodigal son.

The Prodigal Son 2- FrameItStudioCo

What then will the Father do? Cut you off? No. He will look to the horizon and He will work to call you back. You're now His son. He's now in your corner. You might be a wayward son, but He'll pull you back. You might be a strong son and He'll raise you up and use you to change the world.

neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If you have believed this, then this is now true of you.

The way you pray, the way you see God, the the desires of your heart, the the way you see people, the way that God is in your corner, everything, your confidence in life, it has all changed.

Know that you are loved and accepted and on team Jesus. God is now committed to your maturity and He is going to work through the things in your life to cause you to know the promises and learn the promises and lean on the promises and to put on Christ. God and you are now together on one team.

Your name is in The Book of Life. Your place in Heaven is certain, that's true, but you get way more than that. Your entire relationship with God, starting now and for every day in your future, can be significantly different because you are now His child.

That's how I'll kind of end that. I usually give them a hug and often times I give them the Bible that I used to show them these verses with. I use a real handheld Bible and it's my Bible. I'm happy to buy new Bibles. So, oftentimes I just give them my Bible and I write a note to them in the front. Something like, “You got saved on this day (I put the date) and here's my Bible.” And I add whatever it takes to help them.

Do I do that every single time? No. Do I do it a lot? Yes, I do, and whatever helps to trigger them to believe these promises and to know that their relationship with God is secure.

With that, we have wrapped up Revelation 20:11-15 the Great White Throne Judgement and how I use that passage in leading people to Christ.

Thanks for coming to church today! I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you put it into practice. I hope you're able to lead many many people to Christ. Go in the boldness of Jesus as an ambassador for the light. Go change your world!

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written or transcribed by Amanda Hovseth.

Petitioning the Great Provider: How God answered two of my toughest prayers

Prayer is a pretty amazing thing. 

“He Shall Hear My Voice” by Michael Dudash

The fact that when Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn, allowing us to enter the Holy of Holies and now we have full access to God is…well, if you think about it, it’s truly audacious of us to request things of our all powerful, all knowing creator. And yet, He wants us to come to Him… it’s incomprehensible really.. 

I am pretty sure I barely understand prayer, but I would like to share a couple things I’ve learned by telling you about one particular night when one of my most urgent prayers was answered and one of my most consistently prayed prayers was realized.

I didn’t say “answered” for that second prayer because it had been being answered for as long as I had been praying it, I just hadn’t liked the answer. But, that night, I realized at least one of the reasons why God had been answering me the way He was.

The night I’m going to tell you about was also one of the worst nights of my life.

by Jeremy Man

My most consistently prayed prayer was one of vanity. From as early as I can remember I struggled with self-image. I have never been small. Even when I was fit, I was still larger than society had me convinced I should be. I wanted to be tiny, to be a wisp of a thing, the kind of girl who could be lifted into the air and spun around by her boyfriend. Instead, I’ve always been built more like a brick wall. 

eating disorder – Sara Prentice

And, no, I didn’t just lay around praying and hoping God would transform my body, I worked hard for it. I honestly worked out almost every day for most of my life since I was in grade school and I’ve always eaten hardly anything. To the extent of ending up with a starvation focused eating disorder. But no matter how much I worked out or how little I ate, I never lost weight, I only ever seemed to gain it.

God could have easily let me lose weight. It wasn’t even like He would have had to give it to me as a gift, I had given up enough and worked hard enough to earn it. He could have even given me a body where I didn’t need to work so hard in the first place. But He didn’t. He kept answering my prayers where I requested a change in body type with a resounding, “No”. And I was consistently just like…but…why not?

You see, the thing is, Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God knows what bodies we need for the lives we are going to lead and He will stick to His decisions–even when we are begging Him for something different than what we need–because He knows things we don’t know.

“Trapped- Domestic Violence” by Sherrie Thai

So, fast forward to the night of focus. I was 30 years old and married to my first husband, who as it turned out had a lot of hidden psychological issues, which made him dangerous to me and to everyone else in my life. I’m not going to go into detail about all the build up to this day, other than to say there was no doubt in my mind that we were on the road to him ending my life. We were living in the basement of my mom’s house, planning on buying the house from her. But this night sometime in early October–after a truly terrifying evening the day before–I was finally determined to tell my husband he had to find somewhere else to live and we needed to be separated for a bit while we figured out his mental health. 

We were in the garage because that was his space since he liked working on cars. He wasn’t taking what I was saying very well. But, fortunately, in this moment he had decided to try getting me to pity him instead of fear him. I wanted more than anything to find a way to get him to leave the house without things getting violent, because I was worried for my mom who was off in her room, and for my dogs. So, I was comforting him, trying not to escalate things. 

I vividly remember sitting on the cement floor with the head of a man, whom I believed would kill me if I took one wrong move, cradled in my lap as he cried and claimed he had nowhere to go. I was at a loss for what to do next. All I could do was pray.

“Dear God, I need your help. I know you hate divorce, but staying with him is no longer just dangerous to me, it's dangerous to everyone else I care about. I need him out of the house, but I want him to have somewhere safe to go. I don’t know how to make that happen. I need You to make it happen.”

And He did. 

I had believed keeping things from escalating was the way to go, but God knew something else needed to happen. 

We ended up moving to the living room and my mom came out of her room to check on me–because she knew what I was trying to do that night. But, my ex knew having her around would make it harder for him to manipulate me, so he burst into a blind rage and attacked her. 

Fortunately, when it comes to fight or flight, I’m a fighter. He only got one punch in before I was able to get between them. I wrestled with him and eventually got him down onto the couch. 

My mom panicked and hurried to call 911.

After I had gotten him down onto the couch I heard her on the phone telling the cops that he had me in a headlock and I corrected her, “No, I have him.”

But, I almost hadn’t had him. The difference between me being able to hold him down and him getting free, was fractional. 

Break Free Painting by Nicole Troup

I honestly can’t remember most of what happened while I was trying to subdue him. At one point he had even apparently pulled out a huge chunk of my hair, but I don’t really remember that happening. However, I do remember one moment vividly. When I was on top of him on the couch, he almost threw me off of him and I knew that if he did manage to do that, he would grab the nearest weapon and things would get so much worse. 

So, I buckled down and made sure the weight of my entire body was on top of him. And in that moment, it clicked, I needed every bit of strength I had, and every single pound of weight I had in order to keep him down. And I literally thought, “Thank God that none of my diets have worked.”

That’s when I realized that God had known that this moment was coming in my life and He knew what kind of body I would need to make it through. Being a tiny wisp of a thing whose boyfriend could twirl her in the air, would not have helped me in the life I, specifically, was going to live. 

Betsie ten Boom

Sure, maybe there’s an infinity of other ways that all could’ve played out. But God knew how things would play out. And, as Corrie Ten Boom’s sister Betsie said, ““There are no ‘ifs’ in God’s world. And no places that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety – let us pray that we may always know it.”

The cops ended up arresting my ex husband that night.

That’s how God answered my more urgent prayer, one which I had prayed having no idea how it could possibly get answered. My ex was now no longer at my house and he was also taken somewhere where he would be kept safe. 

I know being arrested isn’t ideal, but in the mental state he was in, it was the safest option for him. It was also an outcome I would not have planned myself. I had wanted things to stay as calm as possible, but God had allowed things to escalate. My mom and I had only suffered minor physical injuries, but it was just enough for the cops to have reason to arrest him. God had known what needed to be done for the best possible outcome in that moment and He had threaded the needle, working out His will amongst the mess of our humanity and free will.

Image © Daniel Pape from GoodSalt.com

Sometimes God’s answer to our prayer is “no” and that may be infuriating to us, but we have to remember that He knows things we don’t know. And while we are most likely thinking from a limited worldly perspective, He is seeing things from an all-knowing eternal perspective.

Sometimes we make terrible life choices which get us into horrible situations. But, God is still there, lovingly waiting for us to bring the mess we made into the Holy of Holies and ask Him to fix it.

God is Love Painting by Ladislav Zaborsky

Like I said, I am not an expert on prayer. But, for some reason, God loves us enough to offer us His ear and His help; and there is no doubt in my mind that it is always in our best interest to take Him up on that offer.

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written or transcribed by Amanda Hovseth.

How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 3 of 4)

Transcribed from Sermons by Bruce Peterson at Grace Chapel in Scottsbluff, NE. The video of this sermon can be found by clicking this link.

For a printable list of the primary verses to use when sharing the Gospel via this method, click on this link.

iStock free download

Alright, we're in part three of, “How to lead someone to Christ”.

How do you do that? It's it's way easier than we think it is, but it requires some knowledge. 

There's four basic steps to going through the Gospel. I have a list of these steps and the verses I use in each to lead someone to Christ.

You can click on this link for a list which includes the entire verses, but here’s a list with just the references:

1) Be Holy

Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:14-16; Romans 3:9-20; Hebrews 4:12-13

2) Judgment is Coming

Revelation 20:11-15

3) What God did through Jesus

Colossians 2:9-15; Romans 3:21-25b; 1 John 2:1-2; Hebrews 10:11-18

4) How I Make the Work of Jesus Count for Me

Ephesians 2:1-9; Romans 4:4-8; Romans 6:23; John 3:16-18; John 3:35-36

5) Bonus: What Happens When I Believe

Romans 5:1-5; Romans 8:1-4; Romans 8:15-17; Romans 8:31-39

Or discussion about the Gospel at the end of the book of Revelation is of course triggered by these verses—Revelation 20:11-15—so let's read these verses again and get us all on the same page.

Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV)

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the Great White Throne Judgment, when the age of humans in this life, on this globe, in this way, is over. It ends in a moment when God pulls the plug; when he decides time is up.

I suspect that is when he has “wrung out” of humanity everyone who will follow him.

If you listen through the Book of Revelation, he is wringing it out—getting every last drop out—of the rag. He is getting the very last human onto team Jesus that he can. Then, it’ll be over in a moment.

So, in a single moment of time, God is going to end human history, but not before it gets terribly dramatic because he's going to do some wringing. But when it's over, all of humanity, every human, will stand before God. Every human.

And that's a weighty time.

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life.

This is one of the key verses that I start witnessing with because it's dramatic. Everyone's going to stand before God and notice that there are books—plural—and then a single book and those are radically different.

and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

“God’s heart for us is full of grace. When we know and understand that about His heart, we see His grace in how He interacts with us and in what He tells us in the Bible.”
— Amanda Hovseth

Let me say this about the Book of Revelation: we can see this passage as judgment. It is a judgment scene. But here's the beautiful thing about understanding the heart of God, it is absolute Grace.

The fact that this passage is even in the Bible…not having people know that judgment's coming…that would be that would be like, “Oh, surprise! You’ve now got to answer for your life.”

That would be a bad surprise.

A good God; a loving God, is going to say, “Listen, this day is coming. I don't want you to have books, I want your name in The Book of Life. I have done everything I can. I have sent my son. He paid the price. I had the end times happen. I wrung people out. I had churches on every corner. I had your grandma know the truth. I have done what I can. I have done it.”

By putting it in there God is saying, “Get your name in The Book of Life, do it now! Don't wait. You don't know when a bus is coming that you don't see. Get your name in The Book of Life.”

That is a good thing, that's a good God, it's not just put in to be a judgment scene.

So, this is week three and here's the movements I take when evangelizing—when I lead someone to Christ; help them to become born again:

1) Start with the problem.

The Problem: We have to be holy. You're not holy. No one's holy.

You take this passage—Revelation 20—and you bring it to bear on their life. Stay with the problem, focus on the problem. What's the problem? Be holy. Jesus said that; Peter said it; the Law said it; it's all over the Bible. Be holy. You're not holy.

When Jesus was asked, “What's the most important thing I should know?” He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Destroy the person you're talking to with those two laws. No one you will ever talk to loves the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind. No one, not you, and you're a Believer. Not me, and I'm a pastor. Who loves God with all their mind? You don't. Your mind doesn't go to bad places ever?

Ever love with all your heart? No. With all your passion—everything you are? No.

With all your soul? No. With your whole being—your money, your time, your energy? No.

You should love God above all and always and with all your mind.

No one does that. We might do it for milliseconds and then we're lost.

And, no one loves their neighbors more than themselves.

istockphoto-TonyBaggett

The guy even asked Jesus who’s your neighbor? Like he was thinking, “I love some of my neighbors.”

Then Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan which teaches that every person in the world who has a need is your neighbor. That was Jesus’ answer, treat whoever needs a neighbor as if they were your neighbor. So, all the needy people of the world.

But, we do not give up our cars for them. We do not cut our celery in half and give half to them and half to ourselves. We don't. We just don't love people like we love ourselves. Most of us, when there's a tiny bit of ice cream left in the freezer, we make sure we eat it so even our children don’t get the last bowl. That's how we don't love our neighbors as ourselves. We don't even love our children as ourselves.

And I'll tell you this, if my kid gets cancer and your kid gets cancer, you will care more about yours than you care about mine. That's just the truth of it.

Point One: is to wreck them.

2) Explain the consequence to the problem.

They're going to stand before God. They're going to answer for their lives. And if they go into that experience and they're counting on their own goodness to get them through, they're done.

Don't let them think that they can go stand before God and their life is going to save them. Their life is going to wreck them. There's an angel who is writing down every single thing we think say or do—including motives—that doesn't measure up. Don't relent on this truth.

You put the weight of holiness squarely on their shoulders—just the weight of holiness.

“You’re not the judge, you are warning them about the coming judgement. You are not the judge, be careful, that’s a big distinction.”
— Bruce Peterson

Don't bring up their own personal sins, you'll just build a wall between you with those. Talk about your sins. Talk about humanity in general. Talk about how no one does it right. Don't go, “Oh, well you're a thief and you're a drunk and you're…” Don't do that. You'll just alienate them. That turns you into their judge, but you’re not the judge, you’re warning them about a judgment which is coming. You’re not the judge, be careful, there's a big distinction.

Put the weight of holiness on them and they will beg for mercy and they will ask for the solution.

Then, here's the beautiful thing, here is the grace of God.

3) Take the weight off of them.

Take all of the weight, all their guilt, all their shame, all their sin, and you just pick it up and you carry it over here and you set it squarely on the shoulders of Jesus. Jesus is the hero. Jesus is the solution.

Because of the great love of God, He sent a Savior: the Lamb.

John 1:29 (ESV)

“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’”

You show how huge and glorious the sacrifice of Jesus is. You honor Jesus with the credit do Him and the victory that He won. He conquered the books. It’s just amazing. 

“Salvation”by Ron DiCianni

Paul says Jesus took everything that stood against you— all your legal indebtedness (that's the books) and he nailed it to the cross. God the Father nailed your books to the cross his son died on. What a profound profound love of God. God loves you so much that he took all your books—all your thoughts, all your motives, all your laziness, all of it and he nailed it to his son. Wow! The love of God and the grace of God, it just doesn't get bigger than that.

Make Jesus the hero that He is. Give them the weight of holiness and then take that and put it on Jesus. Jesus can handle it. He can handle the weight of holiness. He is the only holy sacrifice. He is the only pleasing sacrifice. God was satisfied with the death of his son for us.

All your sin, yes, the secret ones, yes, the really terrible ones, yes, even Hitler's sin, yes, all of Hitler's sin was paid for on the cross. That doesn't mean he's in heaven but he might be, who knows. If I can go to Heaven, anyone can go. Because Jesus said hatred is equal to murder and thinking about somebody sexually is equal to adultery. Well then, you are terrible. You're a cheating, lustful, murderer. Savage is what you are.

And greed is equal to idolatry. If you don't love your neighbors as you love yourself—which none of us do because we’re greedy—so we're all idolatrous. And we're all adulterers. And we are all murderers, every one of us.

And Jesus loves us so much that he said, “Give it to me. I will pay it. And I will give you my robes of righteousness so that when you stand before God you have no books.” You will literally stand before God clothed in the holiness of Jesus.

Move the weight of holiness from them to Jesus.

I haven't told this story in a while, but I'll tell it again.

Landon Franklin, if you're listening this is for you buddy.

Way back in youth group I was teaching these exact same verses 20 plus years ago in my old house. And what I do when I'm teaching Junior High, I say, “Who will volunteer to let me witness to them, so you guys can actually watch me do it.”

Landon goes, “Oh, I'll do it.”

He wasn't saved so I was like, “Oh, that's perfect!”

That's what I try to get to happen. I'm going to actually witness to somebody even though they think I'm only practicing and the youth group watches.

Celebration Painting by Priti Gokani | Saatchi Art

So, Landon volunteers, he might have been around 8th grade, so he is old enough to be bad enough to care. And we get to this point where I take the weight off them an put it on Christ. He literally started crying and he got out of his chair and was jumping up and down and he said, “The weight is gone! The weight is gone! I'm free!”

He was literally celebrating in my living room in front of his peers, saying, “Wow! that was amazing news!”

It's not that dramatic to everyone, but that happens. It is a dramatic truth. If I see my real guilt before God and then I finally see Jesus as taking all of the guilt—it's a huge thing.

We sing a song called “Your Great Name” by Natalie Grant:

“The Lost are saved they find their way at the sound of Your Great Name. All condemned feel no shame at the sound of Your Great Name. Every fear has no place at the sound of Your Great Name. Jesus, worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us, the Son of God and man. You are high and lifted up that all the world will praise Your Great Name. All the weak they find their strength at the sound of Your Great Name. Hungry Souls receive grace at the sound of Your Great Name.”

You have a profound Savior.

The lost of this world are loved dearly by God. Jesus loves every one of them and paid as much for them as he paid for anyone.

And he entrusted—this is all over the Bible—you’re ambassadors for Christ.

Peter said in 1 Peter 2:9 (NIV):

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Here's your one job according to Peter: that you might declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness.

If you can't elaborate on the awesomeness of Jesus, what are you doing? Are you asleep? This is a profound truth and it's right there on these papers. Memorize those verses, memorize them!

“You should be able to spew for hours what Jesus has done for you.”
— Bruce Peterson

You should be able to spew for hours what Jesus has done for you.

Sometimes if you just talk about what Jesus has done for you enough someone might say to you, “I want some of that. I want some of that.”

But mostly when you share the Gospel you're going to start with the problem. You're going to say something like, “Hey do you know the confidence I have before God? I know for sure I'm going to heaven when I die. You might think I'm crazy. But. can I tell you why I have that confidence?”

Then put it on yourself:

  • “I used to be…

  • “I never loved God the way I should…

  • “I am guilty of…

You can talk about yourself. They'll understand what you're doing.

Then get to Jesus. You should be able to spew about Jesus for hours. He's amazing.

But, if you stop there your person may or may not be saved and you might give them the impression that it means Jesus paid for everyone’s sin; therefore, everyone is saved.

Which is not true. You have to appropriate Jesus’ payment for yourself.

4) Tell them how the work of Jesus can count for them.

How does Jesus's death to count for you? Would you like credit for Jesus? Would you like Jesus to be your holiness? Would you like him to answer for your sin instead of you? Yes? Okay, so this is the issue of Faith.

It's time to move them to the place where you're going to offer salvation to them and see if they want it.

They might go, “I'm still counting on myself. I really don't think I need it.”

Where would you go to if they did that? Back to number one. “Explain that to me. What exactly are you counting on?” Take them back to number one.

But, if they do want to move forward to learn about salvation, they have to learn that we get salvation by faith.

So, here's the verses we're going to look at and they're amazing verses each in their own right. You should know them. They are classic salvation verses. If I’m going to explain the Gospel there’s just literally no way I’m not referencing these verses. It’s just critical “bread and butter” Gospel presentation verses.

“I will literally say again, “As we read these verses what I want you to notice is how much work you do versus how much work God does. Okay?””
— Bruce Peterson

I will literally say again, “As we read these verses what I want you to notice is how much work you do versus how much work God does. Okay?”

I want them to see how much their life matters in the situation.

I'll just go slowly with them, read the verses and explain them as we go.

Verses don’t speak for themselves. People don’t automatically understand them. There’s words in the Bible they won’t understand. They don’t understand what “grace” is, what “righteousness” is, what “justification” is. 

You have to explain those words in the context of the Bible.

I’ll start with Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:1-9 (NIV):

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Let’s break it down.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins..”

Again, I'll ask: What are you doing? You're sinning.

Are you alive or dead? You're dead, obviously, spiritually dead.

When you were far from God and just not caring, living your own life doing whatever you wanted, that's where we start. What are you doing? Sinning.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

Who's a sinner? All of us.

Now let me, for theology's sake, clear something up. When you get saved you are no longer a sinner, you're now a saint. The New Testament does not call us sinners; God does not refer to believers as sinners, not all of us as a group. We aren't all still in that category, some of us have been saved. I'm not a sinner. Sinners have books. I don't have books. My name's in The Book of Life. I don't have sin. I am righteous. I am holy and blameless, that's who I am. If you're a believer you are holy and blameless.

Hebrews 8:12 (NIV) 

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

That's a promise. You are holy and blameless. Christ is my righteousness.

Now, do I sin? Yes, oh yeah. I'm good at it too. I like it most of the time. Yeah, I can be honest. I sin, God loves me anyhow. I sin, that doesn't keep me from a relationship with God. I sin all the time, all the time.

Again, I will say I don't think humans have a moment in time when they are not sinning. Because, I am never outside of myself, and; therefore, I'm guilty of my own greed all the time. I don't have to be in the moment where I ignore someone who needs my help, that's just a moment. But, our shortcomings don’t just exist in the moment when we act on them, we're never free of our shortcomings.

We just fall short, but as believers, we're not sinners.

That's Grace. We get credit for Jesus. Real credit that really matters. God doesn't see me as a sinner.

God does see me as needing to grow, needing to mature. I have a long way to go. I don't look like Christ yet and he's building me into the image of Christ. I fall short of that every moment in my life and I always will, even though I can make progress. Growing is a key part of the process, but as believers we're not sinners.

Everyone starts as a sinner, everyone, all of us start there. All of us lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our flesh, following its desires and thoughts. That's just saying, you do what you want to do.

What is the governing rule of your life? How do you decide to spend your money? On what you want?

You do what you want; we call that sin.

That's what Adam and Eve did and it has never stopped. People do what they want. It's a problem. We're supposed to do what God wants. If you don't do what God wants every time, it’s sin.

It's a lot of sin, yes it is. We were, by nature, objects of wrath. It's a bad place to be.

Back to Ephesians 2:1-9, what have we done so far? Sin. That's all we've done.

Look at look at what Paul says next: 

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions

Where are we? Dead in our transgressions—our sins.

What have we done so far? Sin, that's all.

What did God do? He made you alive with Christ, while you were a sinner. Not after you clean yourself up. Not after you repent. Not after you change. Not after you make some great vow or make some great pilgrimage. No, that’s all nonsense. It’s not what God says. God says, while you were doing nothing, you weren't even born yet, Jesus came and paid your price. God who knows the future tallied up your life. God already tallied your debt.

Why? Because of his great love for you.

This sounds like point two but it ends up in point three:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

You're saved. It's grace. You can't earn it and you don't deserve it. According to God you're just sinning.

it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus

What did you do in that verse? Nothing.

What are you doing so far? Sinning.

What is God doing so far? He made you alive with Christ. He paid your debt. He raised you up and seated you with Jesus in the Heavenly Realms.

God's done all that and what have you done? Sin.

Hmmm…seems a little unfair, doesn't it?

in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Why did God do that while you were just rebelling and sinning? Because he wants to be the hero. He wants to show off his love. He wants to show off the victory of Jesus. He wants to brag about Jesus in the age to come. He doesn't want to brag about you, he wants to brag about Jesus. So, he did it while you needed help.

For it is by grace you have been saved,

Here it is, step three:

through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

You get no credit. As a matter of fact you can only take credit for sin. While you were sinning God did all this work. All this work is amazing and it's all final and complete.

“Salvation” Artwork By Ron Dicianni

How do you get it? Through faith.

Don't look inside yourself, look outside. You are not your help. The help is not inside of you, it’s external, it’s Jesus.

You're not the hero in your own story; you are not your own salvation. You do not earn your own standing before God.

God, who loves you, is offering you a gift.

What is the gift? Salvation.

What are you being saved from? Your own books.

How do you get it? By grace, which is something amazing that you don't deserve. You get it by accepting it. You can use whatever word you want: “believe”, “trust”, “accept”, “follow “Jesus. Those are all synonymous. Just believe it.

The Gospel isn't magic words, you have to understand the process.

You're guilty.——> You're going to stand before God.——> Jesus loves you, so he took your debt and paid it because you can't.——> Jesus offers that payment as a gift to you.——> Do you want it?

If you did a good job at painting Jesus big, they're going to want it. They might jump up and down, they actually might

Now for the next verse on your handout:

Romans 4:4-8 (NIV)

Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

“Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

Starting at the begining:

Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.

This one's easy to explain.

You go to work. At the end of the day, when you get your paycheck, can your boss claim it was a gift? No, he owes it to you. It's not a gift.

God understands that and he's explaining that to us so that we know he understands it so that when he uses the word “gift” we know he means gift. He’s not saying, “If you earn it, I'm going to give it to you, but it's really good so I'm going to call it a gift even though you deserve it.”

No, no, no. God's going to say, “Listen, I know what a gift means and we all know what a gift means: wages are not a gift, they're a debt you owe me. I did the work, pay up.”

However, to the one who does not work…

The one who does not do what God wants—what do we call that? Sin. That's what it is called.

So, what is this person doing? Sinning.

However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly,

“Justified” is probably the best word in the Bible. It means “to be declared innocent”. It's a legal term in Paul's day—to be declared innocent.

It's a ridiculous idea that God will look at me and declare me innocent of what I've actually done. I'm guilty. I'll plead guilty. I’ll throw myself on the mercy of the court. I am guilty.

And God will go, “No, you're not; you're not guilty. Stop doubting me, Bruce. You're not guilty, you're innocent. Jesus became your sin and—when you accepted it—you became his righteousness.”

Jesus is guilty of those sins. That's why sinning is so gross, because I literally make Jesus guilty of that.

And, yeah, he already paid it. I get it. And I won't have to pay it. But, do I want to see Jesus doing the things I'm imagining doing?

Remember:

to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly,

What are we doing? We're doing the ungodly stuff.

What is God doing? Declaring us innocent.

Of what? everything that's ungodly.

That's ridiculous, I know.

their faith is credited as righteousness.

Faith is credited=counted as goodness. Your faith is counted as perfection.

What are you actually doing with your behavior? Sin.

But you've accepted the payment—which is a massive gift—and by accepting it, you now stand in Christ and everything here in Christ is righteous.

However, to the one who does not work…

All they're going to do is trust that God will declare them innocent and declare them righteous.

Would you like that? Would you like to be innocent?

If you're innocent, can you have books in Heaven with all your sins written in them which you will have to give account for some day? No, you cannot. You cannot have books and be innocent. You can't have both. so you either have books or your name's in The Book of Life.

Would you like to have your name written down in the Book of Life? How would you love that? Yes, I would like that very much.

David says the same thing when he speaks of “the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.” David even had a clue about this message of grace because David sinned badly and God let him off the hook and David's like, “Wait a minute…that's not how this thing's supposed to work…?”

David gets a glimpse into Grace and here's what David writes:

Psalm 32:1-2a (NIV)

Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them…

How would you like to not have any of your sin count against you? What do you have to do?

…to the one who does not work but trusts God…

That's it. Accept the gift. Would you like to accept the gift?

Let me read you some more verses so that you don't think I'm just cherry picking. I'll actually say those words, “Let me show you some more…let me keep showing you more…”

Romans 6:23 (NIV)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It doesn't get clearer…or it doesn't get more succinct, rather.

You sin. It's getting written down. You're going to stand before God, which means trouble (death) for you. God doesn't want you in trouble because he loves you. So, the gift of God is eternal life, not eternal death—eternal life.

Would you like to go from death To life? It's a gift from God.

Would you like this gift?

“The gift is: You can stand before God innocent of your guilt.”
— Bruce Peterson

If I were going to offer you a gift, what would you have to do to make it your own? You'd have to put your hands out. You'd have to receive it. You'd have to accept it. You'd have to trust it. You'd have to believe me. Whatever word you want to use, God is offering you a gift today.

The gift is: He will take the weight of Holiness off of you and he will put it on Jesus and that payment will count for you. You can stand before God innocent of your guilt.

That's a good gift.

John 3:16-18 (NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

I'll try to put their name in there as I read these verses:

For God so loved Kim that he gave his only one and only son so that if Kim would believe in him, he wouldn't perish but have eternal life…

You're trying to make it personal.

If Kim would believe…

It's a gift, Kim, you’ve got to choose it. You’ve got to believe it. If you do, you will not go to the Lake of Fire, you will go to Heaven. You'll have eternal life not eternal death. This is good news; it's outrageous news.

But, you have to choose it.

Why would God make it so you have to choose?

The answer is the whole thing—the whole plan—this is the Book of Romans and the Book of Revelation. This is the Sons of God. God created us with free will because we're His children and we're going to reign with Him. He wants us to be able to put on wisdom and to grow, to make choices, to become powerful, to lay down our lives in ministry, to lay down our wealth for the spread of the Gospel.

“God isn’t going to force us into Heaven any more than He’ll force us into Hell, it’s your choice. He’s done all he can to save you.”
— Bruce Peterson

God wants you to be able to choose because we're going to stand before Him. We can't legitimately stand before a God and be judged for our choices if we can't make them.

God has huge aspirations for you. He can't have those if you can't choose them. God has giant dreams for us and because he wants those to be realized, He gave us the ability to choose.

God isn't going to force us into Heaven any more than He'll force us into Hell, it's your choice. He's done all he can to save you.

Whoever believes…

That's Jesus talking. “I'm here to accomplish this,” Jesus said, “God so loved you, he sent me. And just like the snake in the wilderness has to get lifted up I'm going to get lifted up for you.” (John 3:14 paraphrased; referencing Numbers 21:4-9)

“I'm going to get lifted up for you.” I don't know how easily that rolled off of Jesus lips. Did he quiver, even then? Did he not like to think about that day? I'll bet he didn't. But he did love to think about the love of God.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus was saying, “I'm not here to condemn the world. I'm not here as your judge now. I'm here to save you. I'm here to save you. I'm the answer. I'm the solution. ‘I'm the way, the truth, and the life, no one gets to the Father but through me (John 14:6).'”

Whoever believes in him is not condemned,

Whoever—what? Believes in him.

….is not condemned

No books. There's no condemnation, you can't have books. If you believe in him you're over here, just a name in Heaven in the Book of Life. 

Whoever believes…

If you would just believe; if you would accept this gift of God, your name would be in the Book of Life, your books would be destroyed. When you stand before God you would end up in Heaven because all you have is a name and you have become a Son of God.

That's next week's sermon—the results of choosing God’s gift of salvation for yourself.

but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Why would you stand condemned already if you don't believe? Because you're still following the ways of the world. You're still over here in your sin. All you have before God is books. You're in grave trouble right now.

You should see the mountain of literature on your life, it's not pretty it's really gross. You're in big big trouble. You're not in trouble later, you're in trouble right now. You just don't see it coming. The Mack truck is literally inches from you and it's going a thousand miles an hour and all you keep doing is putting fuel on that fire. You're in grave trouble.

I'm already out of trouble. My books are already gone.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe…

You don't have a way out.

What is your payment? If you're not going to accept Jesus, what is left for you to pay with?

They might say, “My life.”

Well, let's go over that again. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbors as yourself.” And if you do those things you're going to be okay. How are you doing?

We are right back to that. You’re doing terrible at it.

Art by CocoMilla

Let's actually look at your life, let's actually talk to your wife. Let's talk to your actual neighbors. Do they like your dog? Do they like your cats? Do they love your hoarding? Do they love the broken down cars, the trailer that’s parked in front of their house? How are you doing as a neighbor? Do you even talk to them? Have you even shared the Gospel? Because, if you haven’t, you're a terrible neighbor.

“Love your neighbor.” You're in trouble. But notice—you're in trouble based on what you believe and not by what you do. You don't have a way to pay for your sins, because you refuse to believe. The issue is belief.

That's step three, you're driving home belief. It can't be clearer than that and if it is still not clear to them, just a couple verses later in the same book is our last verse. It's John 3:35-36 and it's crystal clear.

John 3:35-36 (NIV)

The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

Jesus is the solution. God loves him. God affirms him. He’s like, “It's all about Jesus.”

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

“You call God a liar when you say Jesus isn’t the solution.”
— Bruce Peterson

Problem #1 God is Holy and He doesn't excuse sin.

Sin must have a payment and you're either going to pay your debt or you're going to believe in God's solution. You're going to trust the wisdom of God. Trust that He knows your debt and solved your debt through Jesus.

Here it is and I can keep going like this all day long. I’ll say, “If you want a hundred more verses that say you have to make a choice. That what God wants most is for his people, the people he created, is to trust, to use their wisdom to believe Him. God wants to be believed.”

Art by Elizabeth Wang

You call God a liar when you say Jesus isn't the solution.

Jesus said, “I'm the solution.”

You just add more stuff to your books.

Here it is, you want the sun? It's a free gift.

If you stand before God on the basis of your own behavior, you're done, you're just done.

God loves you so much. I love you. But, God loves you more than I love you and God wants you to be part of His family. So He has offered you Grace. He's offered you the greatest gift possible—the gift of eternal life, the gift of holiness.

Will you accept it?

I'll tell you right now, this is the hardest part in the whole Evangelistic process, the last bit once you get done with these verses, the bit where you go, “So, what do you say? Do you want it? Or, don't you?”

This closing bit is difficult, so here's what I do and you can figure out your own way if you want.

I say this, “So, does that make sense to you?”

And they'll go, “Yeah, I get what it's saying. I get the thing”

So I just ask them a couple questions. I say, “Okay, so if you were to die right now and stand before God and He would say to you, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ What would you say?”

If they say something like, “You know, I don't know right now.” …and that happens, I've had that happen… “I don't know right now. This is a lot, it's a lot. I need to think about it. I don't know how to answer.”

If they answer like that, it’s important to be cool.

I'd go, “Okay, great! If you decide, I would love to know that. I would love to learn that you actually believed. But, it's okay, you know, God wants you to think about it. This is a choice. That's a lot of truth I just dropped on you.”

This has been three sermons for me, but it’s usually just one conversation. It's a two and a half hour conversation I've just had with somebody.

“So, yeah, take your time think about it. But, here's what I'd recommend: don't die until you make a decision. Literally do safe things for a little while until you're settled on this issue.”

If they answer correctly right away—which—a lot of people are going to be able to answer right. But they might be answering just because they know what you want to hear. They might just be saying it right back.

I would answer, “Jesus is the solution, trust in Jesus.”

I'm never going to tell someone they're saved. What I'll do is follow up with a second question sometimes.

Because I never actually come out and say it, they would have to put the pieces together, so I say to them, if they answer the first one right, “Well who do you think goes to hell then?”

Usually they have to pause because I've only been talking about how to go to Heaven. I haven't been talking about who goes to Hell—not directly. If they've followed me though that's self-evident. And, if they followed, if they really have agreed with step one, if they just got saved, they can almost always answer this question without a problem.

They say, “Well…those who don't believe in Jesus.”

Then you go, “Okay, awesome, I love that you understand!”

Then I'll say, “If you believe that, if you just chose to believe that…that’s faith. You don't have to muscle through. It doesn't mean you're not going to question it later, it just means if you understand this and want this, then that's what God calls faith. And, if you just chose to have faith in Christ’s sacrifice…”

This is when I explain to them all the things which just happened for them.

“If you believe that, if you have done that today, your name just got written down in the Book of Life…”

Then I go into next week's sermon.

In “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 4)” We will talk about all of the wonderful things which happen for someone when they first believe in Jesus.

Click here for “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part1).

Click here for “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part2).

Click here for “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 4)”.

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written or transcribed by Amanda Hovseth.

What was it like watching God change your father's life?

My dad speaking in church after he was diagnosed with cancer.

In the Christian community in my small home town of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, my dad (Dan Hovseth) was well known. He was the type of guy who was either loved or hated. He never backed down from a lively debate and since the time he accepted Jesus as his Savior when I was five years old, he was a fierce defender of the faith, studying every apologetics book available and passing them out like candy to anyone he could force them on. Kids I went to school with often assumed he was a pastor and would be shocked when I’d explain to them that he actually drove coal trains, he just really loved Jesus and spreading the Gospel.

Me, sleeping in my father’s arms.

But, my dad was far from perfect and he would be the first to admit that. He was simply a human saved by grace. His humanity plus his eccentric/slightly bi-polar qualities, made my childhood rocky. It was a series of high mountain tops and deep valleys. As I grew older, and my dad grew closer and closer to God, the valleys became less frequent and less deep. I got to witness God transform my dad’s life in ways everyone had believed were impossible.

My dad, me, and my siblings on a family walk (mom took the pic on a flip phone).

He passed away August 22nd, 2015 when I was 26 years old from non-smokers lung cancer. It took me quite awhile to process the grief from his death—I’m sure I’m still processing some of it. But, about a month after his funeral, when I was back at college across the state, I sat down in a fancy pretzel restaurant and silently cried in public as I hand-wrote the first draft of this non-fiction story (I just couldn’t wait until I got home to get these words out). It was the best way I knew how to sort out the various waves of emotion and memories which had been fighting to break loose. It represents the state of my mind during the first few minutes of my life after I found out he had passed away. Time seemed to slow down during those minutes as my mind jumped me from flashback to flashback of my life with my dad.

Be forewarned, this isn’t a pretty story. The language isn’t always clean. But, it is real. It is human. And, it shows the grace of God in real, human lives.

My mom and dad (Dan and Lori Hovseth)

(Before you get concerned, don’t worry, my mother has read and approved of me sharing this story, and my father would have too—anything to show the truth of Christ’s sacrifice and God’s salvation and grace in our lives.)

This is also the flagship story of my brother, Giles Hovseth, and mine short story compilation book which we dedicated to our father and titled, “Our Dad is Dead: and Other Fun Things to Talk About”.

Well, with all that said, here it is: a glimpse into my grief stricken memories.

My Dad is Dead

by Amanda Hovseth

“Amanda…” my brother’s voice breaks, like he’s choking on something. “Amanda, wake up.”

“What? Yah, Giles what…” I’m answering before my eyes open, my mind determined to respond before my body is willing.

“Dad’s dead.”

“Wow, really?”  Wow? Did I really say wow? How did Giles get in here anyway? The door is open…I left the door open. When I went to bed a couple of hours ago I felt like I needed to. Twenty-six years old and still superstitious, ridiculous. Good. It would have hurt him to have come downstairs to a locked door.

“Yah.” He coughs. “It just happened…just now.”

“Okay, I’m coming.” I reach for my glasses. Have to get upstairs. Can’t wait for contacts, in a hurry…a hurry, why? Time is already up. Dead. Gone. Permanent. I put on my glasses. My brother has left, he’s waking up our other brother, right outside my room. My baby brother, the youngest, my babiest. Dad’s dead.  My room is dark but light shines through the opened doorway, I hurry towards it.

I am twenty-five years old, back in college, and looking forward to a road trip home with my dad for Thanksgiving Break. When he says he is proud of me now, it feels real because I am finally proud of myself. I had never really believed him before because a silent voice inside had always read the undertones in his words as disappointment. But, now my first book is published, and the majority of reviews are positive, his review is positive. He stops at every bookstore, school, and church on his road trips to tell them about my book. His ceaseless peddling of my work has shown me he believes I have something worth saying.

He’s temporarily stationed in Arkansas for the railroad and is going to drive out of his way to pick me up. We will have seven hours alone together and I am excited to talk to him about my new life, my new future.

My phone rings, he tells me he is running late. He took a nap after work and ended up sleeping much longer than anticipated. I say it’s okay because I’ll just nap while I wait for him.

Five minutes later he calls again. He sounds tired and he stumbles over his words. His boss says he has to work later that day. I might as well drive myself and we will meet back home. He is very sorry. We hang up and I stare at the phone. It’s okay, I will still get to see him at home. But a realization penetrates my hopes, he has never missed family time for work before. He has always talked his way out of or into anything he wants. He is a real life con-artist. It doesn’t compute. I shake my head and smile. He’s an easily distracted guy, I’m sure it’s nothing.

I use the bathroom and then grab my bag to leave. My phone rings. It’s my mom, probably to check on our travel status. I answer. There’s two seconds of silence…“Mom?” She sobs. I put my bags down, “What’s wrong?”

“Have you left yet?”

“No, just about to.”

“Good, you might need to go to Arkansas. Your father had a stroke, he’s in the hospital. He says he’s fine, but I know he’s not. I’m sorry, you’re the closest… he needs someone there.”

“Okay…” I check google maps. “I can be there in eight hours.” She thanks me. “I’ll head out now.” We hang up. 

My phone rings. “Mandy?” My dad’s voice is soft and wavers as if he is half asleep.

My dad at the hospital in Arkansas with friends he had already made (and talked to about Jesus) during the short time he was stationed there for work.

“I know, Dad, Mom just called me. I’m on my way to your hospital.” I prepare for an argument. For him to say he’s fine and my mom shouldn’t have imposed…

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I want to come.”

“I’ll text you my room number when they tell me.”

“Love you, Dad, see you soon.”

“Love you too.”

I’m eighteen years old, my dad’s calling me a stupid b**** and shoving me backwards. I fall onto the couch. My mother screams. “DON’T YOU EVER! Don’t you ever talk to my daughter like that!” She runs at him and is pounding his chest and arms with her fists. He tries to block her blows while moving her away. She stops, exhausted and drops down next to me, pulling me into her arms. My dad is pressing his palms to his forehead. He throws a chair across the room. Then grabs car keys and heads out the front door. My mom is telling me not to listen to him. I barely hear her. I’ve never been called a b**** before, probably never will be again…at least not by someone who knows me.

I’m twenty-three years old, in a hotel in San Antonio. It’s just me and my dad, he’s been temporarily stationed here by the railroad, “borrowed out” they call it. He didn’t want to go alone, so I decided to go with at the last minute. We’ve been here a month and a half now. He walks into the hotel room. I sit up in bed.

My dad

“Dad? Your back already? How’d you get back?” Normally I have to pick him up from the depot when his trains come in.

He’s ruffling his hair; his eyes look hollow. He sits down to undo his work boots, but I can tell his skin is crawling. I wait, he’ll talk, it’s usually hard to stop him from talking.

“I hit a guy with my train. A boy. A man. He was in his twenties.” He glances at me every once in a while as he talks, but never makes eye contact. “He just stepped out in front of the train. I think he had headphones on. They phoned his parents…came to the tracks…apparently his brain wasn’t right…he was…autistic or something.”

“What? Why was he walking alone if he was that autistic?”

“I know, right!” My dad is looking in the freezer, probably for ice cream. He pulls it out and puts it back, his skin is pale. “Some people just don’t…they just don’t think…I’ve hit cows before. Those trains, they really leave nothing. Just pulp, barely tell it’s human. He wasn’t even close to the size of a cow.” He’s opening a bag of beef jerky.

“You know it’s not your fault, right? You can’t stop those trains on time. If you could have, you would have.”

“Of course it’s not my fault!” He paces back and forth across the length of the room. “No, I’m okay. I could see him there from a ways away. He was just walking, and I thought he would stop. I honked the horn just in case. He just kept walking. I thought for sure he would stop, why wouldn’t he stop? Everyone stops. Then he didn’t…he just didn’t…stepped right out in front. Train didn’t even bump. We pulled the breaks, I thought maybe he’d made it across, where I couldn’t see. Trains take a long time to stop though.”

“Are you fired?”

“I thought for sure I would be, but no. They want me to see a therapist and I have three days off of work. I told them I don’t need a therapist, it wasn’t my fault, I had no hand in it. His parents didn’t even think so. Said he was living on his own for a year now, his roommate didn’t know he was autistic.” He takes a bite of his jerky. “Did you have plans for today?”

I do, I planned on meeting up with another railroader’s wife and daughter and going to see the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum and Ripley’s Believe It or Not. I ask if he wants to join.

He wrinkles his nose. “No, call me when you’re done though.”

“I can stay if you want.”

“No, no Mandy, really I’m fine. It wasn’t my fault.” He’s pacing again.

“Of course it wasn’t but we can go another day, when you’re at work.”

“Really,” He raises his voice and waves me off. “I’m fine. Call me after.”

Me and my dad

I leave the room and go to the museums. My phone is turned off inside because it’s proper etiquette but when I make it to the gift shop and turn it on to call my father I realize I have six missed calls from him. My stomach flips and I call him back.

“Hello?” He answers and the phone crackles from the wind blowing past. “Mandy? Where’ve you been?”

“In the museums I just got done and called you.”

“It took that long?”

“Yah, I guess.”

“Well I’m out front.”

I turn to my friends and tell them where I’m going. As I walk to the front of the museum I spot him on a bench. He smiles and waves, but his eyes still look hollow. My heart aches. Poor guy, I should have never left him alone.

I’m nine years old and I’ve had a sleepless night. My parents are up, yelling at each other. I am lying in bed, pretending to be asleep and wondering if my sister in the bunk below me is actually asleep or if she is crying silently as well. I think that perhaps I should climb into bed with her and comfort her, but I don’t know how. And if she is asleep then I’d only wake her up. So, we lie alone.

My family: (back to front, left to right) Dan, Lori, Gavin, Kara, Giles, me

It’s the next morning, I slip into the bathroom to use the toilet. My mom is in the shower but there is only one bathroom so we often double up.

She steps out as I’m brushing my teeth and I notice a long dark bruise on her right thigh. I ask if she’s okay. She insists she is, she doesn’t even know how she got that bruise.

My dad is nowhere to be seen. Someone has obviously tidied up the living room. Part of me is worried my dad won’t come back. The other part knows that when I return from school there will be a new vase of flowers in the window and my parents will be waiting to hear how my day went. Like every time before.

I’m twenty-six years old, I came home for the summer because my dad has been diagnosed with cancer. Turns out he never had a stroke, only seizures brought on by brain tumors. My parents found me a job in road construction. I work anywhere from eight to fifteen hours a day. I’m walking up the stairs at five a.m. to get ready for work. My dad is awake in the living room. He always wakes up to send my brother and me off to work. He is looking at his phone. The low morning light allows the glow from his phone to accentuate his bone structure; sharp edges which used to be concealed in muscle. I wonder at how quickly his athletic physique has abandoned him.  

“Mandy! Good morning! Have you seen these pictures of Giles and Jamus?”

My dad with my cousin Jamus (after my dad was diagnosed with cancer)

Jamus is one of my cousins, he’s four years old and can’t digest any food at all, so he lives solely on a powdery nutrient substance. Quite frankly if people didn’t know he was sick, they wouldn’t guess it. He has curly red hair and chubby cheeks that even cherubs would envy. He enjoys labeling days as “Hug Day” and then distributing hugs throughout the house. When he has an allergic episode he dresses up as Iron Man and faces the situation head on. He is just absolutely adorable and ceaselessly cheerful. He also loves my father, calls him his best friend.

“Yah.” I chuckle. “Jamus is super cute.”

“I know!” My dad lets out what is best described as a girlish squeal. “I just keep thinking, he couldn’t be any cuter, and then I flip to the next picture and…he is still even cuter!”

I laugh as I scoot my mom’s cat out of the way and head out the front door.

His voice trails after, “I love you Mandy, and I’m proud of you.”

He has said that every morning this summer.


I don’t know who made it to the stairs first, me or my brothers. It doesn’t matter, we have all climbed them and are now walking through the kitchen. My mom is already on the phone, it reminds me I’m late to the show. Time is slipping through my fingers at a speed I have never before encountered.

My family around 2003

I’m twelve years old. My dad is standing by the stove with a big butcher knife in his hand. Neighborhood kids are watching and gasping as he continuously flips the knife into the air and catches it while making various faces of fear and shock.  Tootsie Roll, our little Yorkshire Terrier, is hanging out by his feet. I call her over and pick her up. My dad glances my way and I frown at him. He knows this type of thing worries me. He calls out. “What, Mandy? You don’t trust me?” Then he throws the knife even higher. I roll my eyes and leave the room. He can insist on dropping a knife on his foot, but he can’t make me watch.

I am nineteen years old and I don’t know how many days I have been lying in bed. I share a house with two friends.  My dad hadn’t wanted me to move out. He had yelled and yelled, calling me a fool for wasting the money. Then he had scoured my new apartment from top to bottom, looking for ways to make it safer. I don’t know what I am doing with my life. College is boring, and the end seems so far away. I haven’t picked a career and have no idea how to go about doing so. And I just keep gaining weight no matter how much I work out. A month ago some doctor gave me antidepressants and I don’t know if I’ve left my bed since. I’ve missed every single college class, and I’ll tell you what, I couldn’t care less. I couldn’t care if the world caught fire and burned up right in front of me. I couldn’t care if a masked man entered my room and skinned a box of puppies. I couldn’t care if Orlando Bloom asked me to dinner.

Me, my dad, and my sister (Kara)

My phone rings. I answer. It’s my father. I can barely hear him. I’m not sure if he’s on speakerphone or if I’m still half asleep. While he talks I stare at the wall which I painted pink five months ago. The call is short. He tells me he loves me no matter what. He knows I’m going through some stuff and I might be worried he’d be disappointed. But he’s not, it doesn’t matter, he loves me anyway.  The phone is beeping now. He must have hung up. I pull it away from my ear and notice the time. It’s time to take my antidepressant. I pick up the box and roll onto my back. I hold the little white pods in front of my face and stare at them. The sun sets outside my window, slowly obscuring my view. I blink, throw the pods at the trash can, and stand up. It’s time to take a shower.

I’m two years old, it’s the middle of the night and my mom is pulling me out of bed and bundling me into the car. I ask her where we are going.

“To pick up your father.”

My parents (Lori and Dan)-apparently I took this picture of them as a toddler

It feels like we have driven forever. I am lying with my head resting by her pregnant belly when we pull up in front of a bar. I know it’s a bar because of the neon lights. All bars have lights like that. She tells me to wait in the car and grabs a bat from the back seat. I wonder if my dad needs it to loan to a friend. Then she pauses and puts the bat back down.

Minutes later she is stomping out of the bar with my dad stumbling behind her, a bright red imprint of a palm on his cheek. They both get into the car without saying a word. I climb onto my dad’s lap and I sleep the rest of the way home.

I turn the corner from the kitchen into the hallway. I know he will be there, at the end and to the right. I know he will. But he won’t. I don’t want to go. I have to go.

I’m twenty-four years old and at a Friday night Bible study with my father. People are asking him about his testimony. I smile because I know my dad doesn’t like giving his testimony. He says that everyone thinks their life story is worth telling and most people are wrong. They insist. So, he gives them a piece of information which I always expected but never confirmed until then.

My parents (Dan and Lori) cutting the cake on their wedding day.

“When my lady told me she was pregnant with Mandy I panicked. I knew I should marry her and take care of the kid, but how was I supposed to do that? I was just a kid…I gambled a lot then, had gotten in too deep with the mafia. I started watching Oprah at my mom’s house, thought it might help, it didn’t much. My brother…the one, he’s in Omaha now but was in Alliance, Denny, his wife got me an interview with Union Pacific Railroad. So, I drove through the night, from Chicago to Western Nebraska, took the test, and they gave me the job. I figured the mafia goons wouldn’t drive to Nebraska lookin’ for me, cuz really, you can’t squeeze a dry sponge anyway. It worked, I paid them off later.…But, if it wasn’t for Lori’s pregnancy I would have never looked to leave. If I had never moved to Nebraska I would have never met Pastor Rich. And if I had never met Rich, I…who knows for sure, but I think I would not have ever been convinced of my need for a Savior. I thought I was good enough to make God happy. I suppose everyone thinks that. Ironic isn’t it, wanting to earn love and failing; when all along I could’ve gotten it for free?”

I’m twenty-three years old. I just graduated from Bible College. My dad has called a family meeting. He wants to study the book of Proverbs. It’s a good idea in theory, but family meetings never end well. This time it’s my fault.

I’m mad. My stomach is clenching and my jaw is tightening. He’s picked a study guide which is full of big words and nonsense phrases and ideas. I try to explain, “Proverbs is simple. This book is ridiculous. Man’s way of overcomplicating God’s Word to make ourselves seem more sophisticated.” Normally my dad would understand this. I know for a fact he would agree with that general statement. But this isn’t normally, this is a family meeting, and something goes wrong.

My family, taking awkward family Christmas photos

I’m grabbing my backpack, mentally calculating what is inside…my wallet, laptop, flash drive (with all my stories on it), phone…while I’m yelling at my dad and telling him I’d be better off alone. He yells back, something like, “Go ahead then!” I slam the door and stomp two miles to the library.

It’s been five hours in the library. I have friends I can call, plenty of friends who would let me move in as long as I need. Even a couple of guys I know who would welcome the chance to get closer to me, guys my dad wouldn’t approve of. But if I called them, if I called any of them, then the world would know. The world would hear of times he yelled, the time he broke our kitchen table, and they would see nothing else. They wouldn’t actually see him and how much he truly has changed throughout the years. Everything he has worked for, everything I have worked for, would be ruined.

I’m walking through my parents’ front door. The rest of my family is in the living room, quietly reading various books and watching TV. They look up when I come in, nod, and keep reading. My dad isn’t there. I wonder if I can sneak into my room and pretend like nothing happened. Our cat, Shale, is walking by. He pauses in front of me. Shale was a rescue, so he’s always hiding, never making a peep. Normally he runs when the front door is opened, instead he looks at me and walks down the hallway. I follow him. He leads me into my parents’ room. My dad is on the bed with his back towards me and a phone in his hand. Shale jumps up onto the bed and meows. My dad turns around.

Instantly I start crying. And I say, “I came back. I don’t want to break up our family over a dumb argument.”

My dad is on his feet and hugging me. “I’m glad you came home. I didn’t know where to look.”

I’m twenty years old and I work as a secretary at Regional West Medical Center. My main job is organizing patients’ charts and putting doctors’ orders into the computer. It’s been a hard twelve-hour shift and I’m exhausted when I walk through my parents’ front door. A couple of my friends are over, so I try to put on a smile. My dad isn’t fooled and instantly notices my sour mood. He insists on knowing what has upset me. I keep it simple because I want to move on, telling him the job is hard because I seldom get bathroom breaks and the doctors are pretty rude. He’s furious. He calls my friend Andy over, grabs a phonebook and the car keys, and asks me what the doctors’ names are.

I ask, "Why do you need their names?"

Me and my dad

He says, “No one gets to be rude to my daughter, no matter who they are!”

Despite his rage, I smile. He and Andy plan on teaching the doctors “a lesson”. I know what type of lessons my dad teaches people and I know our town needs its doctors, no matter how rude they are. So, I convince him the doctors weren’t rude to me specifically. They are just rude in general. I really am okay. At this point, I’m beaming because of how protective my father and friends are, so he believes me and is content.

Instead of teaching lessons, he and Andy make homemade Chicago-style pizza.

I’m five years old. We are driving across the country, back home from my grandmother’s funeral. It’s nighttime. My parents laid down the seats in the back of our red minivan so that my siblings and I have a huge bed. I stare at the stars through the window and listen to the consistent calm of the wind blowing past.

My grandmother is dead. I cried when they told me, even though I barely knew her. I knew the concept of a grandmother, and mine was dead. Then I saw her body. It was white and cold, painted and posed. It was not her. They placed her body there, but she was not in it. I crawl to the front of the van and sit, leaning forward between my parents’ seats. I want to know where grandma is.

They tell me something my mother has known since she was young, but my father had only learned recently. Grandma could be in Heaven if she had trusted God to get her there. They just don’t know if she did.

I feel chills. How does someone trust God to get them to Heaven?

Me, my dad, and my sister (Kara) painting a porch (the van I accepted Jesus in is in the background).

They tell me that every time we do the opposite of what God wants us to do, we have to be punished for it. If we decide to try to handle the punishment ourselves, then God can’t let us go to Heaven, because not going to Heaven is the punishment. But even when God is angry, He loves us and wants us to go to Heaven. So, He decided to take the punishment, Himself. He came to earth as Jesus, never did anything wrong, and then was killed in our place. Now we have a choice: we can pay for our sins ourselves, or we can believe that Jesus already paid for all of our sins and accept that payment as a free gift.

I told them I wanted Jesus to pay for my sins. They taught me how to pray. That night I met God. I have never felt more like I could fly than at that moment. I breathed deep. I told my sister about it and she joined me in prayer. Then I went to sleep, trusting my dad would get us home safely and knowing my God would someday bring our souls home safely.

I step into my parents’ bedroom. It smells like a hospital: disgustingly sterile. My dad’s body is there. His eyes are open. One is staring in a different direction than the other. His mouth is also wide open. It has been open for days. He slept with it open. My mom has turned off the oxygen machine and taken the breathing tubes out of his nose, he doesn’t need them anymore. The machine’s constant clicking and blowing was a reminder of how much it hurt him to breathe—but now the world sounds wrong.  We all step in, take a look, and leave. My mom is calling my uncles, they will be over soon. She says she has already called hospice. I say I am going downstairs to change since company will be coming.

My dad in Monterey, California

I hurry back up the stairs. One of my brothers is telling the other that he needs to touch my father in order to make it real. The other is protesting, saying he doesn’t need to. I brush by quickly and say, “Don’t push him into anything, we all grieve different.” Then I’m back in my parents’ room, alone with my father. I step up to him and place three fingers under his jawbone as if to take a pulse…I’m six years old, I’ve had a nightmare. I know if I wake my father up he will let me climb into bed and I’ll be safe. I can sleep easy…No. No. I’m twenty-six years old. I’m twenty-six years old and I’m touching his neck. His skin isn’t quite cold yet. He’s not waking up. He’s not moving. He’s dead. My dad is dead.

I say, “I love you Dad. I’ll see you later.”

I’m twenty-five years old, it’s Thanksgiving Break and I’ve made it to the hospital in Arkansas. My dad is in the hospital bed. He’s on the phone with our pastor. I hear him struggle to speak so I step into the bathroom to give him privacy. It’s on speakerphone so I can still hear. My dad is always worried cell phones will give us cancer, so he doesn’t like holding them up to his head. Our pastor doesn’t want to let my dad give up hope. He says, “There’s still a chance. You could survive…you’re not dying before me.” I stare at the sink because I don’t want to look in the mirror. My dad says, “No listen. You know the story of John Bradford, right? I want my kids to know. I want, after all this, the one thing they should learn from my life…‘There but for the grace of God go I’.”

I take my fingers off of my dad’s neck. I walk out of his bedroom and into the bathroom. I close the door, and I cry.

“Brothers we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

Click here to learn about what exactly it was that changed my father’s life (the Gospel message).

Click here for the book this story is taken from: “Our Dad is Dead: and Other Fun Things to Talk About”.

Click here for more things written by Amanda Hovseth.

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

A Warning from a Dream

I have this recurring nightmare…

“Crowd In a Park” by Francisco de Goya

I am outside somewhere where kids are playing, usually a public park, and it’s packed, there are people everywhere.

Nearby there is a large building, with an entrance close to us which leads into an elaborate glass walled and ceilinged room. Further along there is another entrance which leads to a less elaborate, but cozy windowless basement.

Everything is fine and happy for a little while, but then something changes in the air and as I look off into the distance, I notice dark clouds.

The clouds begin to twist as the wind picks up. I watch as a thick and massive funnel drops to the ground. Next to it, another thinner spindly funnel begins to zigzag down, behind that another one, and they just keep appearing. The sun is blotted out as the horizon fills with countless tornadoes, but somehow, I am the only one who seems to have noticed.

“Tornado Storm 1 Collage” by Steve Ohlsen

I start to yell to the crowds, “Look! Tornadoes are coming! Quick, get inside! Go to that door over there that leads to this building’s basement!” 

A few people hear me, turn to see the tornadoes, grab their kids, and run off in the direction of the building. But most people act as if I don’t exist. I try to get in their faces, to get their attention. A couple more notice me and run in the direction of safety. Most still ignore me.

“Look!” I yell. “Those tornadoes are coming and they will kill us all if we don’t take shelter right now! We are running out of time!”

I start to get desperate and physically grab some heads and turn them in the direction of the tornadoes. A few acknowledge the danger and run towards safety but some other people look at the tornadoes, shrug, and continue on with what they are doing. 

I consider running to safety myself and leaving everyone who is ignoring me to their fate, but I decide that while I still have time, I will keep trying because maybe someone just hasn’t had the chance to hear my warning yet.

I run to the other side of the park while continuing to yell my warning, a few more run to safety but most people keep ignoring me. 

I’m now at my wits end. I decide that just because the adults are foolish, doesn’t mean the kids should die. I start grabbing and carrying as many kids as I can down to the entrance to the basement door. I funnel them inside and tell the adults already there to watch them as I run back to the park to grab more. I continue this pattern, until the tornadoes are practically on top of us. With a pile of kids in my arms and on my back I make one last trip toward the basement door. 

But on this trip I realize there is a line of people forming outside the door to the above-ground, glass-walled room. In front of the line is a table with people selling tickets to the glass room. There is a big sign on the table which says, “Safety from the storm here, only $10 a person”.

I am furious. I drop off the kids I’m carrying inside the basement door and then run back to the line. The wind from the tornadoes is so loud I have to get right next to each person in line, yelling in their ear for them to hear me. “They are lying to you, this does not lead to safety. A glass room cannot keep you safe from a tornado. They are charging you and you will die. But right over there is a door to the basement, you will be safe there, and it is free to get in. Go over there, quick!”

I tell every single person. A few listen and run to safety, again, most do not.

They roll their eyes and scoff. “Who are you?” they say. “Why should we listen to you? These people are traditionally known for providing safety from storms. They have centuries of experience. What could you possibly know about it?”

“They are scamming you!” I yell. “Look! You can easily see with your own eyes that the room is made of glass!”

The people left in the line do not care. So, I push my way past the ticket table and run into the glass room to try to warn the people already inside. 

“Everyone! You are not safe here! Those tornadoes will shatter this glass and the shards will tear right through you!” I point to a door towards the back of the room that leads to the basement. “You have to get downstairs! It’s free to go down there and you will actually be safe there!”

Some people actually listen, they can see the tornadoes through the glass and have already been concerned for a while, my words were all they needed to have their fears confirmed. They run to safety in the basement. 

But most people ignore me. Either they don’t think I know what I’m talking about or they have already invested so much money and time into getting into this glass room that they refuse to admit it is a scam. I try to physically pull people towards the basement. They fight my efforts to save them. 

The tornadoes are on top of us so I finally give up and duck into the safety of the basement.

Then I wake up. 

It isn’t a mystery to me why this nightmare plagues me. It’s a clear illustration of what has torn at my heart every single day since I first learned about the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us.

Some people don’t know about the impending danger or the free salvation which has been provided, and it is my job, along with every other Christian, to tell people about it.

The tornadoes in my dreams represent judgment day, which we will all face after death. Even if we are ignoring it, it is still there, looming on the horizon.

But, like the door to the safety of the basement, there is shelter from the consequences of that day available. Christ took on the punishment for our sins, Himself, so that we wouldn't have to. He paid the price of our shortcomings.

We just have to decide if we still want to pay for our failings ourselves and face God’s judgment, or if we want to accept Jesus’s payment as our own. His payment is free, just as the door to safety in the basement was free to enter. 

“Blind Faith” by Ciro Marchetti

However, there are other forces at work and other people in the world who are only out for themselves. They will give you a long list of things they claim you must do to pay for your sins and it usually includes giving them money. They claim that if you choose their way, to pay for your sins yourself, you will be saved from the judgment seat of God. But their way offers no protection from God’s judgment. You cannot not pay for your sins with man-made traditions or offerings.

Hebrews 10:1-3;8-14 (NIV) “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins….

First he [Jesus] said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”

You cannot undo your mistakes by covering them with good deeds. The mistakes are still there, you will still have to pay for them. The glass room cannot keep you safe from tornadoes, no matter how much you pay to get into it.

The only way to not have to face the consequences of your own sins, is to let someone else face those consequences for you. And that person cannot have their own sins to pay for or they would spend all their time paying for those and couldn’t pay for ours.

Jesus was able to live a sinless life because He is God. He came down to earth as a man in order to fulfill the Old Testament Law by living a sinless life and then take on the consequences of sin for us, because He loves us. Jesus offers us safety from those consequences, and he offers it for free, all we have to do is choose to accept His free offer and “take shelter in the basement”.

1 John 4:10 (NIV): “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Galatians 2:19-21 (NIV): “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV): “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written by Amanda Hovseth.

How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 2 of 4)

Transcribed from Sermons by Bruce Peterson at Grace Chapel in Scottsbluff, NE. The video of this sermon can be found by clicking this link.

For a printable list of the primary verses to use when sharing the Gospel via this method, click on this link.

We are in the Book of Revelation this morning. Our launching text is Revelation 20:11-15.

Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV)

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

These are super foundational verses in how to witness to someone—how to help someone else that you know and love come to faith in Jesus Christ. It's a super important section of its own right in the Book of Revelation, but because it's so substantial in how to witness to somebody I thought we would do a mini series on how to evangelize.

If you don't have faith in Jesus Christ, I hope you get saved during this series. If you are hearing this for the first time, I hope you come to faith in Jesus Christ. It's an amazing gift of God that he would offer us salvation.

Last week I talked about focusing on the gap between us and God.

We talked about the verses which show us the problem: God says we have to be holy like he is holy.

The consequence to that is: you are going to stand before God and give an account of what you’ve done.

We learned last week that there's actually an angel in heaven who is writing down in books everything we think, say, or do. It's an accounting of our debt to God. This should crush people.

When you are telling people the Gospel you want to start off by crushing them. I mean that. You will know you have done your job well when they ask for the solution to their sin problem.

They'll ask, “Okay, what am I supposed to do?”

But let me qualify this, most importantly, when you are explaining the giant gulf between God and them, do not use their personal sins as your example. If you're talking to someone who you know is having an affair with their wife, don't bring it up. Don't bring up their addictions. Don't bring up their habits. Don't.

This is because we all fall short, as humanity, we all fall short. You don't have to pick their particular sin and drive home that one, because, if you do that, a wall is going to go up between you and them and they will not hear you. That's not the goal.

“The goal isn’t to offend them, it’s to open their heart up to hear God.”
— Bruce Peterson

The goal is not to offend them, it’s to open their heart up to hear God. And if you pick their particular sin; like, “I know you’re embezzling money at work.” They will be like, “Okay, conversation’s over.”

Don't do that, don't. Instead, look inside yourself and just be open, be honest, be like, “Let me just pour out how I feel inadequate before God.”

Believe me, if you do that they will get on board with you; like, “Oh, I too feel inadequate. I too am not the perfect husband. I too am not the perfect father. I too am not the perfect employee. I too don't love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I don't do it, I love me.”

That's all easily demonstrated by our time, by our checkbooks, by our lives. Don't pick their pet sin, don’t even bring it up, it doesn't matter, that's irrelevant. Those things are hot buttons in people's lives and if you touch that, they're going to get defensive. That's not the goal at all.

So, crush them because they're humans and humans have no right; we have no claim to self-righteousness. Humans have no righteousness, we're not good in general.

Let me read the text and then I'm going to give you another illustration that I like to use when I'm trying to demonstrate the gap between us and God. This is our launching text:

Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV)

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Okay, so that's our launching text. Interestingly enough, it's not at the end of the Book of Revelation, it’s in chapter 20 and there's 22 chapters. Why is this? Because everyone whose name is in the Book of Life goes into the Kingdom of God which is on a new planet in a new city—the city of Jerusalem—and we live happily ever after.

But, who gets into the Kingdom of God? Not everyone goes in. You have to have your name in the Book of Life. Notice, if your name is in the Book of Life you get to go in.

But, if you have books--plural--what's in the books? Every sin.

What is sin? By definition, it means to miss the mark.

What's the mark? Holiness. Anything that's not holy that you participate in is sin.

Okay, let's narrow that down. What do you do that's holy?

What do you do that God would also do? It's a pretty small list, isn't it?

Let me ask you this, what do you do or think that God would not do or think? That one's easy. That's big, right? We missed the mark. We sin all the time.

But, people tend to think they're good. Most people you talk to will think they're good enough for Heaven, or at least they're good enough that they shouldn't go to Hell.

God says that's not true. No one is holy, not even one (Romans 3:9-20), that's last week's sermon.




Here's one of my favorite illustrations for this:

I like to picture Holiness as God saying, “You can get into heaven if you can swim to Hawaii.”

The question is, is it possible?

Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images

Imagine California, there's the beach, all of Humanity is on that beach. The waves are rolling in, and the goal is Hawaii. We're all gonna give it our best shot. We're gonna, because we gotta, we gotta get to Hawaii, because we want to get to Heaven. We don't want to drown, we want to get there, we want to go.

So, from California, imagine the masses just going into the ocean. Some of them aren't going very far. Some of them are just going to hit that first wave and they're just going to keep getting caught in that wave. Those are bad people, because this represents going to Heaven by good works, by earning it.

Unsplash.com

From the shore of California, it's going to become evident that people are going to begin to separate themselves.

There are the really bad, who just tumble in the waves and you know they're done.

There's going to be some who just start swimming super hard and they're at the head of the pack, but before they're out of sight they're done, because they're out of energy. They didn’t pace themselves. They're gonna seem good comparatively. From the shores of California, some people seem good.

Do you know what the world record is for long distance swimming? I looked it up. It is the exact distance from here (Grace Chapel in Scottsbluff) to Fort Collins, if you go through Kimball. 155 miles swimming. I don't even like driving to Fort Collins…swimming there? I could swim across the parking lot, I think.

But the goal isn’t to swim to Fort Collins, it’s Alaska--2,400 miles away. That's how far Hawaii is by the way.

iStockphoto.com

So, from California, from the perspective of holiness, some people look amazing. Some people--no question--are so much better than other people. We're not all equals. If we're just talking straight goodness, there's people in this room who are tumbling in the shoreline, and there are people who are swimming out there pretty good. They're good people. I don't think we have any 155 mile people in the room, let's be honest, we're in that 20 mile range, pretty good.

But, if you’re looking out from Hawaii… “Hey, all of humanity is trying to swim here, let’s stand on the shore and wait for them.” And the best swimmer is 100 miles from California... How long are we going to wait? We're going to wait forever, because no one, no one, no one can swim to Hawaii, it's 2,400 miles! The world record is 155 miles!

Unsplash.com

From your perspective you think you're good. But if I had a graph and you looked at the whole graph divided into 2400 segments and the best was 100…If you had to take a test and to pass you had to get 2400, but the best you got was 150…on the graph it’s almost a flat line. No one is good enough, no one is good.

That’s the idea that you’re trying to get across. You don't have to kill them on their personal sin, but you do have to get them to see that they are gauging it wrong. They are saying, “I'm the best swimmer.” Well that may be true, I don't take that away from you, you are way better than me, but you're still not getting away with your sin. You're just not going to do it. Your goodness can't carry you all the way across.

“They are gauging it wrong, saying, ‘I’m the best swimmer.’ Well that may be true, I don’t take that away from you, you are way better than me, but you’re still not getting away with your sin. You’re just not going to do it. Your goodness can’t carry you all the way across. ”
— Bruce Peterson

That's point one of the Gospel. Stay on that point until they ask for the solution.

Now we're going to get into the point of today's sermon: Jesus is the hero.

Once they ask for a solution, here's the big point you want to get across: God wants them in Heaven. Say it to them, “God wants you in Heaven, more than you want to go to Heaven. God wants you not in Hell, more than you don't want to go to Hell. No one wants you in Heaven more than God does.

Here's the amazing news, God made a way so that you can know you're going to Heaven.

“People think God says, “Be good to go to Heaven.” You are showing them that God says that idea is wrong, instead, he sent a champion to rescue you. Jesus is the hero of the story.”
— Bruce Peterson

He wants to be able to demonstrate all of his promises to you fully. He wants you in his Kingdom. He wants you in his family. God isn’t trying to keep you out, he's trying to get you in. You don't have to try things for yourself, there is a way God has provided. He has made the way.

Your job is to show them how Jesus is God's declared winner. People think God says, “Be good to go to Heaven.” You are showing them that God says that idea is wrong, instead, he sent a champion to rescue you. Jesus is the hero of the story.

Colossians 2:9-15 (NIV)

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

This text explains the solution to Revelation 20.

THE PROBLEM: be holy.

THE CONSEQUENCE: judgment is coming.

THE SOLUTION: what God accomplished through Jesus.

Again, when I am talking someone into faith—into trusting Christ—it's usually about a two and a half hour conversation, so you shouldn't be in a hurry on any of it.

Your goal is to explain everything. You want them to understand so that they can choose on their own to make this decision. Take your time.

Okay, let’s take a closer look at these Colossians verses, they're amazing:

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.

It gets way better than that…

He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands.

That’s probably going to confuse the person you’re talking to, but it explains it in this next sentence:

Your whole self…

All your badness…

…ruled by the flesh was put off…

…was put off. That's what it means to be “circumcised”, to be cut off, your whole “everything opposed to you” was put off, your whole flesh.

Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Next Paul is going to explain all of that, this is where it gets good.

What does “uncircumcised” represent? When you still have books. All the badness is still attached to you. Now, watch what he says here:

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh…

This sounds like we're just busting into this conversation a little oddly, but in real life I've just spent 45 minutes demonstrating to them that they're a sinner, and this has all been one conversation.

So, I ask them to tell me what they are doing in these verses to save themselves. Who's the hero in these stories, you or God? How much in this verse are you responsible for?

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh…

What is the person doing so far? Sinning. That's all they're doing.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.

Who did it? God did it.

He forgave us all our sins…

Here’s how he did that:

…having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

That's where you should cheer.

What did he take away in the terms of Revelation? The books. What are the books in Revelation? They are a record of your legal indebtedness. Sin is a debt. You have moral debt before God. He says, “Be perfect.” You’re not perfect.

“You have a real debt you owe to God and you’re going to be asked, how would you like to pay?”
— Bruce Peterson

It's the exact same thing as a parent when you tell your kid to do something that is expected and they just give you the bird. There's moral debt, that's a real problem. That's a real issue. It's not just nothing. There's an angel and every single time you know God wants you to do something and you don't do it, it gets written down. You have a real debt you owe to God and you're going to be asked, how would you like to pay?

Look what Paul says happens, Paul said God took the record of your legal indebtedness and he took it away.

Where did it go? He nailed it to the cross.

…he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Now, I'm not going to be just reading this verse to the person I’m telling the Gospel to, I'm going to be helping this person understand it. I'm going to demonstrate it. I'm going to talk about it:

Look, here's the plan, God took all those books and he put them on Jesus. He sent a champion. You can't pay for those books. Your good works aren't going to pay for them. We are expected to be good: be holy. Goodness is not a payment, it’s what you were supposed to always be doing, it’s the baseline. Everything that gets written down is debt.

What are you going to do with that debt?

Remember, we went over the numbers. How big is the number, the accounting of your debt? It's massive. How many times a day, counting your thought life, do you do stuff that is written down as debt? It's a ridiculous number. At the end of our lives these are big books.

God took the books away from you. He cut everything off. That's what it means that he circumcised you: he cut off everything that stood opposed to you, your whole legal indebtedness. And he nailed it to the cross.

Now, I’m going to have a Bible right in front of them and they are going to read Colossians 2:9-15 themselves. Then I’ll ask them:

When Jesus says that he forgave us, how much did he forgive? All of it.

What does it say that Jesus did? Jesus paid for our sin. God wants you in Heaven more than you want to go to Heaven.

What are you doing? You're sinning.

What do you do according to God to save yourself; what in this verse do you do? Nothing.

While you were dead, while you are sitting there right now, God has already taken all your guilt and put it on Jesus. Jesus paid for your sin. Not at the moment when you believe, he isn't in Heaven dying again and again, he paid for it one time. One time for all and all your books are dealt with.

“Unburdened” by Douglas Ramsey from “The Pilgrim’s Progress” book

If you have built up enough fear about the books in the first part of your conversation, this information is a pretty big relief for them. In real life that feels like a lot of weight that you piled on them and when they see that God accomplished this task all that weight gets lifted off and they will physically lighten up in the conversation.

The charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us, was taken away by God and he nailed it to the cross.

And having disarmed the powers and authorities he made a public spectacle of them.

Who or what did he make a public spectacle of? The books, but also the prosecuting attorney who would have prosecuted you for the stuff written in those books. The powers and authorities which would take your debt and hold it against you. The voice of guilt. Whatever those are, whoever those are, however that's going to work, God made a public spectacle of them.

What does it mean if I make a public spectacle of something? Am I doing something positive? No, I'm making a joke of it.

Listen to what happens here, God takes our books, he knows it all, he knows everything, it's all written down. And not only did God the Father take your debt and nail it to his own Son on the cross, but he didn't just barely cover your books, he didn't just barely take your guilt.

If you could barely pay off your debt at the bank did you make a public spectacle of your debt? No, you did not. If you have debt at the bank and you could make a public spectacle of your debt, how much money would you have to have? A lot.

The point is, “Oh, I owe you 10 bucks? Well, here's a million bucks.” That's a public spectacle, it's paying way way more than you owe.

That's the Globetrotters against their rivals the Washington Generals (the other fake team). The Globetrotters make a public spectacle against the opposing team because they can take that ball and do all that fun stuff. They're setting it up so it's no contest.

Jesus didn't just pay for our sin; God did not just destroy our books; he rocked the debt, he annihilated the debt. I'm not just close to being saved, I'm not going to get there and see my debt is just barely paid and that I slid in by the skin of my teeth.

God wants you saved so much that when he sent Jesus as the champion, he overpaid so much that the debt is a public spectacle. God takes your books and destroys them.

“God wants you saved so much that when he sent Jesus as the champion, he overpaid so much that the debt is a public spectacle. God takes your books and destroys them.”
— Bruce Peterson

When I get to heaven I will have no books, zero books. I'll have no books. The angel watching my life has already been fired. There's no one in heaven keeping a record of my sin. It's gone. It's literally gone. I have no books.

Then I ask the person I’m talking to: You know me, am I perfect? No.

I'll say: listen, I am not better than you. Chances are you're better than me, or at least we're pretty equal. I'm not better than you in any regard. But you still have an angel keeping record of your books. I do not, because God wants me saved. The thing is, he wants you saved too and you can get that angel fired today. Because Jesus triumphed over your debt, your debt is gone. You don't have to have books when you show up.

The whole idea is that you're at this scene we're there's two options: there's books or a book. You're either hearing what’s written in the books of your debt or you're hearing your name called from the Book of Life. I'm going to hear my name called from the Book of Life. (That's next week's sermon by the way.)

How do you get this to apply to you? we'll get to that in a second, but let me keep telling you about Jesus, because what God accomplished through him is amazing.

So, I'll say those words and I'll give them a little head’s by saying, “There is something for you to do, but it has nothing to do with saving yourself. But that's coming later.”

All right, so, do you see why I spend time in that verse? I go right from Revelation to Colossians because you have books, but you can also have those books thrown away before you get there. You can have them erased. All those books can be nailed to the cross and and be triumphed over so that they're gone.

Next, I'm going to go to Romans. I'm going to try to explain how it works because what's important is this:

  • God is just.

  • Sin creates real debt and God is not just a crooked banker who is your best friend and will simply make it go away through accounting tricks. No, no, no, no, God isn't doing some accounting tricks here.

  • Jesus is actually going to pay. Your debt was actually nailed to the cross. When Jesus is on that cross for you, he is actually paying your calculated debt. The Old Testament idea of it is that the whole lamb had to be measured to make sure there was enough, that it covered everyone at the meal. But the New Testament idea is that every sin has to be paid for on the cross.

  • Jesus paid so much that it's triumphed over. It's not going to be even close.

Jesus actually pays for it, the debt is paid, it's not just erased, Jesus pays for our sin.

Romans 3:9-20 (NIV)

What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

We read, “There's no one righteous, not even one,” and I just had that conversation with them. So, I say, “Look, here's God's evaluation of people: no one's good, not even one. No one seeks God. No one cares. Everyday we throw him under the bus.”

Then we look at what God does in the very next verses. I remind them to think about three things as the read these verses:

  • What are these verses saying that we do?

  • What does God expect us to do?

  • Who is the hero: God or us?

Romans 3:21-25 (NIV)

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—

What that's saying is: now, apart from being good—because it said that the purpose of the law was to point out our sin to us so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable. So, now set that aside—apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known without us earning it.

We can “tap into” the righteousness of God.

In the Old Testament God talked about the fact that he would do this one day.

This is what he says now: this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ… to who?… to all who believe.

Here's what happened…

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 

I'll come back to this but I read right over it the first time through because I want to get to this:

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood

I'll stop. I'll read it again. I'll have them read it. And I'll say, “Here's what happened, a sacrifice of atonement means that Jesus was the satisfactory sacrifice for your sin. You have debt that you can't pay. You have a mountain of debt. I'm telling you this now and when we are done with this conversation you're going to go sin some more. All you do is make more and more and more sin. God wants you saved more than you want to be saved. God Wants You in Heaven more than you want to be in Heaven. To accomplish that he made a payment for your sin. He a satisfactory sacrifice. Jesus Paid It All so that you don't have to pay it. That's what we just read in Colossians, this is Romans, Jesus is the sacrifice. Jesus’ sacrificed satisfied the wrath of God for your sin. Jesus is the hero.”

Then I'll back up a little bit:

There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned…

What do we do in this text? We are the Sinners. That's what we're doing, sin.

and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 

To be “justified” is to be declared innocent. We can be declared innocent freely by Grace.

What is Grace? Stuff you get that you shouldn't. Good things that happen that shouldn't happen, that you don't deserve.

You can be declared innocent. Your books can be thrown away because Jesus paid your debt.

You're making debt. You're making it every day. God wants you saved. So he paid your debt.

Listen to 1 John 2:1-2 they are awesome verses:

1 John 2:1-2 (NIV)

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

What's an advocate? If you have an advocate what do you have? You have someone who speaks for you. You have someone to defend you. You have someone on your side, in your corner.

Who do you have according to this verse? Jesus. Jesus, the one who paid your debt is in your corner if you have him.

You have debt so what should you have? You should have books. What do you have? You have Jesus in your corner.

Why? What might Jesus be saying if he's your Advocate and the subject is sin?

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.

I don't want you to sin. Sin is not good for you.

But if anybody does sin…

So, we're not talking about when you're good.

…we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

When is Jesus speaking for you, when you're good or bad? This verse says it, it is when you're bad. Jesus speaks up when you sin.

Who would Jesus say it to? He would say it to his Father and he would say it maybe to the prosecuting attorney—those ones who he triumphed over who he made a public spectacle of? It might be them. But he's saying it to whoever is your critic.

What might he be saying? He's going to say something like, “Oh yeah, I already paid for that. Oh I already covered that. Oh that's already forgiven. Oh don't write that down, his name's in The Book of Life.”

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.

God doesn't want you to sin. I'm not telling you should go out and sin. Sin's bad for you on lots of levels. It's bad for your life. It's bad for your relationships. It's bad for everything in your world. Sin's bad.

But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins

He's the one who paid. That's probably what he's gonna say, “Oh, I paid for that.

Oh, I paid for that one too.”

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus paid for your sin. God knows your sin.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
— Romans 5:8 (NIV)

What are we doing in this text? Sinning. That's always the right answer for everyone. God knows us. That's why we can be honest: I'm a sinner, God loves me anyhow.

Listen, you have an advocate with God, even though you've sinned all the time.

Back to the swimming analogy: you think that your swimming is going to get you saved. But, God knows you only have like a mile left and you're going to drown. You are not going to make it.

watercolor luxury Yacht on the beautiful blue ocean. Hand drawn illustration, Free Vector Free Vector by adhito alfattah

Here's the amazing news: you don't have to make it. There's a Lifeboat! You can stop swimming right now and you can get in the boat. Forget the Lifeboat, there's a yacht going by and everyone in the yacht is just taking it easy.

Jesus is that yacht. Jesus took all the weight of sin that's dragging you to the bottom of the ocean and he got rid of it. And he didn't just get rid of it, he lifts you into the boat. He paid the debt.

He didn't just pay my debt, he paid your debt. I'm telling you now I know I'm going to Heaven and it's not because I'm good, it's because I'm sitting back in a Lifeboat. I'm going to trust God who sent the Savior for me.

So, I'm still trying to make Jesus big in their mind.

Here's the last verse I use and it's just phenomenal…though these are all really solid verses in their own right that just decimate our sin.

“Our sin is not the barrier, the sin has been conquered by Christ...You do not have to convince God you’re good enough to go to Heaven. That is not the challenge. The the only question is who’s on the hook for your behavior?”
— Bruce Peterson

Our sin is not the barrier, the sin has been conquered by Christ. You don't have to convince yourself you're not a sinner. You do not have to convince God you're good enough to go to Heaven. That is not the challenge. The the only question is who's on the hook for your behavior?

Are you still on the hook? Then you're in for a world of trouble.

God is saying he's glad, he's happy to take the hook for you.

Listen to this next text. This next text is so full, you can spend a lot of conversation time with someone over this text. You should just know this text. It should just really be like bread and butter in your life. It's so important.

The author of the book of Hebrews is comparing Jesus and showing him to be superior to everything in the Old Testament. In this particular text he's showing Jesus to be better than the priesthood and his sacrifice better than the sacrifice of the sacrifices in the Old Testament.

So, Jesus is being compared to the ritual of sacrifice, which, by the way, I'll take time to explain this concept to them. This is something we all do, we are stuck in this ritual with God when we feel guilt we make a deal with him: “If you get me off the hook…”You know, we make these vows and these promises. You go to church and you've been trained to confess your sin, you've been trained to do Penance for your sin. You've been trained to repent of your sin. You've been trained in all of these ways in some kind of mechanism to be right with God and God is saying it's all garbage.

Jesus is the hero who deals with our sin, not our behavior.

I'll say all of that and then have them read these verses:

Hebrews 10:11-18 (NIV)

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

“This is the covenant I will make with them
    after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
    and I will write them on their minds.”

Then he adds:

“Their sins and lawless acts
    I will remember no more.”

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

We all do the first verse:

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

iStock photo

This is what we do as humans. We feel guilty, so what do we do? We buy our wife flowers. We go to church for a couple weeks. We'll put a little extra money in the offering. I'm feeling particularly bad, I'm gonna do a little bit extra. Whatever it is…we'll listen to a podcast. We'll do some kind of ritual.

God is saying those rituals are worthless because they don't actually cancel our the sin. You know from illustrations, like let’s go back to relationships. If you're cheating on your wife, is buying her flowers helpful? No, it’s not that helpful. But that's what we do all the time.

We don't stop what we're doing that’s making us feel guilty; we're not good at that. What we're good at is trying to do these little things which we can try to convince ourselves makes up for it. And we just build in these rituals into our lives that are meaningless. They don't work anywhere in life but we think they'll work with God.

They don't work.

What does your spouse want? Different behavior. They want a behavior change. They don't want flowers. They don't want cards or a night out. They want you to be different.

Your rituals don't work in life. They don't work for your boss. We want better behavior. We don't want, like, funnier jokes during lunch. That's not enough.

But when this priest—meaning Jesus—offered…for what? All time. But when Jesus offered for everyone all over the world for all time, when he offered one sacrifice for sin, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.

What did he do? He sat down.

Why? Because his sacrifice was enough. He sat down for all time.

How many sacrifices? One sacrifice.

He has, what? Made perfect…

For how long? Forever. Those who are still in progress.

Are they a finished product? No.

So, what are they doing? Sinning. They're not perfect yet; they're not finished products yet. But…

For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever…

Now, you look across the table and you say: “Do I look perfect to you?” They will say,  “No.” Am I perfect? “No.”

But we're talking about holiness, and here's the truth: because of the one sacrifice by Jesus, I have no books. I have no books. And at the great trial, when all Humanity…when I stand before God…and you stand before God, there'll be no books for me.

What's in the books? Sin. I will have no sin on my account.

So, what does that make me? Perfect. I'll have no accusers. I'll answer for nothing.

When it's time for me to open my mouth, who will speak for me? Jesus.

Why? Because, he's my Advocate. I have an advocate.

When you stand before God what are you hoping for? A blue ribbon? For what? Swimming?

When I get there, Jesus, the Son of God, is my advocate and I have no books. My books are gone, God's words about me say:

For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

He knows I'm not perfect. I'm still in progress. I'm only in progress because God is moving me that way. I might have a long progress to go, the progress is irrelevant, I'm already made perfect forever. Watch:

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

“This is the covenant I will make with them
    after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
    and I will write them on their minds.”

God is going to move his word into us. It is going to go from tablets of stone to inside us: “I will write them on their hearts”.

Then he adds this:

“Their sins and lawless acts
    I will remember no more.”

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

“And where these have been forgiven,” is past tense.

What does God expect of me? Sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

So here's the thing, I can look at you and I'll say, “I know I'm going to Heaven. I know I'm not better than you. God wants us to get to Heaven and this is God's plan. He wants you in Heaven.

Here's what God did to get you to Heaven: he sent his son who paid your debt. He paid for it if you accept it, or not, if you take advantage of it, or not, your debt's already paid.

I took advantage of it I have no books. You are still living your life trying to make your books smaller. How's it going? How big do you think your books are? They're pretty big.

I have no books. I have been made perfect. my slate has been cleaned forever. I will get there and I'll have no books and I will have an Advocate. I'm telling you that's what God did for you, and you can have also have an Advocate instead of books.

My name is in the Book of Life. I don't have books anymore. This is what Jesus did for us, it's a profound truth.

“Forgiven” by Thomas Black

Take your time, make them feel guilty, and then pull that guilt right off of them and put it squarely onto Jesus.

Jesus took your debt all your secret sins that you're doing—they're not secret to God—but they're already paid for. Jesus paid for them when he died on the cross.

They're going to want to know more. They're going to want to ask, ‘How does that count for me? What do I have to do?”

Then we're going to move into Faith.

The answer for them is: you're going to get to choose. As simple as that, you get to choose. Do you want to speak for yourself or do you want Jesus to speak for you?

That's the transition, you make them feel guilty (not with personal sins out of their life, you don't want them to put a wall up). Everyone's a sinner, then, Jesus takes that sin, all of it. You put the weight of their sin on them and then you take it off of them and put it squarely on Jesus.

And they literally get lighter right in your presence. Then you're going to give them the choice to believe. That's what we'll talk about next week.

Let's pray: Father, God, we do again come before you with grateful hearts that you love us enough that you want us to be saved that you love us enough that you took our debt, you paid our bill, it's an amazing privilege. It's an amazing truth.

In “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 3)” we will start talking about the choice people have: to believe in Jesus or not. Click here for Part 3.

Click here for “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 1)”.

Click here for “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 4)”.

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written or transcribed by Amanda Hovseth.




































How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 1 of 4)

Transcribed from Sermons by Bruce Peterson at Grace Chapel in Scottsbluff, NE. The video of this sermon can be found by clicking this link.

For a printable list of the primary verses to use when sharing the Gospel via this method, click on this link.

How do I end up going to Heaven when I die?

I’ve had the privilege—not bragging at all it’s just in a lot of ways a career choice—but I’ve had the privilege of leading hundreds and hundreds of people to Christ and I’ll tell you this right now, it is profoundly easy. It’s not quick, it’s usually a two and half hour or longer conversation because the Gospel is not something you just say it’s not a “repeat after me” prayer. No one is going to Heaven by just doing a repeat after me prayer.

When I was in Chicago at Sally’s and mine first apartment we had a landlord whose nephew went to a Christian college and he was on the football team. That football team would go to Europe during the summer and do scrimmages and show other colleges football and then they would bring that team or the other sports team onto the field and lead them into a repeat after me prayer and they would come back to the states and report on how many people got saved. And I asked if they understood English and they’d say, “Oh no they don’t understand English.” I’m like, “Wait a minute, you honestly think that repeating the words in a language you don’t know gets people saved?”

“The Gospel is not a magic trick. It’s truth. There is a real problem and there’s a real solution and getting saved is recognizing the problem and choosing the solution. You choose it. To choose it you have to understand it. ”
— Bruce Peterson

That’s ridiculous on so many levels, God is not a magician, the Gospel is not a magic trick. It’s truth. There is a real problem and there’s a real solution and getting saved is recognizing the problem and choosing the solution. You choose it. To choose it you have to understand it. As you talk to anyone the goal is to have a conversation that they understand.

If you look at how the people in the Bible share the Gospel--If you look at Paul in the book of Romans: he is writing to a church he’s never been to and he says, “I am going to tell you the Gospel.” And he starts by saying, “The Gospel is the power of God to save,” and then he takes three chapters and proves everyone in the world guilty, he condemns everyone first.

You first have to see the problem before you want the solution. No one ever, in anything in life, goes for a solution unless they see the problem. The problem has to be heavy. So when you are explaining the Gospel to people, you have to spend a significant amount of time crushing them.

I tell you this, truly before the Gospel got a grip on my soul, I was making a terrible mess of my life. I was destroying people in my path. I was destroying my own soul, stealing everything I could, and smoking everything that could be smoked. It was bad. I was dying and I was taking the world with me. Then the Gospel took me from the grave to be a mouthpiece for God.

What the Gospel can do is profound. And we don’t have the right to look at people and go, “Oh they won’t like the Gospel. I can’t explain it to them, they won’t accept it, they won’t believe it, they won’t appreciate it, they don’t want to be free from their life. They love their life.” Not true, we are all looking for something deep and meaningful that gives purpose and joy and meaning and a destiny for our lives, something bigger than ourselves that we can get involved in. Everyone you know wants the Gospel. You just may not know how to teach it to them.

They want freedom. They want meaning and purpose. They want to wake up and know what life's about. They do, they want it, they want it bad. You want it bad, you all do.

This sermon series is about how we share the Gospel. It’s huge, it’s monumental. So, I hope you take this series to heart.

Alright, so we're gonna read Revelation and I'm going to explain to you why we need the Gospel.

Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV)

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

These verses take place at the end of the Millennium. At the end of time.

There are four ages of humanity, four ways God has “ringed” out of this Earth as many people as he can for salvation—so his kingdom is as big as possible.

  1. He first used his reputation, until his reputation could save no more.

  2. Then he shifted to Abraham, to using the Jewish Nation as his means of communicating who he is to the world. Through the Old Testament we see tons of people get saved—mostly Gentiles, by the way. The Jews seem to be a bit rebellious but the Gentiles seem to come right along.

  3. At the end of the Old Testament his Nation is done and he shifts to his People. That's us, the “Church Age”, some from every nation. He spread his Nation out into individual people, so now we are the people of God. He's using the church to save as many as he can through our age.

  4. Next, he will shift to his King—Jesus. And Jesus will reign on the earth, God himself, for as long as people are being saved. And that too will have a timeline, it will have an expiration date.

People will eventually choose against the Kingship of Jesus. You can't go higher than God ruling on Earth. So, then it's all over, and we have this scene from Revelation. This is when the time is up.43

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.

There’s no place for them because we're having a giant “start over”.

And I saw the dead, great and small,

Who's dead at this point? Everybody, everyone's dead. We’re all dead.

standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life.

This is a very important verse. The books were opened and another book was opened. We have a pile of plural books and a separate single book. Keep that picture in your mind: a pile of books, and a separate single Book of Life.

The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.

Scary.

The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

“ And here’s the giant problem: there are books that are being kept on every single thing you think, say, and do, and you will answer for every single thing.

There’s also a book of names, the Book of Life, and it only has names. Here’s the good news: you either have a pile of books or you have a name in the Book of Life, you don’t have both. ”
— Bruce Peterson

Okay, that's why we’ve got to talk about—the Gospel. This is the scene. Everyone stands before God someday, everyone, all the dead, no one escapes, every single person. And here's the giant problem: there are books that are being kept on every single thing you think, say, and do, and you will answer for every single thing.

There's also a book of names, the Book of Life, and it only has names. Here's the good news: you either have a pile of books or you have a name in the Book of Life, you don't have both.

The question is, how in the world do we get our name in the Book of Life and get our pile of books which have recorded everything we’ve done, wiped out?

This is what you need to explain to people. So, I'm going to teach you how to.

Revelations wraps everything up. Everyone stands before God. God has rung everyone out of the earth who can get into the Book of Life and now it's time to go into eternity.

We see in Revelations chapters 21 and 22 that Death is no more.

Those who have their name in The Book of Life enter into Heaven and Paradise. That's how the whole thing wraps up: We all get our day in court and that's going to be a terrible day, for all of us, including Believers. Because, the verse that says God wipes all tears from their eyes and there's no more sadness, is after the Great White Throne Judgment. It is not when you die and go to Heaven, that's not when your grief ends. Even God has said that on the day of judgment we will see people we love and did not talk to about the Gospel and they will be damned and we will not just be sad, we will be wrecked over our silence. That should wreck you; that should wreck you right now.

It is after that when God wipes away all our tears.

Okay, let's explain the Gospel. Fair warning, this sermon only ends on the negative, there's no good news today, because when you're explaining the Gospel to somebody you have to wreck them. I'm going to try to show you how I try to do that.

This is exactly how it sounds when I talk to people about the Gospel. It takes at least two and a half hours. I can't get it done in less than that and I typically record our conversation when I witness to people. Then when they get saved I can give them a recording of their own salvation and they love it. It's pretty meaningful and it's a good tool because then I also have those, and you could actually listen to me explain the Gospel to someone, but it sounds exactly like this sermon.

Usually when I’m talking to someone I personalize it, but this will be an overview.

So, you start with the problem.

If you think of Jesus’s life as the Gospel message, it starts with the Sermon on the Mount. Everyone is crushed in the Sermon on the Mount. And it ends with his death and resurrection. That's the sermon of Jesus.

If you think of Paul, you would start in Romans 1 where it wrecks everyone, and then go to chapter 3 verse 21 where it talks about righteousness as a gift from God. But he doesn’t start with that because everyone would be confused.

You have to take your time with people to explain it and you don’t have to do it all in one setting. And you don’t give the answer--that Jesus is the solution--until they ask.

If you spend long enough just crushing people, they will eventually say, “Okay, what’s the solution to this?”

When they ask, they are ready, but don't give them the answer before they ask or they won’t truly hear it. It won’t make sense. Don't give the answer first, start with the problem, they have to understand the problem before they will care about the answer.

Here's the problem: God says we need to be holy. Be holy.

Most people in the world are going to say, “Yeah, I'm pretty good.”

“ Most people you talk to are starting from a place where they think that they’re in the top half of humanity as far as goodness and that this is good enough. You have to wreck that mentality, because God wrecks it. He says we have to be holy.”
— Bruce Peterson

That is their starting place. They're going to think one of two things: “Yeah, I’m probably going to Heaven when I die.” Or, “Well, I’m not bad enough to go to Hell. Not that bad. I don’t deserve Hell.”

Those are really the same thing. Most people you talk to are starting from a place where they think that they're in the top half of humanity as far as goodness and that this is good enough. You have to wreck that mentality, because God wrecks it. He says we have to be holy.

Hebrews 12: 14-15 (NIV)

“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

“Be holy, without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Holiness. That's the standard if you want to see God. What do you have to be? Holy.

Okay, that's rough.

1 Peter 1:14-16 (NIV)

“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “‘Be holy, because I am holy.’”

Who is saying this? God. How holy should you be? Holy like God. There’s the problem.

Paul points out this problem plainly in Chapter 3 of Romans; this is his concluding thought at the end of his argument where he is crushing people:

Romans 3:9-20 (NIV)

What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

Here’s a summary of these verses: Paul says, “Here’s what I’ve just done, I’ve made a charge that the Jews and the Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin, as it is written.”

Now Paul’s just going to quote all over the Biblical text, “There’s no one who’s righteous. There’s not even one.”

So, the person sitting across from you is not righteous. They might think they are, so what are you going to do? You’re going to do some work, you’re going to walk them through their life to see if they are really righteous.

“There's no one righteous…there's no one who understands…”

What's your goal? To help them understand. What do they have to understand? That they're not righteous.

That's the start of the Gospel. Paul starts his argument by proclaiming that everyone falls short of God’s requirement. No one is holy. He does all of this before he gets to the good news. Don’t waste your time explaining Jesus until you have helped them understand that they have a problem which they can’t solve. It’s right there in the text.

Therefore no one

How many people? …no one

will be declared righteous.

Righteous means “good enough” in God’s sight by the works of the law. Which means by what you do. How many people are going to Heaven because of how good they are? Nobody.

Everyone you know who thinks they are good enough to go to Heaven, is not going. And at the Great White Throne Judgement you will see them and they will see you and that’s going to be a horrible “day”. And it’s not a “day” like 24-hours, it’s a very long time. Everyone gets their day in court.

…rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

“Why did God give us the rules? So we would know we need a savior.”
— Bruce Peterson

Why did God give us the rules? So we would know we need a savior.

What do we tend to do as humans? We look at the rules and we declare ourselves good enough. And doing this will destroy many many people whom we love. And that is somewhat on us, because it is our job to tell them the truth.

Hebrews 4:12-13 (NIV)

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

You are not getting away with anything. We are all sinners.

People don't like that phrase, that “we are all sinners”. What is sin? It's missing the bullseye; it's missing the mark. What is the bullseye? Holiness. And how many times have you hit the bullseye? Zero. How many times has anyone hit the bullseye? Zero. How many times do you have to hit the bullseye to be holy? Every single time. Every time, in every relationship, in every situation, in every thought and attitude. What is missing the mark? What is sin? Not having the same thoughts, words, and deeds that Jesus, himself, would have in every single situation.

We are all wrecked.

Now you’ve got to talk about it,. You’ve got to talk about it a little bit; you’ve got to make it real.

So, I almost always bring up stuff like this illustration—I have the privilege of doing counseling, so I get to say this to people:

People will say this, “Listen, I don't deserve to go to Hell because I'm not…” and they will list some of the sins that they think people should go to Hell for, “…I'm not Hitler. I'm not a murderer. I'm not a serial rapist. I'm not…” You know, whatever the list is that they'll have.

So, I say to them stuff like this:

You know what, I get to counsel people sometimes, and here's what I'll tell you from my experience: In a marriage where someone commits one of the big sins in marriage, infidelity—where someone cheats on the other one—I'll give you tons of examples of people who have committed adultery in their relationship and that relationship not only survives it, but it's better afterwards.

Now to be clear, it's not the infidelity that makes the marriage better. Infidelity is a huge problem. But, it's the work that gets done in the relationship to recover from the infidelity which can actually make that relationship a better relationship than it was to begin with. This is pretty regular.

But, with a marriage which is just about to break, when it's on its last—literally—its last leg, one person has just been talked into going to counseling and they don't even want to be there—when it's that desperate, it's usually not a big offense. It's little ones; it's a million little cuts. It's every single day of their whole relationship someone is ignored. The other person always, every day, throws them under the bus. When it comes to decisions, one of them never considers what the other might want. They don’t share their values; they don’t share their views. They never talk to them. They never appreciate them. They never love them. They always speak down to them. When they are having a conversation, they are always throwing the other one under the bus. They use their name as a byword and a curse word and a joke. They are nothing to them. They’ve never appreciated them a single day of their life. One person is just trashed every moment of the entire relationship.

Recovering that relationship…that is almost impossible.

The pattern is so deep, it's so deep, and the wounds are so deep. The distance between them is so vast. One of them has just never ever been appreciated by the other one. That marriage is rough.

And I only say that to you to say, listen, if perhaps only one time in your life you bowed down to an idol…God might even go, “Okay, one time you had one big miss…” And maybe he could move past that.

But, here's the facts according to Paul, according to God…let’s just look at your life…how often do you think about God?

No, seriously, how often do you think about him? How often do you consider God first before you make a decision in your life? He wrote you a letter, how much of it have you read? How often do you read it? How often do you pray? How often are you building your life on God?

He says, “No one seeks me.” How hard are you seeking Him? Seriously, tell me how much time per day do you seek Him? When was the last time you went to church? When's the last time you actually sacrificed a significant part of your life for the plan of God? When you considered your retirement, when you considered your job, when you considered your career choice, when you considered anything important in your life, how often did you first ask, is this what God wants for me? The truth is, you don't do it, ever.

Here's the truth, anytime you've decided to do something, if God would have stopped you in that moment and said, “Listen, I don't want you to do this.” You would instinctively and instantly say, “I don't care what you want, this is what I want, and this is what I'm going to do.” You do it every single day.

If He was literally following you around, there would be moments in the day where you are about to think or say something, and if he stopped you, just like he stopped Cain, and said to Cain, “Listen, don't do it. Sin is crouching at your door, it's going to get you.”

You would say, “I don't care; I'm going to look at the porn. I don't care; I'm going to watch that woman walk away and I'm going to imagine what her butt looks like naked. I'm going to imagine myself winning a billion dollars and I'm going to imagine myself naked on a beach somewhere drunk. I'm just gonna imagine myself with someone else every time I go home. I'm going to put a different face on my spouse every time. I'm just not gonna care. I don't care if I use bad language. I don't care what jokes you don’t want me to tell. I don't care what jokes you don’t want me to laugh at. I don't care.”

Everyone does this and we do it all day every day. Every day. Every day. Every day. Every single day, we throw God under the bus. We use his name as a curse word all the time. And then we want to say to God, “Oh, but I'm a pretty good person and you should love me unconditionally and just let me into your family and be happy I'm here.”

It's ridiculous! Absolutely, utterly, ridiculous! To have the audacity to call ourselves good, is to have the foolish thought that we are graded on a bell curve and we are all in an underperforming school where someone has to pass the class, so, no one does the homework, but someone has to pass. I think I'm going to get a B in this class. I'm not even gonna have to try. I just have to try a little harder than that guy.

I want to know. Seriously, you take a minute now and just try to convince me…you’re not convincing God right now, just go ahead and try to convince me that you're a good person and really should deserve to go to Heaven. I'd love to hear it.

Let me have your spouse in the room when you tell me these things, because I'd love to see their reaction to how you are good enough to go to Heaven.

Listen, God says there is an angel in Heaven watching your life who knows your attitudes and he's writing them down, every one of them. And you are going to be held accountable to them.

Isaiah 64:6 (NIV)

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

In the Bible “unclean” means unacceptable. How many of us are unacceptable? All of us, and all of our righteous acts are like menstrual rags to God.

Yep that's what it says, your cleaned up American version of the Bible will say “filthy rags” or something like that, but the Hebrews had to read what God said and He calls your “good” deeds menstrual rags.

This is how it goes in marriage counseling:

This person’s spouse is trying to explain to them how they feel totally totally ignored and this person over here says something like, “How can you feel that way? I took the garbage out just yesterday?”

And what does this other person feel about that? Is that good?

“What we think of as good is just Baseline Behavior. It’s what is expected...That’s not being good, that’s your job. ”
— Bruce Peterson

See, here's the thing, this is why this is so important, because what we think of as good is just Baseline Behavior. It’s what is expected. That’s the shocking thing that you have to get across. That’s not being good, that’s your job. It’s your job to love them. That is your one job--to love. You can’t point to moments where you loved, even if it’s big, you can’t point to it as good. It’s the Baseline.

The expectation in marriage is to love each other more than your own life. That’s what you promised at the wedding. The other person is the most important. And you’re down here wanting credit for things that aren’t even reaching halfway to that expectation?

Here's what's happening, you take out the garbage and then you hold it over my head like, “Look what I did?” That's not good, that's actually bad! It’s filthy rags to them; that's not love!

And that's the game we play with God. It's the game I'm afraid you're playing with God. I think you think you're good and I'm telling you you're wrecked.

Right here's where I'll kind of shift and go into just numbers.

I'll say, “Listen, now that you've kind of got this idea of humanity’s lack of holiness, how many times a day do you think you don't hit the bullseye?”

Even if you have a thought about doing something bad, you are guilty of it. Or if you have the wrong attitude—attitudes are important too.

Now, I'll spend a little time on attitudes.

Picture a racist, picture Hitler in a room with all the people he loves. In that moment he's not actively being racist he loves everyone in that room. Does he, in that moment, cease to be a racist? No. Is he less guilty at that moment than at any other moment? No, he's not off the hook.

Here's why that's important, because we are all greedy. I don't care if that, at this moment, you're putting something into the offering plate. I don't care if you just gave the homeless guy at Walmart 20 bucks. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is you're never ever any single moment of your life off the hook for being greedy. After all, you only gave him 20 bucks.

Then I'll go to what Jesus said when he was asked what's the most important Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40).

He said it was to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. To love God with everything you are, with all of your passions--your heart--and your soul, and your thoughts. So, with your passions, your attitudes, and every thought, love God.

Then he said the second one is very much like the first one. It's to love your neighbor as yourself.

Then, of course, Jesus’ audience asked Him, “Well, who’s my neighbor?”

Jesus answered with a story (The Good Samaritan—Luke 10:25-37) and the point of that story is that everyone is your neighbor, including your enemies. As you get a handle on loving God with everything you are, then you are supposed to love everyone else with everything you are.

I'd love to hear the story of the day that proves you love God more than anything else in this world and I would love one example, just one example, one in your whole life, one single example where you have truly loved your enemy as much as you love yourself. Because I tell you this, when I tell you my kid has cancer you will not pray for him nearly as much as you'll pray for your own kid, and you love me, but you don't even love me as much as you love yourself. And I'll tell you this, if your spouse gets cancer you won't even pray for them as much as you'll pray for yourself when you get cancer, because you suck at loving.

If I'm wrong I'm all ears. Tell me how good you are, convince me, tell me. But, I'm not the audience, I'm going to be in the audience, but you're going to explain it to God in front of everyone, including the people that you claim to love, and they'll be called as Witnesses. It seems to me that you are in for a world of hurt.

And let me explain the consequences to you:

Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV)

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

David Howard Hitchcock's oil painting 'Halemaumau, Lake of Fire', 1888

You have an angel who is gauging every attitude and thought you have and you're going to stand before God and the consequences are terrible. Anyone whose name is not found written in the Book of Life is thrown into the Lake of Fire.

“If you get your name in The Book of Life, none of this is in your future.”
— Bruce Peterson

I don't want that for you. I love you. I want you to know that right in this passage where God puts this warning He holds out an amazing possibility for you, even now. He gives you the chance to get your name in the Book of Life, because if you get your name in The Book of Life, none of this is in your future.

What will the person you're evangelizing to do at this moment? If you've taken your time and done it well, they will go, “How do I do that?”

Now they are ready for the good news.

Take your time with this first part, their eternity is at stake.

If you aren't saved, your eternity is at stake. I hope you felt wrecked today.

Take your time; this was a half hour, but I take way longer to explain the Gospel to people in real life.

I make it personal. I make it hurt. Sometimes there's tears. Just go slowly. You're not in a hurry. The only thing that cuts it off is their death. Take your time, make them want the solution. Until you sense that asking for the solution is on their lips, stay on this subject.

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written or transcribed by Amanda Hovseth.

Relationship Green Flags

Who you choose to marry, to face life with, is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. (The only thing which is definitely more important is choosing to accept Jesus’ payment on the cross for your sins—click this link for more info.)

June 20th, 2023 was the anniversary of my first date with my husband. Which means, as of June 20th, 2023, I had known my husband for one year.

It blows my mind thinking that he has only been in my life for a little over a year. He came along and turned out to be even more than I dared to hope for. I hadn’t even realized how low my bar had gotten until I met Dakota, and he showed me everything I’d been missing.

For example, there are times I thank Dakota for different things he does for me and his response is, “Amanda, that’s just the baseline of how people should treat each other.” And, I’m like, “I know, but the guys I’ve dated before have never done that, so I’m grateful for you.”

So, in honor of a year with a man who treats me better than I ever dreamed, here is a list of relationship green flags (in no particular order) for all of you still out there searching.

It’s important to note that we are all human and, chances are, no one is going to have mastered all of these green flags; however, the more green flags the better. And the key is to be with someone who desires to constantly work on improving themselves with you and who has these green flags as a goal.

They take responsibility for themselves.

Bottlecap Guru (Etsy)

Which means they recognize that there are things in life we can’t control, but we can control our own reactions and actions and we only have ourselves to blame if we choose poorly.

“I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

No matter the cards life has dealt them, they work through their trials and struggles and keep trying to better themselves.

They don’t dwell in their misfortune and misery. A person who constantly acts like the world owes them, will never be able to build a life with you because they aren’t interested in building their own. They are only interested in taking from others. They will eventually even turn that “you owe me” attitude on you, and nothing you do will ever be enough.

“You are the only human in charge of your destiny. Unfair things may happen to you, unfortunate times may come to you, but you always get to choose how you respond. You can live in frustration and bitterness, or you can be the bigger person and just play the heck out of the cards you are dealt. The truth is that not a single person can choose the cards they receive, but everyone chooses how they play their cards.” -Nikki Banas

They support your personal growth.

Some people hate to see others grow because they are afraid they will be left behind.

“For so long I wanted you to hold me…until I realized how small you needed me to be to fit within your grasp.” -wild spirit, soft heart / butterflies rising

In a strong relationship, both parties should be working on growing and helping each other grow. Don’t hitch your life to someone who will selfishly hold you back instead of supporting you as you move forward.

“A great spouse loves you exactly as you are. An extraordinary spouse helps you grow; inspires you to be, do, and give your very best.” -Fawn Weaver

They are self-reflective.

They pay attention to their emotions and actions and if they ever behave in a negative way, they do the work of looking inward to discover why they acted that way and what they can do to prevent it from happening again.

“It takes a lot of courage, humility, and self-awareness to look at ourselves closely and with honesty.” -Todd Davis

They are honest about their mistakes.

And with that honesty comes a sincere apology. They face the damage they’ve caused head on in order to work on fixing it.

“It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgement. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake.” -Stephen Covey

They have long-standing friendships.

If a person can’t even manage to have a healthy friendship, there is no way they can manage a healthy relationship with a significant other. Good long-standing friendships show that they know how to manage the “the gives and takes” of a relationship and how to put others before themselves. Also, one person can’t be everything to another person, a significant other should be the priority, but no one can hold up the weight of being another person’s “everything”.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” -Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)

@Julia Swartz

If they have strong relationships with friends and family, it also proves that they know the value of good relationships and then there is a better chance of them valuing their relationships with you and your potential future kids as well.



“Everything of value that we will know in this life comes from our relationships with those around us. Because there is nothing material that measures against the intangibles of love and friendship.” -R.A. Salvatore

Likewise, they encourage your connections with loving friends and family.

The more people you have loving you and looking out for you in life, the better. A significant other who truly loves you will want you to have a large and strong support system. If a significant other is trying to put a wedge between you and the people who have already proven their love for you throughout your life, that is a HUGE red flag! It indicates an abusive personality who wants you to have no one left to run to for help once they start the abuse.

“Love doesn’t isolate! If you have to cut off good friends and family to please your partner, you’re not in a relationship. That’s slavery. A person only isolates you so they can control you.” -Tony Gaskins

Their words and behavior align.

Love is a verb—which means it’s an action word, so it requires actions to truly exist. If they say they love you but their actions make you feel unloved, then they aren’t actually loving you.

I’ve had multiple guys talk about a future with me but—at best—they were dreaming and deceiving themselves about what they were capable of; and—at worst—they were only trying to keep me around longer by promising what they knew I wanted even though they did not intend to follow through. And I believed each one of them for far too long before I realized none of them were actually putting in the work to build that future, until Dakota.

For example: one thing Dakota did when we were dating which let me know he was serious about building a future with me was look up lists of questions you should ask your significant other before marriage and he went through all of the questions with me. He also made sure I met as many of the important people in his life as I could as soon as possible and vice versa.

“Great marriages are made when husbands and wives make a lot every day choices that say, ‘I love you’, rather than choices that say, ‘I love me’.” -Matthew L. Jacobson

They can engage in a disagreement without becoming cruel.

No one is ever going to agree with another person 100% of the time. You need to be able to discuss your disagreements civilly and lovingly. It’s important to be with someone who knows it’s not okay to be cruel in order to win a disagreement. The goal should be to talk things out and come to a mutual understanding.

“A healthy adult relationship is one where both people in the relationship give and both receive. There is a safe and open exchange of ideas, feelings, and thoughts and all perspectives are considered and valued. There is also the freedom to respectfully challenge, confront, and strengthen one another.” -Leslie Vernick

Even if you don’t come to the same conclusion in the end, each person needs to feel heard and understood. In healthy relationships, people can disagree and still be respectful. They can also find ways to compromise when choices and actions need to be decided upon even if they can never completely agree with or understand the other person’s viewpoint.

“Maturity in a relationship is seeing conflict as a way to develop deeper mutual understanding. It is not about winning or being correct, but about taking turns to listen selflessly and calmly speaking your truth to each other. Harmony grows when you meet each other in the middle.” -Yung Pueblo

They have their own healthy hobbies.

Of course couples should do a lot of stuff together; however, they shouldn’t need to do everything together. Each person should be well rounded enough to have their own things going on sometimes and be allowed to do their own thing.

“There’s a big difference between empty fatigue and gratifying exhaustion. Life is short. Invest in meaningful activities that move you.” -Marc and Angel Chernoff

They help you with your emotions.

Emotions can be wrong. Emotions aren’t always justified and can be misleading because they tend to come from our most selfish places. However, they are still real and ignoring or dismissing them doesn’t help. Repressed emotions can resurface later into actual physical ailments or can build up until you explode. In a healthy, loving relationship, you will be able to discuss your emotions—whether or not they are justified—without fighting about them, and work through them together.

This doesn’t mean that you both act like your emotions are always correct, it means you explore them together, without assumptions, and discover what they are trying to tell you. Even if they are illogical they are usually signaling you towards a wound which needs to be healed. So, you need to work together to figure out why you are feeling that way, be it injustice, selfishness, past trauma, an unforeseen trigger, etc. and then you can find ways to handle it healthily and heal the wounds which exist or the potentially false mindset you’re carrying which led to them.

A loving partner should be a safe space to talk about your feelings with, whether or not the feelings are logical and justified. But, you, also as a loving partner, need to be willing to be honest about the origin of the emotions and, potentially, your own infallibility, so that you can both come out better on the other side.

“When you shut down emotion, you’re also affecting your immune system. So the repression of emotion, which is a survival strategy, then becomes a source of physiological illness later on.” -Gabor Mate

They share compatible goals for your relationship.

Unfortunately, you might find someone who is perfect in every way, but they don’t want to have kids, while you do want to have kids. If you both want to build different types of futures, through no fault of either of you, you can’t build your future together.

“Chemistry refers to the emotional connection you feel with another individual. Your chemistry is what creates the magnetic pull towards someone, what attracts you to their being and the foundation for sexual attraction. Compatibility on the other hand is related to lifestyle, goals, and values and overall vision. If you have chemistry without compatibility, this creates a short term intimate relationship. If you have compatibility without much chemistry, this creates a dry, passionless relationship. Both are needed for the relationship to feel filled with passion, life, purpose, and sustenance.”

They understand that healthy relationships require continuous work.

All relationships take work. They require a willingness to grow and adapt with your partner. You are not the same person you were a year ago and neither are they; nor will either of you be exactly the same a year from now. You have to stay checked-in with each other—spend quality time with each other, talk about your day and thoughts together—in order to grow and change together instead of drifting apart.

“Men are so worried that marriage will leave them with ‘only one woman’ for the rest of their lives. That’s simply not true. I fell in love with a 19-year-old rock climber, married a 20-year-old animal lover, started a family with a 24-year-old mother, then built a farm with a 25-year-old homemaker, and today I’m married to a 27-year-old woman of wisdom. If your mind is healthy, you’ll never get tired of ‘one woman’. You’ll actually become overwhelmed with how many beautiful versions of her you get to marry over the years. Don’t say no to marriage, say yes and keep saying yes until the day you die.” -Dale Partridge

Also, there is no such thing as, “I told you I loved you on our wedding day and that’s enough.” No, that’s neglect and indicates an unhealthy detachment from your emotions. There is nothing wrong with reassuring your partner of your love, and in fact, it is ideal—dare I say, required. A strong relationship is one in which both people and constantly reminded that they are loved. Feeling securely loved allows you to grow and flourish in all aspects of your life.

“Marriage is not the end of the search for love. It’s the end of the search for the person to love. The search for ways to love that person has just begun.” -Hank Sinatra

They share your form of spirituality.

A person’s religious beliefs impact pretty much every decision they make, even the small ones, but especially the major ones. If you don’t share your core belief system, you don’t really share the same view of the world. You might be able to coast by through the small choices, but when life gets hard, like it does for everyone, you will both fall back on your core beliefs for guidance and if they are incompatible belief systems, you will fall apart.

On the flip side, if you share your core belief system, it will make your choices easier. Decisions like how to raise your children, which places you should donate money to, and which holidays to celebrate, will be way easier.

“When people fall in love with someone’s flowers, but not their roots, they don’t know what to do when Autumn comes. Your relationship needs to be built on a deep alignment of values, character, and morals (the roots) not just ‘love’, appearance, hobbies, and status (the flowers).” -suetsai & doctor_bolu / Twitter

These are just a few of many green flags which indicate the potential for a strong, healthy, long-lasting relationship. If you find a person who flies these flags and they want to build a future with you, you are blessed.

Likewise, we should all be working at becoming the type of person who flies these flags as well. The number one way to attract the type of person you want, is to work at becoming the type of person they deserve.

If you inherently long for something, become it first. If you want gardens, become the gardener. If you want love, embody love. If you want mental stimulation, change the conversation. If you want peace, exude calmness. If you want to fill your world with artists, begin to paint. If you want to be valued, respect your own time. If you want to live ecstatically, find the ecstacy within yourself. This is how to draw it in, day by day, inch by inch.

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written by Amanda Hovseth.

Prayers of the Bible: Part 2

A Parable Comparing Self-righteous Prayers to Humble Prayers

Context: Jesus told this parable in order to teach his followers a lesson about who their confidence should be in. In this parable the Pharisee put his confidence in himself and his own self-righteousness, while the Tax Collector was humble and believed he needed a Savior. The Tax Collector’s confidence was in God’s righteousness, not his own. Likewise, we should all put our confidence in God’s ability to save us and not in our own actions.

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

-Luke 18:9-14 (NLT)

  King Hezekiah’s Prayer with the Enemy at Their Gates

Context: Sennacherib, the King of Assyria has been conquering nation after nation and he has now brought his army to the gates of Jerusalem. He tells King Hezekiah that he should surrender and he uses every other nation he has defeated as an example, claiming that their gods could not save them from him so Hezekiah would be foolish to think his God could do any better. Instead of surrendering, Hezekiah takes his concerns to God with this prayer. 

God responded through His prophet, Isaiah, letting Hezekiah know that He had heard Sennacherib’s blasphemies and that Hezekiah had nothing to worry about. God promised to make Sennacherib return home where he would be destroyed by the sword. God did exactly as He promised. Sennacherib got news which had him return to Nineveh, and, then, while he was worshiping his god, Nisrok, in his temple, his own sons killed him with their swords.

And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

“It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste to these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.”

-2 Kings 19:15-19 (NIV)

Jonah’s Prayer for Deliverance

Context: Jonah was a prophet of God. When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach repentance to them, Jonah refused. Nineveh had a history of being very cruel to other nations, including the Israelites, so Jonah didn’t want to help them out at all. He knew that God is a God of forgiveness and he didn’t want to give them a chance to repent because he didn’t want God to forgive them.

Jonah tried to run away by getting on a boat heading away from Nineveh. But, you can’t run away from God. God sent a bad storm. Jonah knew it was his fault, so he told the people on the ship that he needed to be thrown overboard if they wanted to survive the storm. When he was thrown overboard, God sent a big fish to swallow Jonah, but Jonah didn’t die, God kept him alive in the fish. While Jonah is in the fish he prays this prayer. 

It’s interesting to note that this prayer is in the past tense. Jonah prayed as if God had already saved him. Jonah knew what God wanted and knew if he asked for help and forgiveness he would be granted it and saved. Sure enough, after this prayer God had the fish spit Jonah out onto dry land, and Jonah made his way to Nineveh.

“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,

    and he answered me;

out of the belly of Sheol I cried,

    and you heard my voice.

For you cast me into the deep,

    into the heart of the seas,

    and the flood surrounded me;

all your waves and your billows

    passed over me.

Then I said, ‘I am driven away

    from your sight;

yet I shall again look

    upon your holy temple.’

The waters closed in over me to take my life;

    the deep surrounded me;

weeds were wrapped about my head

     at the roots of the mountains.

I went down to the land

    whose bars closed upon me forever;

yet you brought up my life from the pit,

    O Lord my God.

When my life was fainting away,

    I remembered the Lord,

and my prayer came to you,

    into your holy temple.

Those who pay regard to vain idols

    forsake their hope of steadfast love.

But I with the voice of thanksgiving

    will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay.

    Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

-Jonah 2:1b-9 (ESV)

Solomon’s Prayer for Wisdom

Context: Solomon had recently become the new king of Israel, succeeding his father, King David. Instead of trusting in his own ability to lead, he turned to God for help. God offered him anything he wanted. This prayer is Solomon’s reply to God’s offer. 

Instead of asking for riches or fame, Solomon asked for the wisdom required to be a good leader. God was pleased with the fact that Solomon’s heart was focused on taking care of his people instead of on selfish endeavors, so He granted Solomon’s request for wisdom but also promised him riches and fame.

To this day, even in secular settings, Solomon is known as the wisest man and king to ever live. 

Solomon replied, “You showed great and faithful love to your servant, my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued to show this great and faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.

“Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted! Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”

-1 Kings 3:6-9 (NLT)

The Prayer of Jabez

Context: This is a short prayer that is stuck right in the middle of a genealogical record written by Ezra about the Israelites who returned home after their Babylonian exile. Jabez’s prayer shows that he understood God’s promises to the nation of Israel. Jabez asked God to grant him exactly what God had already promised to do for the Israelite people if they would simply come to Him in prayer (Jeremiah 29:10-14).  Jabez did precisely what God wanted all of the people listed in this genealogical record to do; he chose to follow God and God kept His promises. 

We are not living during the same time Jabez was--we are not Israelites being brought back to our homeland from our exile in Babylon--so we also don’t live under the same prophetic messages and promises which Jabez lived under. However, there are still truths which we can learn from this: God always keeps His promises; and it is wise to learn which promises are meant for us and then to pray in line with them.

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.

-1 Chronicles 4:9-10 (ESV)

Paul’s Prayer for the Believers in Ephesus

Context: The book of Ephesians is a letter Paul wrote to the faithful followers of Christ in the church of Ephesus. He started out praising God for the grace He has given through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Paul also said they should praise God for giving believers the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of salvation and spiritual inheritance. Then he prayed for the believers to grow in their wisdom and knowledge of God and to understand God’s power and everything He does and has done for the people who have believed in Him.

We may not be Ephesians; however, if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and trusted in His sacrifice on the cross to pay for your sins, then the truths found in this prayer can also be applied to you. It is a prayer for believers (those who “belong to His dear Son”) during the church age, and we are also believers during the church age.

So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

…

And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.

- Ephesians 1:6-8; 13-23 (NLT)

This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”

Click here for more things written by Amanda Hovseth.