How Can I Explain the Gospel to My Friends? (The Romans Road Method)

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There are many possible ways to explain the Gospel. The entire Bible is meant to point people to Christ and it uses a variety of different ways. The best method to use depends on the person and the situation. However, one of the easiest and most straightforward methods is called the Romans Road.

Romans Road breaks the Gospel down into five different points. Then it uses verses from the book of Romans to teach each point.

Let’s take a look:

1) What does sin look like in our lives? Is it possible that people can be good enough and can get into Heaven on their own?

Romans 3:23 (ESV)- For everyone has sinned;  we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 

Romans 3:10 (ESV)- As the Scriptures say,  “No one is righteous—not even one.

Romans 5:12 (ESV)- When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death,  so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. 

Lesson Learned: Everyone has sin in their lives. It doesn’t matter how good you think you are, everyone is guilty of sin.

2) What are the consequences of sin in our lives?

Romans 6:23a (ESV)- For the wages of sin is death…

Lesson Learned: Any and all sin has the consequence of death.

3) “Am I too bad to be saved then? Is there any hope for me?”

Romans 6:23b (ESV)- For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Romans 5:8 (ESV)- But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Lesson Learned: Even though we are all guilty sinners--God loves us. Jesus died on the cross to save us because of that love.

4) “If salvation is too big of a task for us; how can I be saved?”

Romans 10:9-10 (ESV)- And that message is the very message about faith that we preach:  If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

Romans 10:13 (ESV)- ...for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Lesson Learned: We need help from God. Because of Jesus’ death on our behalf, all we have to do is believe in Him, trusting His death as the payment for our sins--and we will be saved!

5) “I’ve believed, did God accept me?”

Romans 10:11-13 (ESV)- As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For  “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” 

Romans 5:1 (ESV)- Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith,  we have peace with God  because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.

Romans 8:1 (ESV)- So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 

Romans 8:38-39 (ESV)- And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Lesson Learned: God says belief equals salvation. So if you’ve believed Jesus paid for your sins, then you are saved and nothing can take that salvation away. 

In Closing:

If you’ve taken someone through the Roman’s Road and they would like to accept Jesus as their Savior, you can lead them in prayer. Let them know that the prayer isn’t what gets people into Heaven; only faith in Jesus gets people there. But, praying is how we communicate with God and it is a big part in having a relationship with Him, so it’s a great way to declare your faith. 

Here’s an example of a prayer you can lead them in:

Dear God, I am so sorry that I have messed up and sinned. I know I deserve punishment and that Jesus took that punishment for me. I know that I need your forgiveness and your help. I am putting my faith in Jesus and His payment for my sins. Thank you for forgiving me and for wanting a relationship with me. In Jesus name, Amen

Finally, you can let them know that since they have accepted Jesus’ payment for their sins, they are adopted as a son/daughter of God. He promises they are on their way to Heaven and that there is nothing in Heaven or on the Earth which can separate them from Him and His love. 

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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.

Does the Devil Rule Hell?

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In Greek Mythology Hades is the god of the dead and he rules over the underworld. In Roman Mythology his name is Pluto. And somewhere along the way people have taken these myths and applied them to the Biblical Devil. 

Now when people think of Satan they picture a pitchfork wielding, horned, red, god-like being sitting on a throne in the pit of Hell, controlling the flames which surround him. They imagine him sneering maniacally as he finds new ways to entertain himself by torturing the poor souls whom he has claimed as his own.

But is this actually how the Bible describes Satan? Does the Devil really rule Hell?

Well the Bible does actually answer this specific question in the book of Revelation:

Revelation 20:10: And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (ESV)

The Devil doesn’t get to rule over Hell in the afterlife. Instead, it is a place of torment and punishment for him as well.

The Hades of Greek Mythology may be of comparable power to Zeus, along with a myriad of other gods. But in the Bible God is the only being who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present. The Devil is simply a created being whose power does not even come close to God’s power. At some point Satan used his own God-given free-will to act in defiance of God and--in the end--he will be punished for it. In fact, the Bible even says that the lake of fire was prepared specifically for that purpose:

Mathew 25:41 Then he (God) will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ (ESV)

The widespread idea that the Devil rules over Hell is just one example of how some cultural perceptions about what the Bible teaches could be terribly misguided. It is important to read through the Bible, yourself. This way you can know for certain what it does or doesn’t say and no one will be able to lead you astray. 

2 Timothy 2:15: Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (KJV)

2 Timothy 3:16-17: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (ESV)

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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.

Why Does God Let People Die?

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Over six years ago I lost my dad to lung cancer which had traveled to his brain. He was a healthy forty-nine year old man, he never smoked, and he worked out twice a day. Then one afternoon, seconds after hanging up the phone with me, he had a seizure, and that started our year long journey of slowly losing him. 

It seemed unjust--he took good care of his body, why would cancer take root in him? And he was more than just physically healthy, he was spiritually healthy. I have never met anyone who burned so passionately for God. My father was tireless and relentless-studying the Bible every chance he got. He loved apologetics and kept up to date with all the new scientific, historic, and even emotional evidence for God. And he NEVER missed an opportunity to talk to someone about God’s truth. Quite frankly being around him could be exhausting--the man literally only slept four hours a night. But the point is, when my dad passed away, my world became impossibly quiet and empty. Who would be there to fight the battles he never shied away from? Who would be there as backup for me when I took on battles of my own? Why would God see fit to take this type of man--my father--out of the world?

Not only did this question rise up in my own soul--it came at me from almost everyone I talked to after his death. Everyone around me was worried I would lose my faith in God because he had let my father die. And many of them were struggling with their own faith because of this as well. Fortunately for me, my dad--and his love for apologetics--had already prepared me to know the answer to this question. And I was incredibly grateful he had, because as C.S. Lewis said:

“Faith is the art of holding on to what our reason has once accepted, in spite of our changing moods.”

In times of emotional turmoil we need to hang on to the truth that keeps us anchored. So, let me share with you the truth that anchored me: 

I’ll ask the question again:

if God is real, why does He let people die?

Well there is one huge problem with this reasoning--God never promised us that we wouldn’t die. In fact, He promised exactly the opposite--everyone dies. First we die; and after that we live forever.

Hebrews 9:27 (KJV) And it was appointed unto men once to die; but after this the judgment.

Everyone dies. God has not broken any promises when He lets people die. He has simply allowed what He said would happen, to happen. Ever since Adam and Eve brought death and decay into our world, death has been part of the bargain. 

Some people claim death is proof that God doesn’t exist. But that is unreasonable, it means their logic would have to go something like this:

God says everyone dies → People die → So God doesn’t exist

It’s like saying:

The weatherman says it will rain → it rained → So the weatherman doesn’t exist

These are illogical conclusions. Death, if anything, is proof that God is real and is honest with us about what is coming our way. And God gave us the Bible to help prepare us for that death.

Of course, this leads us to another question:

What’s up with the timing? Why would God take one of His most prolific “players” out of “the game” while he was still so young?

I know it’s hard to understand why God chooses to extend some lives while seeming to cut others short. The only answer I have for this is to say we have to find a way to put things into perspective. To see things--not from our own grief-riddled opinions--but from the lens of the reality we exist in. We need to focus on the truths we know:

1) God is all-knowing: He sees things we cannot see. He knows the big picture. We are finite beings who can’t even know what the next hour of our life will bring us. But God existed before time began. He created time and brought us into being. He knows how each of our lives's threads weave together to create a marvelous tapestry. 

Colossians 1:17 (ESV) He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

Psalm 100:3 (NASB) Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

2) God is all-loving: For reasons I cannot even begin to comprehend--God loves us. He has proven time and time again that He loves us. He even went so far as to suffer and die on the cross for us. 

“God is Love” Voss Creative Artworks

Romans 8:35, 37-39 (NLT) Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? ... No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow — not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below — indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I know it can be extremely hard to do, but since God knows things about the world’s timeline that we don’t have any clue about--and since we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He loves us--we have to trust that God knows what He is doing and has our best interests at heart, even when life hurts.  

This is when people come across a pitfall:

Does being sad about death mean my faith is weak?

No, it is not wrong to cry or mourn. The reality that God is in control and it will all work out in the long run, doesn’t discount the pain we feel here and now.

God understands how terrible and painful dealing with death can be. We get a good example of how God views death from John 11:1-44 when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

Even before Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, He knew He would raise Lazarus from the dead. He says in John 11:4, “...’This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it’” (NIV).  Lazarus’ death and resurrection were part of the plan so that people could know Jesus was God and had power over death.

Jesus even took His time traveling to Lazarus to make sure Lazarus would be dead when he got there. When Jesus finally arrived He explained the situation in John 11:25-26. It says, “Jesus told her (Martha), “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” (NIV).

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“Jesus Wept” by James Tissot

Jesus could have healed Lazarus before he died. But He chose to let him die. And Jesus knew He would be raising Lazarus from the dead. Yet, when Jesus stood in front of His friend’s tomb--He still wept. Jesus cried because of the pain and suffering death was causing the people He cared about. Even though Jesus knew death was not the end, Lazarus’ family and friend did not know and their pain was very vivid. Jesus hated seeing them in pain and empathized with the sorrow they were feeling, so, in that moment, Jesus wept. 

God does not like to see his people struggle. He does not like to see His creations decay and die. But death is a direct result of free will. And free will is necessary if we are going to have any sort of real and valuable relationship with God. This is because you cannot force someone to love you; they have to have the ability to choose love all on their own.

All this to say--If Jesus can weep at Lazarus’ tomb, then of course we can mourn our own losses. 

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Unfortunately, God did not promise us easy lives. 

Throughout the Bible God constantly refers to life as being hard. However, He did make us some promises: 

He promises to be by our sides and help us through the pain. 

Isaiah 41:13 (NIV) For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

Psalm 54:4 (NASB) Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul.

Psalm 118:6 (NASB) The Lord is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?

1 Peter 5:10 (NIV) And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

God also promises that death is not the end--it’s only the beginning. And people who have accepted Jesus as their Savior can look forward to an amazing afterlife. 

John 11:25-26 (NIV) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

1 Corinthians 15:42-44 (NIV) So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; and it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Revelations 21:4 (NIV) He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

Christians are called to have an eternal perspective. 

Losing people to death is the greatest struggle this life throws at us. Mourning their loss and feeling the pain is healthy and normal. Even Jesus allowed Himself to weep over death. But death does not discount the existence of God. It only reinforces our need for Him. We should lean on God in times of trouble, because He wants to help us through them. Turning away from Him, and facing the pain alone, will only make it harder. And in the end, remember, you will see your loved ones again. I will see my father again. And the time spent without them in this life will feel like a tiny blip compared to the everlasting life that is to come on the other side of death. 

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NIV) For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Romans 14:8 (NIV) If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Romans 8:18 (NLT) Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

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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.

Why Didn't Jonah Want to Go to Nineveh?

We learn in the first chapter of the book of Jonah, that God wanted Jonah to go to a place called Nineveh to tell them that they had been being bad people and that God was mad at them. But, instead of doing what God wanted, Jonah tried to run away, as far from Nineveh as possible.

We know that Nineveh was a scary place for Israelites because the people there did not like Israelites, and often were at war with the Israelites, so you may think that Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh because he was scared he would get hurt. However, if you read the book of Jonah for yourself, you will discover that the answer is entirely different.

Let’s start off by looking at what actually happened when Jonah did end up in Nineveh.

 Jonah 3:1-4:3 (ESV)Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God.  Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?  That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshis; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.  Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

As you can see, Jonah knew that if he warned the people of Nineveh that God was mad at them, they might decide to ask God for forgiveness. And if they asked God to forgive them, Jonah knew God would forgive them because God is loving and full of mercy.

So the answer to the question is: Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh because he hated the Ninevites so much that he did not want God to forgive them.

What does this means for us today?

In this case, we can learn exactly what Jonah was supposed to learn. We can see this lesson if we keep reading in Jonah chapter 4 right after Jonah complained about God forgiving the Ninevites.

Jonah 4:1-11 (ESV) But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

 “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?

Just like Jonah we should know that our God is a loving and forgiving God. He is so loving and forgiving that He died and the cross so that He could pay for all of our sins and forgive them.

But we should also learn what Jonah did not want to learn. We should learn that it is not fair for us to be grateful that God forgave us of our mistakes but to also be angry when God forgives other people.

Instead of being angry that God is willing to forgive people we don’t like, we should be focused on being grateful that God IS so loving and forgiving, because if He wasn’t so loving and forgiving, we would all be in big trouble. We all need God’s love and forgiveness, even me, and even Jonah. It is not our place, as people who have been forgiven, to be mad at God for forgiving other people as well.

Besides, life is always better when we focus on the blessings and grace God offers us, instead of holding grudges against other people.

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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.

Why Did God Harden Pharaoh's Heart?

In Exodus when Moses is trying to get Pharaoh to free the Israelites, it says multiple times that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, which causes Pharaoh to refuse to let the Israelites go and then God has to send more plagues on Egypt.

So, the question is, “If God wanted the Israelites to be set free, why would He harden Pharaoh’s heart, forcing Himself to send plagues on Egypt?”

If you read close enough, you will find that God actually answers this question with His own words within the story, and while I recommend you read the entire story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, I will put a spotlight on a couple areas you can focus on in order to find this answer.

Exodus 7:3-5 (NLT) But I will make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn so I can multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. Even then Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you. So I will bring down my fist on Egypt. Then I will rescue my forces—my people, the Israelites—from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment. When I raise my powerful hand and bring out the Israelites, the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.”

Exodus 10:1-2 (NLT) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Return to Pharaoh and make your demands again. I have made him and his officials stubborn so I can display my miraculous signs among them. I’ve also done it so you can tell your children and grandchildren about how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and about the signs I displayed among them—and so you will know that I am the LORD.”

So, according to God, He hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that He would have to send the plagues on Egypt in order to show both the Egyptians and the Israelites that He is the one true God.

The Egyptians used to worship lots and lots of different gods, each god had his or her own special ability and realm of control.

Here are a few examples: they believed in the existence of a goddess named Iset or Isis. She was seen by the Egyptians as both a protector and mother of the Pharaohs. They even used to believe that the Pharaoh who was ruling at any given time in Egypt was the living image of the god of the sky, named Horus. If they wanted something like a good harvest or healthy cattle they would pray and offer sacrifices to the god which they believed controlled those things.

The Israelites had been living in Egypt for a long time at this point and many of them had been born and raised there so some of them had stopped believing in the real God and had started following the Egyptian religion and praying to their idols.

Of course God is not okay with people believing things which aren’t true and praying to idols. So, He had to show the Israelites and the Egyptians the truth about who really created them and how to best live their lives. This is why He sent the plagues, not to punish people, but to show them that their idols do not control the health of their cattle or the sunlight, so praying and sacrificing to idols was a waste of time. The idols are not real and could not do anything. The God of the Bible controls the health of cattle, the sunlight, and everything in existence.

 Psalm 115:1-13 (NLT)

Not to us, O LORD, not to us,

but to your name goes all the glory

for your unfailing love and faithfulness.

Why let the nations say,

“Where is their God?”

Our God is in the heavens,

and he does as he wishes.

Their idols are merely things of silver and gold,

shaped by human hands.

They have mouths but cannot speak,

and eyes but cannot see.

They have ears but cannot hear,

and noses but cannot smell.

They have hands but cannot feel,

and feet but cannot walk,

and throats but cannot make a sound.

And those who make idols are just like them,

as are all who trust in them.

O Israel, trust the LORD!

He is your helper and your shield.

O priests, descendants of Aaron, trust the LORD!

He is your helper and your shield.

All you who fear the LORD, trust the LORD!

He is your helper and your shield.

The LORD remembers us and will bless us.

He will bless the people of Israel

and bless the priests, the descendants of Aaron.

He will bless those who fear the LORD,

both great and lowly.

When God performed the plagues He made Pharaoh admit he couldn’t fix the problem himself, despite the fact that Pharaoh and his people all believed that Pharaoh was a god. Every time a plague came on Egypt, Pharaoh had to turn to God to get the plagues to stop. This showed everyone, the Egyptians and the Israelites, that the God of the Bible was who everyone should be worshiping, not false idols.

 God didn’t want to just free the Israelites from slavery. He wanted to free them, and the Egyptians, from the lies of a false religion. God wanted them to know the truth about the reality they live in. The truth is that there is only one God and He has the power to control everything. So, it is Him they should be turning to and not some fake gods which humans made up.

Now, what does this mean for us today? 

Well, God is and always will be the only true and living God. It is Him you should turn to with your worries and questions. Don’t let yourself get tricked into praying to anything other than the God of the Bible. There are lots of idols and fake gods in the world, but none of them actually have the power to help. Pray and turn to the God of the Bible. He promises us that He loves us and is there for us when we turn to Him

1 John 5:14 (NIV) This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

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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.

If God loves us, why does He let bad things happen

This is a very broad question. What I mean by that is it can have specific answers when it comes to different situations in each person’s life. Since I can’t answer this question for every specific situation, I am going to answer it in a broader sense. In other words, I am going to answer this question by explaining why God even made it possible for bad things to happen in the world, which then allows bad things to happen to each of us.

First I want you to imagine something for me. Imagine you have a robot puppy and this robot puppy tells you all the time that it loves you and it always does what you want it to do. Then imagine you also have a regular puppy and sometimes this puppy doesn’t listen to you and does things to get in trouble like chewing up your shoes but this puppy also loves you, he shows you this by wagging his tail and coming to say hello whenever he sees you. Now think about this, how does your heart feel when the robot puppy tells you he loves you? How does your heart feel when the regular puppy tells you he loves you? Which one feels better?

Well even though a robot puppy would be pretty cool to have, it would definitely make my heart feel happier when a real puppy tells me he loves me. This is because in order for love to be real and to mean anything, we have to have the ability to choose not to love. A robot cannot choose whether or not it loves you, it only does what it is programed, or forced, to do, so that is not real love. The real puppy, however, can decide it doesn’t love you, so when it decides that it does love you, that is really special.

God had the same decision when he created the earth. He could have created a paradise where everyone does exactly what he wants them to do. And then there wouldn’t be any evil, or pain, or suffering, or bad things in the world.  But if He did that He wouldn’t be able to have a real relationship with people. God decided to create humans because he wanted to have a relationship with us, to interact with us, to love us, and to hopefully have us love him and love each other

All over the Bible we can see how much value God puts on love. For example, Mark 12:28-31 says this:

Mark 12:28-31 (ESV) And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

So, we know for sure, god’s ultimate goal for you and me is that we love God and love one another. In order for this to be possible, we had to be created with the ability to love. In order to make it possible for us to love; He had to give us the ability and option to not love.

When people choose to not love God and to not love each other they often choose to do things God doesn’t want them to do, which we call sin, and sin hurts people. Sins affect the world around us and cause bad things to happen. For example if someone steals money from a store, then the people who own the store can no longer use the money to buy things they need, which means it is a bad thing that has happened to them.

Genesis 2:4- 3:24 tells the story of the first people God created, Adam and Eve, and the moment that they first chose to sin. That sin destroyed the paradise God had created and caused pain to enter the world. In fact, it was because of that sin that, for the first time ever, an animal had to die in order to make clothes for Adam and Eve. It was the first time death had entered our world and the first time people had felt embarrassment and pain.

Bad things happen because we, as people, cause them to happen. Yes, God could force us to stop doing bad things but then He would also be taking away our ability to choose to do good things, and that would make it impossible for us to ever truly love.

The good news is, even when we do bad things, God still loves us and He refuses to give up on us. God knew when he created Adam and Eve that they would mess up and choose not to show Him love. Yet, He also knew that He could fix the problem if He was willing to die on the cross to pay for our sins. So, despite knowing He would have to suffer and die for us, He still chose to create us. Jesus came down to earth and died on the cross to pay for our sins and fix our relationship with God. This means, even though we mess up we can still have a relationship with God.

Now, you can choose to either pay for your sins yourself, which would mean you don’t get to go to Heaven, or you can choose to accept the payment Jesus made for you. If you choose to accept Jesus’ payment, even though bad stuff may happen on this earth, once you get to Heaven, you will no longer have to deal with any bad things.

Revelations 21:4 (KJV) And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

We can also know that God promises that when we accept Jesus’ payment for our sins as our own nothing can take us away from Him.

Romans 8:35-39 (NLT) Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Life may be painful, but without pain we wouldn’t be able to have good things like love. It is never easy to deal with bad things happening, but when they do, God is here for you, don’t be afraid to turn to Him to ask for help to give you the strength you need to make it through the bad things. He loves you, and He wants to hear from you.

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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.

Does God sleep?

“By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.”

— Genesis 2:2

Does Genesis 2:2 mean God needs to sleep?

To answer questions like this it is best to first gather up all the verses which talk about the subject of God sleeping. For example, let’s start with Psalm 121:3-7.

Psalm 121:3-7 (NIV)

He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you—
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm—
    he will watch over your life;

Those verses clearly claim that God doesn’t sleep. So now we have a bit of a problem because if Genesis 2:2 says that God does sleep, then the Bible would appear to be contradicting itself.

Contradicting, simply means to say one thing is true but then say that the opposite of that thing is also true and when someone contradicts themselves it makes people think that they are either wrong or lying.

Well, two things we know about God are that He knows everything, so that means He can’t be wrong, but also we know He does not lie. So, when we come across two parts of the Bible that seem to contradict themselves we have to think about the possibility that maybe we are misunderstanding something.

One important thing to remember is that words can have multiple meanings. For example: the word “cool” can mean to make something cold, but it can also mean that something is fashionably attractive or impressive. 

Now the verses in Psalms are pretty straightforward, verse 4 says, “God will neither slumber nor sleep. So, we probably did not misunderstand those verses. So let’s look at Genesis 2:2 again.

Genesis 2:2 (NIV) By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

Okay, so it says God rested, now here’s where it gets interesting. Some of you may not know that the Bible wasn’t originally written in English, it was written in Hebrew and Greek. Genesis, specifically, was written in Hebrew. Sometimes the specifics of the meaning of some words can get a little lost in translation. If you are unsure if you understand what a word is meaning, you can look at the original language to make the meaning more clear.

Now if you are like me, you probably do not speak Hebrew, but we live in a very blessed time because there are lots of people who work very hard to make sure the Bible can be understood by everyone in every language and some of them came up with a book called a concordance.

A concordance is an alphabetical list of the words (especially the important ones) present in a text, usually with citations of the passages concerned.

In the concordance we can look at the original Hebrew word that was used for the word “rest” in Genesis 2:2.

I looked this up in Strong’s Concordance and found this:

The Hebrew word we are looking for is a verb. It is spelled shabath and pronounced (shaw-bath'). It means to stop doing what you were doing. In other words Genesis 2:2 is simply saying: God was done creating the world and everything in it, so He stopped creating it. When this verse says God rested it means He stopped the work of creation.

It does not say that God slept.

Now when we take all of this information into consideration; I would have to say that the answer to the question of whether or not Genesis 2:2 is saying that God needs to sleep, is, no. I have not found anything in the Bible that says God needs to sleep.

Now, what does this mean for us today?

It means that we can know that God will never be sleeping when we need Him. You can come to Him at any time of day or night and He is ready and willing to listen.

We can also learn from this that if you ever come across a part of the Bible which you don’t understand, don’t just ignore it. There are tools out there, like the Concordance, which can help you better understand the Bible. And if you need help learning how to use those tools, don’t be afraid to ask someone like your parents or pastor for help.

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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 does God decide if we’ve been good enough to get into Heaven?

If you are trying to get into Heaven by being good enough, you will not succeed.

In my opinion, this is the most important question you could ever ask. God gave us the Bible in order to teach us about Him and how He works in the world, which includes telling us what He expects from us in order for Him to let us have a relationship with him and get into Heaven. The answer to this question is all over the place in the Bible; and most of the stories in the Bible are meant to point you towards this answer. So, the more you read and study the Bible, the more you will understand the answer to this question.

I am going to answer this question by starting out with saying something you may find crazy: if you are trying to get into Heaven by being good enough, you will not succeed. God says you cannot be good enough to get into Heaven. But, don’t get too worried, because you can still get into Heaven.

Now, it’s time for me to prove this to you by showing you what the Bible says.

The first verse we will look at is Isaiah 64:6

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.

This verse is saying that even the good things we do are considered unclean, or bad, to God.

Now you may be wondering, “If that’s the case, then why did God give us the law and ten commandments? If following them still leaves us unclean, then why do we have them?”

God answers that question in Romans 3:19-20

Romans 3:19-20 (NLT) Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

So, The Bible says that God gave us the law so that he could prove to us that we are not good enough to be successful at keeping the law. He also says the following in James 2:10

James 2:10 (NLT) For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.

In other words if you have ever broken any of God’s laws you have already messed up badly enough to never be able to be good enough to get into Heaven. So what now? Is it hopeless? No, you can still get into Heaven, Let’s look at Romans 3:21-28 to see God’s instructions on how to get into Heaven.

Romans 3:21-28 (NLT) But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

Even more so, Galatians 2:16-21 tell us this:

Galatians 2:16-21 (NIV) Know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners; doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. “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!”

So, let me review what we learned. The question was, “How does God decide if we’ve been good enough to get into Heaven?” The answer is: God knows we cannot be good enough to get to Heaven. So, He gave us the law in order to prove to us that we cannot be good enough and to let us know that we need help, specifically, help from God, Himself. This is why Jesus came down to earth, lived a sinless life, and died on the cross in order to buy us all tickets into Heaven.

Now you have a choice. You can choose to try to be good enough and then pay God for your sins yourself. But this will mean you cannot make it into Heaven. Or you can choose to admit that you cannot be good enough to get into Heaven on your own and accept Jesus’ free gift of entry into Heaven.

If you want to accept Jesus as your Savior and receive your free “ticket” into Heaven, all you have to do is believe in those truths. God knows what is in your heart even if you don’t know what to say. However, if you would like to pray to God, it’s as easy as thinking and talking. I will give you an example of what you can say to Him right now:

Dear God, I am so sorry that I have messed up and sinned. I know I deserve punishment and that Jesus took that punishment for me. I know that I need your forgiveness and your help. I am putting my faith in Jesus and in His payment for my sins. Thank you for forgiving me and for wanting a relationship with me.

In Jesus name, Amen

If you accept Jesus’ payment for your sins, you are adopted as a son/daughter of God and are on your way to Heaven no matter what, because we can know for sure that if God says something will happen, it will happen. God is not a liar and He always keeps His promises. 

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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.

What is “a man after God’s own heart”?

“After removing Saul, God made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do’.”

— Acts 13:22

David was a man who committed adultery, who had one of his closest friends murdered, and he had so much blood on his hands that God said David could not be the man to rebuild His temple in Jerusalem.

1 Chronicles 28:3 (NKJV) But God said to me, ‘You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.’

David made many mistakes and committed lots of sins in his life, so why does God call him a man after God’s own heart?

The answer to this question requires an understanding of the character of David, which can only truly be seen by studying his entire life. So, if you want a deeper understanding of this answer, I would suggest you study the entirety of David’s interactions with God in the Bible during his life. However, for the purpose of this post I will highlight a few significant characteristics of David that show he was a man who understood God’s heart.

Let’s take a look at Psalms chapter 51. While we read this, think about what this shows us about David’s relationship with God and how David viewed God.

David wrote this Psalm right after he had stolen another man’s wife (Bathsheba) and then had that man killed to cover up the thievery. This is obviously a very bad thing to do and definitely made God upset. God then sent his prophet Nathan to confront David about this sin and Psalms chapter 51 (NIV) is David’s response.

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;

According to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
 Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
    and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    so that sinners will turn back to you.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
    you who are God my Savior,
    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
Open my lips, Lord,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart
    you, God, will not despise.

David shows us in these verses what part of being a man after God’s own heart means. These verses show us that David did not deny his mistakes; he didn’t try to lie to God or make up excuses. Instead he understood three things.

1)      That he was a sinner before God.

2)      That he needed God to forgive Him.

3)      That God is loving, so He would forgive Him.

Now, what does this mean for us today? 

It shows us that in order to be men and women after God’s own heart, we have to understand God’s heart. This means we have to understand what God wants from us and how he feels about us; and have faith that God does not change.

So, what does God want from us and how does He feel about us?

We know that it makes God sad when we sin.

We also know that God loves us, which is why Jesus died on the cross. God knows we can’t pay for our sins ourselves. He paid for our sins for us, so we don’t have to. That way we can be in Heaven with Him some day. So, with this knowledge we should be able to be confident enough to interact with God like David did.

If we make mistakes, understand that God already knows about them, so it makes no sense to try to lie about them or make excuses about them. Instead we should do what David did and talk about the truth with God. People who have accepted Jesus’ payment for them on the cross as their own do not have to be afraid to talk to God.

As Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV) says “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

If we can live our lives with the kind of faith in God’s love and sacrifice that allows us to interact freely with Him. Then our relationship with God can grow. And, as we better understand God, we will better understand His heart, which can help us become men and women after God’s own heart.

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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.

Does the Bible have prophecies which have actually come true?

A prophecy is when someone tells us what will happen in the future. In the Bible it means, at the time the verse was written, God was telling people what would happen in their future.

The Bible has around 1,817 prophecies. 

Prophecies are a very important thing to pay attention to because if someone claims to know the future but ends up being wrong, then they are liars and should not be trusted. So, if we want to know if we can trust the God of the Bible we have to know if His prophecies came true or not.

In other words, prophecies are important because when they come true, they give us proof that God is who He says He is. And it also proves that the Bible is the Word of God.

What’s interesting about the prophecies in the Bible is that they have all either come true already, just as God said they would, or the time has not yet come for them to happen. But I want you to look into this for yourself as well; you shouldn’t just take my word for it, because when you study the prophecies for yourself it will help your own personal faith in God to grow.

So, to help you get started with this, we are going to look at the book of Isaiah, which was written between 739 and 681 B.C., and read one of the most famous passages of prophecy in the Bible: Isaiah 53.

As you read Isaiah 53, think about these two questions:

Number 1: What is this chapter saying will happen?

Number 2: Did this prophecy come true already?

Isaiah 53 (NIV)

Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Now let’s answer our questions

Question #1: What is this chapter saying will happen?

This chapter is saying that God will send someone who has never done anything wrong and that this person would be punished and killed in order to pay for all of the things we have done wrong.

Question #2: Did this prophecy come true already?

Well, it’s pretty obvious that every single verse in this chapter is very specifically describing Jesus. So, yes it has come true already.

The thing that makes this chapter a prophecy is that Jesus was born around the year 4 BC but the book of Isaiah was written between 739 and 681 BC. So, this means that more than 600 years before Jesus was born, God told Isaiah that Jesus would be born. Also, the majority of the book of Isaiah in written on one of the 7 original Dead Sea Scrolls which were discovered in a cave in Qumran. This scroll is dated to be from the year 125 BC which means there is a physical copy of this prophecy in existence today which was written 121 years before Jesus was born.

In other words, Isaiah chapter 53 is a prophecy which tells us that Jesus will be born and will pay for all of our sins. And, as we know, this prophecy definitely came true.

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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.