The Candy Maker

Tom and I had the great honor of being asked to go speak on Evangelism at Pacific Baptist Church last night. It was our first time speaking anywhere like this, other than atop a trash can or a box. ;-) We were very nervous, but we just pray that what we spoke honored God and blessed the wonderful people of Pacific Baptist. We thank you very much for the honor of visiting and sharing with you. What a blessing to us it was. Here is "part" of Tom's sermon, the "Candy Maker", I thought the analogy really was a good way to explain the poison of the Modern Gospel.

The Handiwork of God

I was thinking about the snow that is coming this week, starting tonight; and my mind wandered to snowflakes. Individual snowflakes and how amazing they are and how each one is different. No two are exactly the same....yet all are beautiful. Seashells are the same way, each is different, and gorgeous, even among the same type; every one is different....Then I started thinking about God and all the gorgeous intricate things He created. Each is beautiful in its own way, and unique and special...and all were created by God. Everything from the smallest shell to the largest tiger, most spectacular sunset, most detailed bird, flower, butterfly....all created by the Lord of all. Have you ever stopped to think about that? How utterly amazing God is and how beautiful creation is? When you look at all the different things in the world, how anyone can say "there is no God" is beyond me. Personally I think they choose not to see God in creation because then they have free reign to live as they please. If they were to admit there is a God, then they would have to admit they are sinners and that there is a God to answer to someday.

I was recently in a conversation with someone who said he believed in evolution because a creator was just "too much to believe"....and I was fortunate enough to be able to go through and show him the law and the gospel and how it takes much more faith to believe in everything coming from nothing as in evolution, than it does to believe that an all powerful being created everything perfectly. He did say that what I said made sense and that he would think about it and read the gospel of John as I had asked him to please do. I pray that the Lord of the harvest would open his eyes to see the beauty of creation, not the "chance" of evolution.

All have sinned and fallen short of Gods standards, we have all lied, stolen something even something small, coveted something that someone else had, basically broken Gods laws. But that is why Jesus came, fully God and fully man, born of a virgin, to pay the penalty for our sins. To take the punishment that is rightly ours. Because God loves us, He sent His son to die a horrible death, for you and for me. All we need do is repent of our sins, (turn from them and do them no more) and trust in Jesus to save us. Because God is a just God and a fair judge, sin must be punished. Jesus became the one to be punished for us, so that we can be free. The God of the universe, the one who created everything...the one who gives you each breath you take, became the payment for our sins against Him. Think about that! We deserve nothing, yet he gave everything. Please repent today and trust in Jesus. For more information, please visit www.needgod.com

I hope you enjoy the preceding photos of our Lords handiwork. :)

December 5th, 2009

This is my very first blog post, I had intended to title the first post “Few who find it” and talk about something in particular, but that will have to wait for another day as God had other plans for today. You see today I spent 3 hours as a Salvation Army volunteer at the mall near our home. We did this for two reasons…one, to help out the Salvation Army who helps so many all year round; and two, to have an opportunity to hand out gospel tracts and talk to some folks about their eternal destiny, or to at the very least make them think about it.

The day went well. My husband and I and our daughter went up to the mall and rang the bell and handed out tracts for quite a while, nothing earth shattering happened there, not much conversation since it was pretty cold out and everyone wanted to either get in the warm store or get in their warm cars, but we handed out several hundred tracts and planted many seeds. It

was a successful day. Any day where you hand out even one tract is a success.

It was what happened after that on my way home from the grocery store later that I want to share with you. I guess if I were to give this post a title it would be “ARE YOU READY”?

On the way home from the grocery store later in the afternoon, I passed by what looked like a person pulled over on the side of the road who I thought was probably getting a ticket; until I got closer and realized it was a car stopped in the middle of the opposite lane with a person laying on the ground in front of it. Could it really be what I was seeing? Is that person dead? Did they know Jesus? Where were they now in the blink of an eye? As I passed by, I could see that it was a woman who looked to be laying in front of a car as if to reach under and repair something, but

she wasn’t. She wasn’t moving at all and her eyes were closed. She was laying on her side like she was just sleeping.

I passed the scene and started to pull over to see if I could help but in the rearview mirror I saw several people on both sides of the road who had also pulled over going to see if they could help. Not being good in an emergency situation, I thought it best that I prayed for her, and them, and didn’t get in the way of a rescue. But the entire incident is the reality of how fragile our lives are, in a single breath they can be gone. I pray that she will recover with no lasting effects but from the look of the scene, I do not know.

I said all that to say, ARE YOU READY? As a Christian, are you ready to go into all the world and preach the gospel? How many people a day do we pass by with just a hello?…would it put us out that much to hand them a simple tract? I know I am guilty as well of not taking every opportunity. It is not hard to do. “Did you get one of these? Or Merry Christmas” and hand them a tract. Most will take it. Some will not.

We are called to do this, yet only 2% of Christians share their faith. Why? Do we not care enough? Do we feel it’s none of our business? Are we too busy? Shame on us for not taking every and all opportunities to hand someone a tract or to talk to someone about eternity. We have this amazing treasure and the majority of Christians don't seem to want to share it.

If you are not a Christian, then I ask you the same. ARE YOU READY? Are you ready for eternity? Ten out of ten people die. Not most people,…ALL people die. Where will you go when it happens to you? Please consider it. The bible states that it is appointed unto men once to die and then the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27). We have all sinned and broken God’s laws and have to face a just and Holy God on judgment day. If you have ever lied one time, you are a liar. Ever stolen anything, no matter the value, you are a thief in God’s eyes. If you have even so much as looked at the opposite sex with lust, you have committed adultery in the eyes of God. That is how high His standards are. The bible says that all have sinned… (Romans 3:23).

We cannot possibly keep Gods high standards, and He knows this, that is why He sent His only son, God in the flesh, to take our punishment on the cross. WE broke God’s laws, and Jesus took our penalty. Why? Because he loves us. He loves you. All we need to do is repent and trust in Jesus to save us. Repent means to turn away from your sins. Trust means to believe that He paid your penalty and because of His sacrifice we can be freed from paying the price ourselves. Because God is a fair and Holy judge; someone has to pay for our sins…it will either be us, by an eternity in hell; or Jesus, by His sacrifice on the cross. I plead with you to consider this and repent and trust in Jesus today…while you still have time.

I pray the woman I saw today survived, and if she did not, then I pray she repented and trusted in the Lord to save her.

Let us take every opportunity the Lord gives us to reach others while there is still time.