God Forgives!
The Good News

Brief Thoughts
Thoughts on God and Man

Stories for Children (and Adults!)
Little Cheese and Little Mouse
The Silver Dragon

Poetry
A Heavenly Problem
Bright Morning Star
Divine Calling
Driven!
I Need A Prophet
Laboring With God
Lightening, Thunder, and Rain
Morbid No More
Reality
Rejection
Seed Life
Spiritual Ecstasy
The Book I Avoid
There Is No King Like God
To Be and To Be Becoming
Treasure to Him

Prayers and Meditations
A Prayer for Eyes
A Return to Workday Bliss
Children: Arrows of Love
Depressed
For Spirual Sustenance
Influence
Last on My List
Prayer of a Little Man
The Book I Avoid
Who God Is

Short Writings
38 Truths to Scripture Joy
Are They in Heaven?
Everyone is Lonely
First, Explain the Gospel
He is Able!
Leaving "Me" Behind
Life Isn't Fair... Yet
My Favorite Verse
Rooted in Grace for Ministry
Seeing the Invisible
The Forest Path
The Oasis
True Christianity
What Happens in Vegas...
When the Bible Bores Us

Reformed Q & A
Why Listen To Christians?
I'm Happy. Why Bother Me?
Can You Prove God Exists?
What is Calvinism?
Is God Nature?
A New Creation? Really?
How Loved Are Christians?
I Can't Find My Work Passion!

Misc.
Edwards On Justification
Some Wisdom from Family
The Glass of Life
Truths About Presenting Truth
Why Socialism is Bad- Part 1
Why Socialism is Bad- Part 2

My heart has been mourning lately due to seeing again a dire mistake people are making. Many of you know about this and others may not. But I hope it will benefit you- no matter who you are- to hear me out on this. This is the mistake: People are trying to get right with God, to please Him, by EARNING their way with Him.

They are doing this consciously or unconsciously, thinking that if they get enough spiritual "points" with Him, then they will escape Hell. They work their whole lives in a secret attempt to build an acceptable spiritual résumé for God, almost as though He were merely an exacting employer, looking to hire people who have done enough good works for Heaven. Whether as part of a recognized religion (including distortions of Christianity), or just on their own, countless people are making this same mistake.

Here is what needs to be said. If you are wondering what you have to do to please God, you must know that you simply CAN'T please Him by doing good things. "... By the works of the Law no human being will be justified in His sight" (Romans 3:20).

There is indeed hope for your relationship with God, but it doesn't come from you or your efforts, no matter how great or constant those efforts may be.

God is infinitely pure. He is, as the Bible declares in Isaiah 6:3, "Holy, Holy, Holy!" And so, by His very character He demands literal moral perfection from us. One sin, one bad thought, ruins our chances of ever getting right with God by ourselves. In God's eyes, all of us are total moral failures. The Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Again- there is NO possible way that you or I can EARN God's acceptance, favor, or help. Please hear this and consider it seriously. To think we can earn our way with Him is an illusion, a mirage, a misleading solution in the desert of human unrighteousness.

But God has given us the real oasis. He sent God the Son, Jesus, Who declared, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). If you want to get right with God, if you want to be "justified in His sight", then your hope must be in Jesus alone, and not in yourself in the slightest. According to Jesus and all of the Bible, Jesus is the Way to God the Father. There is no other way.

If your looking for some sort of point system or résumé to give to God, lay hold of Jesus. Jesus lived the perfect life, and has the only perfect résumé. He gained all the points. And He did it not for Himself, but to give it to anyone who desperately wants it. God the Father calls out to you: "Here, please, use this!" Jesus alone has the perfect, God-approved, résumé. God will give all of Jesus's points to you if You ask Him. Have I repeated myself enough? It is infinitely crucial that we get this.

He IS righteousness for anyone who will receive Him, and reject trying to lure the acceptance of God.

If you call to Him, and receive Him in the core of your being (your very heart) then God the Father will not merely "hire" you based on what Jesus has done for you, but He will ADOPT you into His own family! Read this awesome news!... The Bible says of Jesus: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12).

So, He wants You to GIVE UP, GIVE UP, GIVE UP the futile labor of trying to climb the infinite mountain of righteousness. It is impossible for you. He has instead offered to consider the mountain trail that Jesus blazed as YOURS!

Listen, please. Becoming part of God's family is not EARNED, but is GIFTED to you. Jesus IS the free Gift. He is "the gift of righteousness" (Romans 5:17), for all who believe.

You and I need Him, no matter what kind of sinner we are. Jesus lived His life for squeaky-clean sophisticated sinners, for regular-folk sinners, and for people who are normally recognized as sinners.

So put your own résumé in the shredder. Stop trying to earn spiritual points. Look for the mountain trail called "Jesus," and you will find that you are instantly transported to the top of the mountain.

And let go of your pride of trying to do this. You can afford to let go of your pride, because the perfect acceptance and love of God are available to fill the pride-less void in your chest. He gives a love that you will not be able to lose, because it is based on the perfection of another Person.

Someone once asked Jesus, "What must we do to do the works of God?" That is, how do we earn our way with God? Jesus answered Him, "This is the work of God: that you believe in the One He has sent" (John 6:29). To get permanently right with God, there is no work to do. Because Jesus Christ is, "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jeremiah 23:6).

Nothing better ever happened than the worst thing that ever happened. The whole elect universe was redeemed by the death of the God-man. This infinite tragedy of His death has sealed an infinite Paradise for the chosen.

It has also set forth the pattern for our lives while we wait for Paradise. We die to ourselves, and as a result we find His life rising within. We suffer hardship and confusion, but then notice it has become a glorious gateway to greater faith, and thus holiness, happiness and thanksgiving.

Our personal crosses loosen our heart’s grip on this sinful age. We latch on more firmly to the Word, to God.

Is something bad occurring in your life? Let your cross lead you into spiritual Paradise now. Call out to the Lord with all your might and with all your faith. Seek greater foretastes of Paradise through your cross.

You may discover that the best thing that ever happened to you was the worst thing that ever happened to you.

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves SO THAT WE WOULD NOT TRUST IN OURSELVES, BUT IN GOD WHO RAISES THE DEAD.” (2 Corinthians 1: 8-9)

1. Who made me and everything else? God.
   
   
2. Who is God? God is the invisible one, Who is endlessly great and good. There is no end to Him. He sees you and understands you, better than you understand yourself.
   
   
3. What else should I know about God? There is only one God, and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all this same God. This is called the Trinity.
   
   
4. What if I don't understand the Trinity? It's okay. God just wants you to believe it.
   
   
5. Why does God seem so far away from me? Because you and everyone else are sinners.
   
   
6. What is sin? Sin is disobeying God and not having His great love in your heart.
   
   
7. What do I deserve because of my sin? You deserve to be punished forever by God, in a place called Hell.
   
   
8. Will God forgive me for my sin? Yes, if you believe in His Son Jesus. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
   
   
9. Who is Jesus? Jesus is God, and He is also a man, all at the same time.
   
   
10. Is Jesus part God and part man? No, Jesus is fully God and fully man. This is called His two natures.
    
    
11. What if I don't understand how He has two natures? It's okay. God just wants you to believe it.
    
    
12. When was Jesus born? Jesus was born about 2,000 years ago in a place called Bethlehem.
    
    
13. Was Jesus God even when He was a baby? Yes. He was God before He was born, and before He made the world.
    
    
14. Did Jesus grow up? Yes. The man Who was God grew up to be in his thirties. He never sinned even once.
    
    
15. How does believing in Jesus save me from God's punishment? Because God sent Jesus to die on a cross to be punished for sinners like you.
    
    
16. How does Jesus dying on the cross work for sinners like me? Jesus traded places with sinners. Jesus did not want sinners to be punished for their sins, so He was punished by God instead of them.
    
    
17. Did Jesus deserve to be punished too? No, He was perfect.
    
    
18. Why would God and Jesus do this? Because they are love.
    
    
19. What happened to Jesus after he died? He was buried, and three days later He came to life again. This is called His resurrection.
    
    
20. Then what happened to Jesus? He told people about the Kingdom of God, and then He was taken up into Heaven. This is called His ascension.
    
    
21. Is Jesus still in Heaven? Yes, he is sitting in the seat of power. He can see you, and He is calling you to believe in Him, love Him, live for Him alone, and to obey His commands of loving God and other people.
    
    
22. What really happens when I believe in Him? He forgives you all of your sins, forever.
    
    
23. How long do sinners have to believe in Jesus before it is too late for them? Sinners have until they commit the unpardonable sin, or until they die, or until Jesus comes down from Heaven in the clouds of glory.
    
    
24. What happens after He comes down? People who believed in Him will live with Him forever in a new and perfect Heaven and Earth. People who would not believe in Him will be punished forever for their sins in Hell.
    
    
25. Should I tell other people about this? Yes, if you love Jesus, you should tell others about him so they can be forgiven too.