Salvation
The least we need to know in life is John 3:16 That guy at the baseball game knows that this is the only thing that MUST be understood. All the rest is fine tuning. It says:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son; so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life"
Of course, by everlasting life, the Bible is talking about the hereafter. We are eternal creatures, and our time here is just a blink of an eye. There are only two eternal addresses to choose from when we move from here. Our time in the world is the place where we make our decision about where we'll relocate when we die. Sadly, only one of those places can be described as Life...and even more sadly, most won't find it because of all the garbage (like religion) that we put in the way of the simple Truth that will keep us from Hell.
The bad news:
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We are all sinners and have fallen short of perfection
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Heaven is a perfect place, so only perfection can enter. That is the standard. It has to be, or it wouldn't be Heaven. All the religion - and all the morality and good works - in the world can't make us perfect, so we don't have the ability to atone for our own sins and find our own way to Heaven
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Our sins have to be cleansed for us to be perfect. They have have to be paid for. And we don't have the "cosmic cash" to do this because we are flawed...imperfect
The "Good News" ... that's what the word "Gospel" means, btw:
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God is perfect, so only He has the cosmic credentials to pay for our sins. Knowing this, He actually chose to do so. Even after making everything in the world that is good for us, He came down here to die on the Cross to pay the price Himself for our sins
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Why did He do this? So He could understand what we go through as humans; and so He could make a way for us to enter His home - our home - in Heaven.
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Despite the trash we put in the way of knowing Him (like religion) all we must do in order to enter Heaven is acknowledge what He did for us on the Cross. We pray a prayer something like this:
"God, I acknowledge that I have sinned. I know I am not perfect. Thank you for paying the price for my sin so that I don't have to. I accept your Gift of Salvation by simply acknowledging Your sacrifice and accepting Your Love."
What keeps many people from praying this prayer is Pride. It keeps them from being able to admit their need for this sacrifice. That's one of the many reasons that they say "pride comes before a fall." How many life-changing things have you seen people deny themselves because they had too much pride to admit they had a problem. Salvation is no different.
If you have just prayed that prayer for the first time, then congratulations and welcome Home! Seek out a trusted Christian friend and tell him or her about your prayer. Baptism is the public profession of this prayer.
Wanna go deeper into this subject? Check out The Summit
Feel free to contact me at marc@marcsbasecamp.com
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