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Meetup on Matters of Christian Faith.
Description
Hello,
I'm Michael, a protestant Christian who would like to discuss matters of faith with you. If your open, I'd also love to share the gospel with you during our conversation!
Open to text, call, and even meetups
Meetups at either the Tim's in Stonebridge or at Marketmall on Saturday afternoons 1PM-5PM (I am usually not busy at these times, though I can potentially accommodate other days and times!)
Here's basically the message
I believe as a Christian who follows the Bible that God is a God of justice that has set up laws in this world for us to follow.
(in the form of the 10 commandments and other commands as well)
However, I believe all people, on a regular basis, break His laws all the time. For instance, even something as "small" as lying or looking at bad images online, I believe breaks His law.
And just like how a just and fair courtroom judge can't just allow a murder (a lawbreaker) to go free without some sort of punishment.
So God cannot allow those who break His law to just go free from punishment when they have broken His law. Because He is a God of perfect justice and therefore demands that His creation be perfect.
And for those that don't follow His law perfectly. I really do believe there is a place called hell that He will unfortunately send people to eventually after they die.
And that's a real problem for us because none of us are perfect! And all of us stand guilty before His law.
But here's the thing. I believe God isn't just a God of Justice, but also a God of Great love. And in His love, I believe 2,000 year ago, He chooses in the greatest act of love ever to come down to the Earth in the person of Jesus to essentially save us from our punishment. He does this by essentially taking on the punishment we deserved onto Himself on a Roman cross where He dies. (and later came back to life in His tomb and rises back into heaven)
(I mean seriously, the God of the Universe coming down to die for His creation, that's amazing!)
And so, it's sort of like if I had 1,000 speeding tickets on my head and someone comes and pays them for me, I'd be debt free. I would not have to pay for anything anymore. In the same way, when Jesus went on that cross and died. it's sort of like He comes and pays for the debt I owe to God.
And I believe anyone can receive this "debt-forgiveness" by trusting in Him.
Trusting basically just means this. If I were to jump out of a plane right now. I wouldn't trust in my own arms to flap me down (that would be foolish!). I would trust in a parachute, in the same way, lots of people nowadays are trusting in their own moral goodness to bring them to heaven when they die, sort of like saying "Oh I'm such a good person, I don't do that many bad things, so therefore I should be good enough!". When in reality, again God demands perfection and even if we were to die (jump out the plane) with only ONE sin on our heads. We'd still not be perfect.
But the difference with the Christian is that, unlike everyone else. Their no longer trusting in their own moral goodness to bring them to heaven (their own arms to flap them down). Their trusting in what Jesus did for them (the parachute) . They recognize that their not perfect people and recognize that if they want to jump out of the plane safely. They need a parachute. Not arms!
Last thing to note is repentance. Repentance is a real simple idea that is commanded of by God, and all it literally is is just recognizing sin is wrong (or changing your mind about sin) and turning from it. For example, if I'm a chronic liar, I'm going to recognize that lying is wrong and essentially stop doing it and instead start speaking truth. And just to emphasize, repentance is not what saves you from hell/punishment! It is a result of being saved. Namely, just like how a apple tree will inevitably produce apples if it's an apple tree. In the same way, a Christian, a real Christian, will inevitably produce repentance as they work with the Spirit of God in progressively transforming their lives.
No Christian is perfect. But just remember it's about direction not necessarily perfection (though we should pursue after perfection I'd say, you might want to look into what the theological literature says though...)!
Thank you and God Bless
Michael
community | friendship, networking
2024-04-15