And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son.
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,
so that you may know that you have eternal life.
1 John 5:11–13, NIV
From time to time, both personally and with evangelistic teams, I have had the privilege of hitting the streets to talk to people about Christ. Street witnessing is evangelism, a part of the larger whole of missions, and very valuable in planting gospel seeds in lives. We often use a simple evangelistic tract made to look like a million dollar bill (http://www.livingwaters.com/store/tracts). Printed on the back of the million dollar bill is a concise presentation of the gospel. “Have you gotten your million dollar bill today?” we ask as someone approaches. Some will say, “I’m not interested,” and walk on, but most are intrigued and will say, “Wow, is that real? Can I have it?”
“Yes,” is the reply, “but you have to answer the million-dollar question. The question is this: ‘If you die tonight, how will you convince God to let you into heaven?’”
The great majority of people will answer, “Well, I am trying my best to live a good life and do right. I hope God will let me in.”
If this is your response, you are dead wrong. It’s my joy to reply: “You and I would have to be perfect to EARN a place in a perfect heaven. Are you perfect? But here’s the good news: God offers us eternal life as a FREE GIFT through Jesus Christ. God sent his son to die in our place and pay the debt of our sin. In response we give him our heart and life by confessing our sin and accepting Jesus as the master of our life. Then we must trust and obey him in everything. For the rest of our life, Jesus works his way from the inside out to help us live according to God’s plan for us. Then when we get to heaven, God sees Jesus in our heart and says ,”That’s my child. Come on in and live with me forever.”
The Scripture from 1 John gives us the one and only key to spiritual life: Jesus! Far too many people in our churches and out on the streets just don’t understand. They somehow think that the power to reach up to God depends on their own effort. No matter how much you try, attempting to live good enough to earn heaven is a dead-end street.
If you have never opened your life to Christ, please do it now! Stop right here and ask Christ to come into your heart as your eternal King, Lord, and Savior. E-mail me at markpowers@scbaptist.org if I can help you make that leap of faith into Christ! — Mark Powers
P.S. – During May and June, I will be teaching an online course based on my book GOING FULL CIRCLE. The course runs 7 weeks – totally online – and is called “Growing Worshiping Disciples on Mission”. Please join me for this! Cost is $285 plus a $30 tech fee. Go here and scroll down for lots of info and videos about our School of Worship Leadership at Missional University: http://missional.university/index.php/swl.
Going Full Circle Blog 