We never know when some little gesture can make a great difference in someone's life.

Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at the church, the Pastor and his eleven year old son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel Tracts.

This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside, as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, "OK, dad, I'm ready."

His Pastor dad asked, "Ready for what?"

"Dad, it's time we gather our tracts together and go out."

Dad responds, "Son, it's very cold outside and it's pouring down rain."   

The boy gives his dad a surprised look, asking, "But Dad, aren't people still going to Hell, even though it's raining?"

Dad answers, "Son, I am not going out in this weather."

Despondently, the boy asks, Dad, can I go?  Please?"

His father hesitated for a moment then said, "Son, you can go. Here are the tracts; be careful son."

"Thanks Dad!"

And with that, he was off and out into the rain. This eleven year old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel Tract.

After two hours of walking in the rain, he was soaking, bone-chilled wet and down to his VERY LAST TRACT. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to, but the streets were totally deserted. Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the door bell. He rang the bell, but nobody answered. He rang it again and again, but still no one answered. He waited but still no answer.

Finally, this eleven year old trooper turned to leave, but something stopped him.  Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch. He rang again and this time the door slowly opened.

Standing in the doorway was a very sad-looking elderly lady. She softly asked, "What can I do for you, son?"

With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that *JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU* and I came to give you my very last Gospel Tract which will tell you all about JESUS and His great LOVE."

With that, he handed her his last tract and turned to leave. She called to him as he departed. "Thank you, son!  And God Bless You!"

Well, the following Sunday morning in church Pastor Dad was in the pulpit. As the service began, he asked, "Does anybody have testimony or want to say anything?"

Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet.  As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face, "No one in this church knows me. I've never> been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian.  My husband passed on some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world.  Last Sunday, being a  particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart that I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to live. So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof, then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted I was about to leap off, when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought, "I'll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away."

I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent, and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly. I thought to myself again, "Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me." I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder.

When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life. His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you! The words that came from his mouth caused my heart that had long been dead, TO LEAP TO LIFE as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, "Ma'am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU." Then he gave me this Gospel Tract that I now hold in my hand.

As the little angel disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this Gospel Tract. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn't be needing them any more. You see---I am now a Happy Child of the KING. Since the address of your church was on the back of this Gospel Tract, I have come here to personally say THANK YOU to God's little angel who came just in the nick of time and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in hell."

There was not a dry eye in the church. And as shouts of praise and honor to THE KING resounded off the very rafters of the building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the little angel was seated. He took his son in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably.

Probably no church has had a more glorious moment, and probably this universe has never seen a Papa that was more filled with love & honor for his son... Except for One. This Father also allowed His Son to go out into a cold and dark world. He received His Son back with joy unspeakable, and as all of heaven shouted praises> and honor to The King, the Father sat His beloved Son on a throne far above all principality and power and every name that is named.

God's message CAN make the difference in the life of someone close to you. Do not be too shy to share that wonderful essage.

The Gospel

By C C Gower

To some people the word Gospel is a confusing and scary word.  Is a theological term which means ?Good News'.  The Good News of Jesus Christ is given to us, from God, in the stories of the Scriptures (Holy Bible).

The story starts many thousands of years ago when God created a perfect environment.  In this perfect environment He also created our common grandparents.  Their names were Adam and Eve.  They were loved and cared for by God Himself.  They walked with Him, and talked with Him, and were trusted by Him, after all they were His kids.  One day they broke that trust and did what they had been asked not to do, thinking that they knew better than God what was good for them.  Just as when any trust is broken, there was a price to pay. They were kicked out of that perfect environment and relationship with God. And all their kids too, that's us.

However, God still loves us and cares for us.  He has, throughout the centuries tried to lead us and guide us to do things the right way, creating within us a love for Him. But we and our forefathers seem to keep messing things up, creating more and more broken trust, and more and more consequences.  These consequences create greater and greater separation from our heavenly Father, who still loves us.

There is a concept here that we must understand.  Separation from God produces death, a spiritual death.  That is the price of our broken trust with God - spiritual death.  There is no commuted sentence, probation, or parole!  There is only death.

Once we get started breaking this trust it is very easy to continue breaking this trust.  In fact it becomes almost impossible to stop breaking this trust.  The Bible calls it bondage.  It is true; we are slaves to doing things the wrong way. It may not seem like it, but what ever we do on our own eventually turns out a little less than perfect, or right. In other words it is wrong!  The Bible calls this "sin".  The Bible also tells us that "the wages of sin is death."

Well, where is the good news in that? It doesn't appear that there is any, does it?

The Bible tells us that "the gift of God is eternal life."  That means spending eternity with God, our Heavenly Father who loves us and cares for us perfectly, in a perfect place walking with Him, talking with Him and being trusted by Him.

I can hear your question ringing in my ears. "What must I do to get this eternal life that is so perfect?"  The answer is you can't do anything.

The ?Good News' is that God, in His infinite wisdom and love for us, has provided a way for the debt of our broken trust to be paid in full.  He became flesh in the form of His son Jesus Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and lived a absolutely sinless life.  Let there be no mistake Jesus was 100% God and 100% man at the same time.  While he was here on earth he was completely pure and holy yet at the same limitations that you and I do.  He demonstrated how anybody could live in the bond of trust with God.  He lived in constant prayer, and service to God the Father, YHWH.

The people who were in positions of authority during Jesus Day did not trust him because he was more interested in the truth of God than in their traditions.  So they illegally arrested, tried and convicted Him, and sentenced Him to death by crucifixion.  Crucifixion is the most horrible form of death that man is ever conceived.  Jesus could have called on the forces of heaven at any time to stop this.  But, He chose not to in order whipped he might, through his death, pay the price of our sins, and therefore renew the bond of trust between us and God.  Jesus was whipped unto the point of death.  His beard was pulled out by the handfuls, and he was continually mocked and disgraced.  Remember that we are talking about the man who was rightfully chain of all kings of Lord of all Lord's, but yet allowed all of this to happen to him.  He was then hung on a cross (as the Old Testament tells us - hated by God) were nails pierced his hands and his feet.  He gave up His life on that cross, with you and I on his mind.  While on that cross he suffered the worst torture anyone could ever suffer - complete separation from God.  Something that he had never experienced, and whether you know it or not, it is something did you have never experienced.  It is true death.  And his totally innocent death paid the price for you and I.  With this act God the Father has issued a pardon with your name on it.

The only thing that you and I have to do to take advantage of the forgiveness that God is offered to us is to accept His pardon.  We accept His pardon through total surrender to His authority; we must accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior.  It is ruled by the United States Supreme Court, that a pardon is not a pardon until it has been accepted.  In other words, we have not been saved until we surrender.

When we do surrender we find a whole new way of life.  As Jesus told us when he was still alive, "unless a man be born again he may not enter the Kingdom of Heaven."  We are born again through a miracle of God.  Jesus promised us that when he left he would send us a comforter and guide.  God comes to us in the form of the Holy Spirit and physically enters our body, and takes up residence there.  The Holy Spirit connects our spirit through a bond of trust to God, the Father Almighty!  In other words, you have God living in you when you become a subject of the King.  Through this indwelling of the Holy Spirit we are endowed with power in our lives.  The power to break the bonds that sin has created in our lives.  God has demonstrated this for us in that after Jesus was in the ground for three days God the Father raised him from the dead.  There were many people that witness this. 

Jesus is alive today, sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, interceding for you and I in our clumsy attempts to maintain that bond of trust.  We have the Holy Spirit within is leading us and guiding us, showing us the way to do things the right way, to be righteous!  He comforts us in times of trouble.  He laughs with us in times of joy.  He cries with us in times of sorrow.  He lets us lean on him when we can't walk anymore.  "Oh what a fellowship, oh what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms" of God within us!

If you have surrendered your life over lordship of Jesus Christ there is one more thing that we need to accept, which is totally awesome.  God has elevated our status in life; He has adopted us as His own.  You are now a child of the King, with all the rights and privileges that go along with it.  What an honor it is to be a child of the King!

If you have not asked Jesus Christ to be the Lord of your life you are living under a sentence of death.  Not just a one-time death, but an eternal death.  You can put an end to this at any time did you choose.  Jesus is, right now, standing at the door of your heart and knocking!  It would be my prayer that He would beat the door down, but God just doesn't act that way.  He will not force anybody to be part of His own personal family.  Nor will He force anybody to spend eternity in heaven with Him.  The choice is entirely up to you.  If you would like to make that decision now, it is really not very difficult to do.  Just bow your head and humble yourself, knowing you're in His presence, and once and for all surrender yourself to his authority in your life.  Thank God for sending Jesus to be your sacrifice, and to pay the price that you cannot pay.  Thank Jesus for paying that price, and for coming up out of the ground to prove that he had conquered sin and death for you.  Ask the Holy Spirit to come in and take up residence within you, leading you and guiding you in every step you take the rest of your life, and eternity.  Then praise God for what he is done for you, because you are now a child of the King!

May all praise, honor and glory be to God, for He and He alone is worthy! That is the GOSPEL! ! !

How Do You Think of God?

   At first I saw God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there sort of like the president. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I didn't really know Him.
   But later on when I recognized this Higher Power, It seemed as though life was rather like a bike ride, but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that God was in the back helping me pedal.
   I don't know just when it was that he suggested we change places, but life has not been the same since--life with my Higher Power, that is. God makes life exciting! 
   But when He took the lead, it was all I could do to hang on! He knew delightful paths, up mountains and through rocky places--and at breakneck speeds. Even though it looked like madness, he said, "Pedal!"    I worried and was anxious and asked, "Where are you taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer, and I started to learn trust. 
  I forgot my boring life and entered into adventure.  When I'd say, "I'm scared," He'd lean back and touch my hand.   He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy. They gave me their gifts to take on my journey, our journey, God's and mine.
   And we were off again. He said, "Give the gifts away; they're extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, to the people we met, and I found that in giving I received, and our burden became light.
   At first I did not trust Him in control of my life. I thought He'd wreck it. but He knows bike secrets--knows how to make it lean to take sharp corners, dodge large rocks, and speed through scary
passages.
   And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places. I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant Companion.
   And when I'm sure I just can't do any more, He just smiles and says, "Pedal!"

   --James S. Hewett,



        

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