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Kid's Good News |
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Contents:
Story
time: Charles Finney and his conversion Story
time Charles
Finney who was used by God with might and power was born in Connecticut, USA
on
August 29, 1792. His parents were not very religious people so he
rarely heard a sermon
unless some visiting preacher came and preached in his place. When he
was in Adams he Many a
times Charles spoke to Mr. Gale and asked for clarification but he felt that
Mr. Gale could not completely satisfy him or explain the terms that he used
very
frequently in his messages. Many questions remained unanswered in the
mind of Charles
finny. Some of the questions were, what did he mean by repentance? Is
it a mere feeling The
knowledge he gained from his regular Bible reading, from the prayer meetings
he
attended and from the messages of Mr. Gale convinced him that if he died, he
would not
be in heaven. These thoughts got settled in his mind that if soul is
immortal then he
needed a complete change in his life and he needed a lot of preparation to
go to heaven
where he could live with happiness. But still he could not make up his
mind whether
the Gospel is true or false or whether anything about Christian faith is correct. Meanwhile
he precisely noticed that prayers offered were not answered. But while
reading the Bible he came across the passage about prayer where Jesus said,
"Ask, and
it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be
opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who
knocks it will
be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8). He also read about God’s willingness to
give His Holy Spirit
to those who ask Him. Many a times he heard people asking for the
outpouring of the
Holy Spirit, but very rarely did he hear about receiving. It was a sad
stumbling block
for Charles as he saw people so earnestly asking, but not receiving.
He could not
understand whether it was due to any mistake of those who prayed or was it
his Once
he was asked whether he wanted to be prayed over, but he refused saying,
"I know
that I am a sinner but your prayers have no meaning for me because you have
prayed so
much but did not receive anything from God yet." But
when he continued reading the Bible, he found out the reason for their
unanswered
prayers and he came to know that it was because of lack of faith in their
lives. They
prayed but did not expect to receive anything from God so they did not
receive it from
God. These thoughts gave him a bit of relief but for two to three
years he was in a
confused state of mind thinking that Bible is not the true word of God.
But he had to
choose either of one from the two alternatives that was before him either to
accept
Jesus as his Lord and Savior or live a worldly life. At that time he
was so impressed
by the Holy Spirit that he could not continue to postponed his decision. On one
evening of Autumn 1821 he decided to settle the matter of salvation once for
all. But he was afraid and ashamed to ask any questions to his church
members or his
Pastor. So he spent much time in reading Bible. One day while
going to office, he
heard his inner voice speaking, "didn’t you promise God that you will
give your heart
to Jesus?" But there was a great struggle going on in his mind.
Finally he went to a
place in woods where no one could see him and knelt down and asked Jesus to
forgive his
sins. When he did that, he felt as if all the sin and guilty feelings
vanished from his
heart. The thought of God was sweet in his mind and he felt a great
tranquility in his
heart which he could not describe.
 Is Bible Infallible? 9
So far we
explored four areas of Genesis account.
1.) Eye Witness account 2.) Material evidence 3.) Purpose and Attachment and 4.) Existence of evil.. In all of these so far we see that the evidence is overwhelming. Today we are going to dig little more deeper and look into the area of "Impact of Evil".
Gen 4:7
"If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well,
sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over
it."
Genesis 4:7
very clearly describes that the most severe Impact of sin was that man
lost acceptance in the sight of God. I heard this question time and again
doubting why would a loving God send people to hell? Answer is, "it
is not God who sends us to hell but it is our sin that takes us to
hell." Genesis 4:7 is the first verse in the Bible that uses the word
‘sin’ and this verse gives us some of the great insights about today's
human misery.
Last time we
had seen that this verse gives us the very definition of evil and gives us
overwhelming evidence that the existence of sin in today's world is
consistent with the description of Gen 4:7 hence Genesis defines evil in
the most accurate terms.
Abel and
Cain both brought an offering before the Lord. Cain's offering was
rejected because of his sin but Abel's offering was accepted because of
his righteousness. Now Cain is angry in the very same way as many times
people get angry at God for their own faults. God asks him why he is
angry.
Gen 4:6
So the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your
countenance fallen?
In this
context God is trying to make him understand that it was his fault and
that he needed to get himself corrected. When people say "I
don't believe that such a loving God will send people to hell", they
forget that sin has it's consequences and that there is no way a Holy God
can close His eyes and just ignore sin. If He ignores sin then He will not
be justified as ‘just God’. Because it is not fair to let sinner go
unpunished.
So because
God is ‘just God’ and as sin and God can not go together, man becomes
unacceptable to God because of sin. Now the liberal theologians will say,
"I don't believe that". My answer is, "whether you believe
or not, rule is rule, and your not believing can not change the
rule."
Even today
consciously or unconsciously humans follow this rule. If you commit crime
you go to jail. You are no longer acceptable in society. But because
humans are unjust this rule is not implemented fairly. God is just and so
a person can't escape by giving false testimony or false evidences.
Who are
likely to be charged in the justice system of God? Answer is, ‘All’. Rom
3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God." Again in Rom 3:10,11 Bibles
makes it very clear that all are sinners. There is none righteous.
Rom 3:10
As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one;
Rom 3:11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
Now the
theologians/pastors who try to keep their position, or try to become
acceptable in a political system or try to become honorable among people,
give people a blanket clemency that they are all ok and that they are
great people. Some even declare that they are all saved while knowing very
well that these people are living in sin. In other words they try to make
a mockery of God. It is contrary to the Word of God. God does not
support such claims. If today a liberal theologian have to walk down to
Cain, he/she will say, "Cain you are the greatest person in the whole
world. You are the champ buddy." But the fact is Cain is a
sinner and he needs to do well otherwise sin lies at the door and the
sting of sin produces death. Rom
6:23 "For the wages of sin is death."
So if I go
and tell Cain that he is doing ok, what I am doing is that I am
encouraging him to sin more and ultimately get the death penalty. Sin
bring such a horrible conclusion in the life of a person. Impact of sin is
horrible, it's consequences are horrible.
God did not
stop there. He loves you and me so much that he made a way out of this
horrible situation. He sent His only begotten son to this world, so that
whoever believes in the son shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Isn't it wonderful? Jesus came down to this earth to save those who
are lost.
Name two people from the
Bible whose hair are not supposed to be cut.
Answer of Riddle #44 and Winner Who was stoned to death in New Testament? Answer:
Stephen And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Winners:
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