(Video) What is the Gospel?

Brought to you by the guys at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The Titanic’s last hero: John Harper

A young Scotsman, who survived the tragic mishap, tells of an extraordinary story of how he was saved. He had been on the Titanic the night it struck the iceberg. Clinging to a piece of floating debris in the freezing waters, “suddenly",” he said, “a wave brought a man near, John Harper. He, too, was holding a piece of wreckage.

“He called out, ‘Man, are you saved?"’

“‘No, I am not’ I replied.

“He shouted back, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’

“The waves bore [Harper] away, but a little later, he was washed back beside me again. ‘Are you saved now?’ he called out.

“‘No,’ I answered. ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’

“Then losing his hold on the wood, [Harper] sank. And there, alone in the night with two miles of water under me, I trusted Christ as my saviour. I am John Harper’s last convert.”

Taken from Moody Adams, The Titanic’s Last Hero: Story About John Harper (Columbia, SC: Olive Press, 1997), 24 – 25.

A Pardoned sinner – Robert Murray M’Cheyne

“I often pray, ‘Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be made.’” - Robert Murray M’Cheyne

“I feel, when I have sinned, an immediate reluctance to go to Christ. I am ashamed to go. I feel as if it would do no good to go – as if it were making Christ a minister of sin, to go straight from the swine-trough to the best robe – and a thousand other excuses; but I am persuaded they are all lies, direct from hell. John argues the opposite way – ‘If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father;’ This is God’s way of peace and holiness. It is folly to the world and the beclouded heart, but it is the way.”  - Robert Murray M’Cheyne

Abide With Me – Henry F. Lyte (1847)

 

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
change and decay in all around I see;
O thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need thy presence every passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless;
ills have no weight, and tears not bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;
shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Book Recommendation – What is the Gospel?

What is the Gospel? A question which most Christians will answer based more on their personal understanding of it as opposed to what the Word of God actually says it is.

Forwarded by D. A. Carson and endorsed by a handful of other eminent Christians, comes a book that seeks to point Christians to the gospel –amidst the entire muddle –on what it really is as presented in the New Testament by the earliest Christians. Titled simply as “What is the Gospel”, Greg Gilbert who serves as an assistant pastor to Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC, presents the gospel that is very much centred on the cross. He summarizes the presentation of the gospel as noted from the apostles in Acts and in Romans by Paul as consisting of four central subjects which are: God, man, Christ, and a response. I highly recommend this book if you find yourself still confused on what scripture says is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Here’s a video of him talking about his book.

 

Jonathan Rourke Impersonates C.J. Mahaney

Humour for the soul :)

Jonathan Rourke as CJ Mahaney from Resolved on Vimeo.

The Romans Road

I use this method of sharing the gospel quite often, considering that it is easily accessible (using my iPhone) and that it has strong biblical references all from Romans. You simple use the following verses from Romans and follow them in a sequence. Thanks to Matt Slick from CARM.org for the tip!

1. Rom. 3:10 “As it is written, 'There is none righteous, not even one...”
2. Rom. 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
3. Rom. 5:12, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned."
4. Rom. 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
5. Rom. 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
6. Rom. 10:9-10, "if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
7. Rom. 10:13, "For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."

Pray that it will be a blessing to you!

One Society, One Family

"Christ has brought it to pass that those whom the Father has given Him should be brought into the household of God: that He and His Father and His people should be as one society, one family--that the Church should be as it were admitted into the society of the blessed Trinity."

- Jonathan Edwards