Christian

#12 "Good news"

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten  Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life
(John 3:16)

So Police was also a Pastor? I asked myself. But what kind of Pastor lied against God? I asked myself again. The little I knew about God's gift of salvation then was that it was a seed. I knew that they were different kinds of hearts and that only one had soil good enough for the seed of salvation to grow. The other hearts had no hope of being saved once they allowed salvation decay in them.

I also knew that some people have been destined prior to their births to be prophets like Prophet Jeremiah or to be saved like apostle Peter. But some people, that I was among, so I thought, were born to perish in God's hell. The Pharaoh of Moses's and Aaron's time, Prince Amnon and Prince Absalom, King David's sons and Thief Judas Iscariot were one of those people, so I thought.

"Did you hear me?" Police came, "I said the Living Water runs for all"

I cast my face away from him. I couldn't believe it even as I wanted to.

"Know John three sixteen?" he asked.

I turned to meet his face slowly.

"Very well. For God so loved the world..."

"Good!" he cut me, "Did it say for God so loved the pastors?"

"No" I shook my head, frowning as I pondered.

"See? That means He has freely given the world His love. His gift of love is His only Son Jesus Christ" he informed me, shining his thirty two.

"Is...does He..." I paused to structure my words, "Does He love me? A thief?" I asked.

"Just as much as He does me, bro" he smiled, "He sent me to you. He said I should tell you He has forgiven you. Forgiven you two thousand years ago even before your mother's mother's mother was born. Even before you ask, He has forgiven you. Now, Christian, is not foolishness to deny Him who forgives without waiting for an apology?"

My brows sank. It was too much for me to take in.

"But...murderers, fornicators, cultists...go to hell" I stuttered.

"Even the ones who claim to know the Lord might end up in hell. Can I elaborate on the Gospel? Can I start from the beginning?"

I nodded without saying a word. I was still doubting all that he was saying. Maybe if he expatiated, I might get it. I reasoned.

"Everything God created was good until Man, that is with capital letter M, also called spiritual man, disobeyed
and lost the glory of God's image and likeness, becoming man, with small m, also called natural man"

"Now since Man is now man, though he knows what God knows, he is still dead. All that was good did not lose its goodness. Man, with small m, just became susceptible. The good weather becomes bad on too much exposure. Microorganisms that had no effect whatsoever on Adam and Eve at Eden now make us sick. We grow old and die and that is the total opposite of the eternal God"

"Man, with the small m, knows both good and evil like God does. But rather than do good like God does, every imagination of man is evil. Man can justify his reasons for being evil. Man is sin that is why he sins. Man can vex that is why he kills with mouth and with hands. Man is proud that is why he boasts and insults. Man strives for vanity that is why he steals, prostitutes and assassinates. Man lusts that is why he fornicates, commits adultery and perverts sex"

"Man even invents new ways of being evil. So God brought the Law to a chosen people, Israel, to regulate man. During the Law, no man could see God and live because His glorious presence is too much for the natural man. Man had to make sacrifices over and over again to atone for his sins. The Law made man weak"

"God graciously showed the world His patiently reckless love through His Son Jesus. He makes covenant. He has made a new covenant that only those who believe in Christ can have everlasting life. This means salvation is available. One just has to be interested and buy. Salvation is free of charge. Just believe that Christ died for your sins and has given you life and freedom from sin to worship righteousness"

"Christian?" he called me, "Do you want eternal life? It's available as I have told you. John four fourteen says if you drink the Living Water, you will never thirst. You will never die. Your search will end. And more excitingly, you will become a never drying fountain. God loves you, Christian. He has always loved you. Do you believe?"

I thought about it as tears began to stream down my eyes. It wasn't that God loves me. I had always heard that. It was that before I had even hit that boy in my church, or slapped Williams, or stole from my father, or had illicit sex, or killed or even before, as Police said, my mother's mother's mother had been born, this God, who my parents had warned was a Consuming Fire, had forgiven me.

The tears I was shedding were of a feeling new to me. This Good News of peace caused me to feel joy. Incomprehensible peace brought inexplicable joy. I had no other way to express that joy than to shed those humble tears.

I had been forgiven.

"Do you believe, Christian?" Police asked.

"Yes" I declared, "I believe"

Amazing grace saves the wretch and the right...think about it
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