The Conversation - Pt. VII (Superman)

"So how do I become God's friend?"

He wants to be your friend and a father to you, someone you can tell anything to, and someone who will help you through every situation that life throws at you. He's been waiting your whole life for you to ask Him to be your friend.

Have you ever heard the expression, "A picture is worth a thousand words?" I have something here I'd like to show you ...

Take a look at this picture. Here's a cross and we're looking at it from behind. We can see the feet a little bit on the other side, so we know that someone is on it. That's Jesus. Notice the people gathered around the cross, looking up at Jesus. What do you notice about them?

"Well, they look sad; some of them look pretty shaken up, but they all look sad."

And did you notice that some are holding hammers, and there are big spikes on the ground?

"Yeah. I see those. These people must have nailed Jesus to the cross."

Look at their clothes. They're not from Jesus' time. They're not Roman soldiers. They're dressed in modern clothes. This picture reminds me that Jesus didn't die for just the people who were alive in His time. He died for me - and you! - knowing about our sins even back then. And see this guy right here, with the hammer? I identify with him. It's as though it was my hand pounding the nails in. It could just have easily have been me. Who among us wouldn't have done it to escape that same fate? If we had been told we were to be crucified - and we deserved it - but then some guy said he would die in our place, we would change places with him in an instant, even if the soldiers told us we had to drive the nails into his hands and feet. We would do anything to not have to die.

Jesus felt that same thing. He prayed to God to take away the need for Him to die if it was at all possible. He knew what was coming, and because He was truly fully human, He did not want to go through with it if it wasn't necessary. But the only way to save the world was through His sacrifice. Some have said it wasn't nails that held Him to the cross: it was LOVE. He could have called ten thousand angels to take Him down and whisk Him away. He could have asked God to kill everyone there for having the audacity to hurt Him. But He didn't. He took it all.

He took the pain and agony, but not only physical torture. He bore our sins and the penalty for our sins - death - on top of it all. And God couldn't look at it. When Jesus took all our sins - the sins of everyone for all time, the sins of billions of people! - He could no longer commune with God. God and sin cannot co-exist. Jesus had to bear it alone. He cried out from that separation. It was the first time in His life that He had ever been cut off from God. He became like us more than ever. He was alone, without God, the way we are until we accept His sacrifice in our place.

You see, even though Jesus died for our sins, it's not automatic. It's like there is a present in a room for me, with my name on it, but I never unwrap it. I never claim it for my own. I never thank the giver of the gift. That's all that separates us from God and Heaven now: our own mouths and hearts.

Remember the verse from Romans 10:9? - "If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord" - that He died for us and we want Him to take over and guide our life - "and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved."

"But I don't deserve it. I haven't done enough good things ..."

None of us deserve it, but Jesus gave us this present anyway. Paul told the Ephesians "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." It's all God! It's not by anything we can do. If it was, we'd be walking around bragging about how we saved ourselves.

"So ... what do I have to do?"

It's as simple and easy as the A, B, C's. A - admit you are a sinner. B - believe Jesus died for you and that He died and was raised again by God. C - confess with your mouth that you want Jesus to live in your heart. You just have to say a little prayer from your heart and mean it. If you'd like, I can lead you and you just have to repeat what I say.

"I've never been very good at praying, so if you want to do it, that would be good."

Ok, just repeat after me:

Dear Jesus, I know I am a sinner and have displeased You in many ways.

"Dear Jesus, I know I am a sinner and have displeased You in many ways.

I believe You died for my sin ...

"I believe You died for my sin ..."

and only through believing in Your death and resurrection can I be forgiven.

"and only through believing in Your death and resurrection can I be forgiven."

I want to turn from my sin ...

"I want to turn from my sin ..."

and ask You to come into my life as my Savior and Lord.

"and ask You to come into my life as my Savior and Lord."

From this day on ...

"From this day on ..."

I will follow You by living a life that pleases You.

"I will follow You by living a life that pleases You."

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving me. Amen.

"Thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving me. Amen."

That's all it takes. You are a superman! When you prayed with me just now, Jesus filled up that hole in your heart and sent the Holy Spirit to live inside you and guide you and help you. You have joined your heart to His and now you are a new creation. You have access to God because when He looks at you now, He sees His Son in you! This is a great day, man. You'll want to write this down so you can always remember when it happened. Not only that, but I can call you brother.

"Brother, huh? I always wanted a brother."

Well, now you've got a whole lot of them. This is just the beginning of a wonderful adventure with God.

Since you have asked Jesus for forgiveness, you have become a Christian and have eternal life. You are now God's child. You are also a member of God'’s family. Your feelings may change, but God'’s Word never changes. By faith, believe what God has said.

In I John 5:12 the Bible says, "He who has the Son has life. These things have I written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." God wants you to believe Him. He wrote the Bible to assure you of His love and forgiveness.

Your new spiritual life needs care just like your physical life. Just like a new baby in a family, you may need help in beginning your Christian life. I know you were concerned about going to church and all, but you may find that your attitude about that has changed, too. The good thing about going to church - well, just one of the good things - is that you will be with others who have done what you just did: ask Jesus into your heart. And there is strength in numbers. They have gone through the process of following God and can help you. And I'll be there, too.

I know your wife will be happy to hear that you have accepted Christ. Why don't we go tell her together?

"Yeah. That'd be ok, I guess."

Telling someone helps to "seal the deal," if you know what I mean. It makes you accountable, and more importantly, it says that you are not ashamed of Jesus. Before we tell your wife, let me show you another verse in the Bible. In Matthew 10:32-33 Jesus said, "If anyone acknowledges Me publicly here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before My Father in heaven. But if anyone denies Me here on earth, I will deny that person before My Father in heaven." That's pretty serious. He said almost the same thing in Mark 8:38: "If a person is ashamed of Me and My message in these adulterous and sinful days, I, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of that person when I return in the glory of my Father with the holy angels." If He is ashamed of us, that means that we are going to be lost.

But do you know what the angels in heaven are doing right now? They're singing and dancing and rejoicing over you! In Luke 15:10 Jesus says, "there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." When you prayed with me to receive Jesus, the angels started a big party!

"Well, let's go tell my wife, then. Maybe she's got some cake for our party."

(Together) Angel food cake!!

The Conversation - Pt. VI (Coming out of the Desert)

If you've been paying attention to the letters, you probably have a good idea what the word is we've been spelling out on your fingers. F-A-I-T and now H, which stands for Heaven and Hereafter.

If you remember when we talked about 'F is for forgiveness,' the verse I mentioned was from Ephesians, Paul's letter to the church he had visited in the Greek town of Ephesus. A little later in his letter, Paul told the Ephesians about FAITH:

"For by grace are you saved through faith; and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works (performance), lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8 & 9

So the answer to the original question - how can a person get to heaven - is by faith.

"Well, that sounds good, but I have a feeling this involves going to church several times a week, wearing a tie, and actually staying awake during the sermon."

Before I respond to that, I just have one more question for you: if you were to die tonight, where would you end up?

(long pause)

"I'm not really sure. I'd like to think that I would go to Heaven, but I just really don't know for sure. Can anyone REALLY be sure? I mean, don't we all have self-doubts? Don't we all wonder if we've done enough or if we've really ticked off God so much or ... something like that?"

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Your reflection, of course. After a person trusts in Christ as their Savior, do you know what God sees when He looks at them? His Son. He sees Jesus when He looks at us. He no longer sees our sin, which He can't bear to look at. Remember how I said it is impossible for God to allow sin into heaven, and we're sinful, so how can sinful man go to Heaven where God allows no sin? That's how we can get there. We go in with Jesus, and when God asks if He has a guest, He will say, no - a brother! A joint-heir with Jesus. In Galatians Paul told the church that "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." And he also said to them, "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father.'"

This is why Christians are different: they have the Spirit of God - the Spirit of Jesus! - in their hearts, filling that God-shaped space. His spirit joins with our spirit - our soul - and together we make a new creature, a super-man. Our new spirit calls out "Abba, Father," which means daddy or papa. If you go to Israel, you will hear little children calling out to their daddies, "Abba! Abba!" Daddy! Daddy! God sees a new creature who is a child of God - one of His own. What daddy doesn't welcome his own children when they come to him?

"It just sounds too simple. I've always heard people talking about working to get into Heaven, and getting their reward. Reward for what? I assume it's a reward for doing good."

And do you think you could ever repay Jesus for what He did for you? Do you think you could ever do enough good works - feed the poor, clothe and shelter the homeless, care for the sick - to make God say, "Hmmm. This guy has done so much, it doesn't matter that Jesus died in his place. He doesn't need Jesus to get to Heaven."

"I don't know. Isn't it possible?"

What could you or I possibly offer the God of the Universe who spoke the our world into being? I don't think He needs something from us like a lawn mowed or groceries delivered? And what could you or I do to make up for the life given by His Son?

"Hey, man. I've read the book and seen the movie. It was the Jews who killed Jesus and they're supposed to be God's chosen people. What's up with that, anyway?"

It was a combined effort, Jews and non-Jews alike, because Jesus died for everyone, regardless of race, color or religion. The Law of Works was made impossible intentionally so we would have nowhere else to turn for salvation except Jesus. He said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by Me." He told this to His disciples on the night before He was arrested and taken away to be crucified.

"So, if God doesn't need us for anything, why does He keep us around? Why is it important for us to believe in Him? Why did He send His Son down to live with us if we were just going to kill Him?"

God made us to be His friends. Back in Genesis, He used to walk through the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Someday, we'll walk with Him again and enjoy being in His direct presence. He loves us as friends and children, even though we turned our backs on Him and disobeyed Him. The only way to fix that was with blood - our blood. We had to die for what we did. Jesus stepped in and took our punishment for us. When He hung on that cross and said, "It is finished!" what He was saying was that the price had been paid in full. It is completed. It - the separation of God and man - was over. Christ stretched out His arms on that cross and made a bridge for us to be able to get together with God again. It was all part of the plan to bring us back into fellowship and friendship with God again.

"I've always had a kind of mental picture of God with white hair, robes and sandals and angry. You know, lightning bolts in each hand and really ticked off, watching from a cloud, ready to spank us or squash us or something bad like that. You're saying God wants me to be His friend?"

Amazing, isn't it, and kind of hard to grasp. But let me try and explain a bit to see if I can make it a little clearer. You love your kids, but sometimes they need discipline, whether to teach them something important or because they did something you told them not to. God is our spiritual Father, but just like our earthly father - and just like us in our role as fathers - sometimes we need to be thumped on the head or put in timeout or firmly told to get back on the right path. When you punish or discipline your children, you don't stop loving them, do you? Of course not, and neither does God stop loving us when we disobey Him or go off on our own instead of following His instructions.

And have you noticed that "discipline?" We get the word "disciple" from the same root word. God needs to correct us to disciple us. That's part of where we get the "angry God" image. And, truth be told, He was angry sometimes in the Old Testament when His chosen people just couldn't get it through their heads what He was telling them. Or they were dissatisfied with what He gave them. Starving in the wilderness, He sends them bread from the sky - manna - every day. Give us our daily bread ... But they said, "Where's our meat and veggies? We want something else!"

"I understand why He got angry. My kids are the same way sometimes. (Pause) So how do I become God's friend?"

He wants to be your friend and a father to you, someone you can tell anything to, and someone who will help you through every situation that life throws at you. He's been waiting your whole life for you to ask Him to be your friend.

Have you ever heard the expression, "A picture is worth a thousand words?" I have something here I'd like to show you ...

The Conversation - Pt. V (A Forked Road)

If you've been paying attention to the letters, you probably have a good idea what the word is we've been spelling out on your fingers. F-A-I-T and now H, which stands for Heaven and Hereafter.

If you remember when we talked about 'F is for forgiveness,' the verse I mentioned was from Ephesians, Paul's letter to the church he had visited in the Greek town of Ephesus. A little later in his letter, Paul told the Ephesians about FAITH:

"For by grace are you saved through faith; and not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works (performance), lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8 & 9

So the answer to the original question - how can a person get to heaven - is by faith.

"There seem to be an awful lot of assumptions involved in this plan of yours."

It's not MY plan, and those assumptions, as you call them, are simply acts of faith. Hebrews 11:1 tells us, "What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see."

A different paraphrase of that verse says, "The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see." Let me ask you another question: do you believe that I exist?

"Duh! I can see you, touch you, smell your aftershave, shake your hand, throw you out of my house if I get tired of you. Do I believe you exist? That's a no-brainer."

That's because it takes absolutely no faith to believe in me; I am physical and visible. God and Heaven are not nearly so easy, though. And yet, people can and do believe in God and Heaven and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and in the devil, too.

"Old mister red suit with the pitchfork and forked tail and horns and goat feet? Old Scratch? Sign your name in blood on the contract and sell your soul for your heart's desire?"

Oh, he does like people who view him like that. He's not so scary like that, and people always are able to outwit him, right?

"Yeah, he does make a lot of bad decisions, but hey ... everybody does."

Do you know what the Bible says about him? He's like a hungry lion, roaring and prowling around looking for someone to tear to shred. He would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Actually, that's not quite true. He would love even more to have you believe in the red guy story, and that God is like Santa Claus and that everyone is going to heaven. He would like nothing more than for you to do nothing. To believe in nothing at all. He wants you to believe that Jesus was a good man. And so were Moses and Mohammed and Buddha and Socrates and Plato and Gandhi and more. He wants you to believe God sits on a cloud and watches the world go by, never getting involved except for special cases. He wants you to believe in movie demons. He wants you to believe the Bible is a history book written by men and that you can pick and choose which parts you want to believe. He wants you to do nothing about heaven except go on exactly as you are now.

"Is there a problem with how I'm living now?"

Is it like paradise? Don't you ever ask yourself, "Is this all there is?"

"It's a far cry from paradise, I'll tell you that. But it's all we have, right? That's why Heaven is so special, I thought. Other than sitting around on a cloud and playing the harp ..."

Jesus said He came to earth to give us a more abundant, full, rich life while we're here. When you choose to turn away from sin and self and trust in Jesus, you automatically place one foot in Heaven, the Hereafter. This is not to say that life will suddenly be a bed of roses, although maybe you could say it is, complete with thorns!

"Well, that wouldn't be so different from my life now, 'cuz I've certainly got thorns sticking me all the time."

Do you wish you had someone to help you through those painful times when you're being stuck? I mean someone besides your wife. And someone to celebrate the good times with, too?

"I suppose you're going to tell me that God wants to take care of all my problems. You told me He's not like Santa Claus. You even said He wants to chop me down but Jesus wants Him to give me another year."

Here's what Jesus said about problems: "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

"I'm sorry. What does that mean?"

Here's the same verse from the Bible, put into today's terminology: "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

"Well, that sounds good, but I have a feeling this involves going to church several times a week, wearing a tie, and actually staying awake during the sermon."

Before I respond to that, I just have one more question for you: if you were to die tonight, where would you end up?

The Conversation - Pt. IV (Brass Tacks)

Since it is impossible for God to allow man into Heaven - since man is by his very nature sinful and God and sin cannot exist in the same place - that means something has to be changed somewhere.

"Well, since God can do anything, I guess He can change the rules if He wants to, and then we can all get in. Hmm?"

By that line of reasoning, God could then just change the rules and not be bothered by sin. But then He wouldn't be God.

"Man, I don't know where you get some of this stuff. Of course God would be God. I may not go to church very often, and I know I don't pray unless I really need a favor - and that's not counting when I'm looking down the bowling lane at a 7-10 split - but I do know that God is God and has always been and I guess He always will be."

So if God is unchangeable, I guess we could change, right? I mean, if there's one thing we humans do well is adapt. We are constantly changing based on the situations around us and what's happening in our lives.

"Well, I like to think I can figure out most problems pretty well, but I don't think I can change my DNA, and I'm not just saying that because I slept through most of my high school biology class. If I'm following you right, I would have to become something other than, what, human?"

Maybe you would have to become a superhuman.

"Like Superman? I can guarantee you that I am no man of steel. My six-pack has turned into a whole keg, in case you hadn't noticed."

If you are traveling east and need to be traveling west, what do you need to do?

"Turn around and head the other way, I guess. Why?"

In the Bible, to "turn" means to "repent," and the next letter on your fingers is "T" which stands for Turn.

Jesus talked to lots of people while He was on earth, and one time He told them - this is in Luke, Chapter 13, verse 3 - "... unless you repent (turn) you will all likewise perish." In today's language we would say "Unless you turn to God, you, too, will die." And then He told them a story about a tree.

Here it is ... this is from The Message version of the Bible:

"A man had an apple tree planted in his front yard. He came to it expecting to find apples, but there weren't any. He said to his gardener, 'What's going on here? For three years now I've come to this tree expecting apples and not one apple have I found. Chop it down! Why waste good ground with it any longer?'

"The gardener said, 'Let's give it another year. I'll dig around it and fertilize, and maybe it will produce next year; if it doesn't, then chop it down.'"

"I may not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but I'm confused now."

For centuries God has been trying to get man to produce the fruit He created him for, but man has always resisted. Jesus is the gardener, pleading our case, putting His job on the line for us, so to speak, asking for one more year to get us to produce. "Unless you repent ..." - turn away from the sin you were born with and try something different - "... you will all perish." You see, it's not enough to just turn away from our sinful nature, because we will simply go in a circle and come right back to it. Alone, we can't change course, we can't change our spots. We need to turn away from our selfish sinful nature and turn to something else. You always hear about people trying to "find themselves." They're really trying to find the piece that fits in the God-shaped hole in their heart. They're trying to find out how to produce fruit before the gardener chops down the tree.

"I don't know what to say. I can identify with that feeling of wanting to find yourself, but I just don't know that the churchy-life is for me."

You can look the whole world over and try every religion known to man - even make up your own! - and you'll still be just as lost. The only thing that will fit in that God-shaped hole is God.

"So which is it? God or Jesus?"

That's really simple and unbelievably complicated at the same time. On a really simplistic level we could just say that Jesus and God are the same mind in different bodies. When Jesus' disciples asked Him that same thing, He told them "Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father." Jesus is the physical puzzle piece that fits in the hole that is our need for God. Is that fairly clear?

"I think I get it."

In the Apostle Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth he wrote: "I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me--that Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said." By "the Scriptures" Paul means the Old Testament prophecies. Jesus fulfilled the prophecies that the Jewish people had been waiting on for hundreds of years. The most important part of that is - just as Paul said - "that Christ died for our sins." That's why we say that a person needs to turn away from themselves and their sin and trust in Jesus - because He paid the penalty for our, my and your sin. Even while we were still sinners, Christ died in our place so we could go to Heaven. And the way that we accept that gift - and get God's forgiveness - is this verse from Romans 10:9 "For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

The Message says it like this: "Say the welcoming word to God - "Jesus is my Master" - embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what He did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting Him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between Him and me!""

"Jesus came to fix things up between me and God so I can go to heaven? I thought He came to teach us how to do good things for poor people and to start a bunch of churches and stuff."

He came to make sure that YOU have a way to get into Heaven, which is where God wants you to live in the hereafter. Heaven and Hereafter both start with "H," which is our next letter. Your next - and last - finger, please.

The Conversation - Pt. III (The Conundrum)

"I" is for impossible. It's impossible to put hot water together with cold water without getting warm water. It's impossible for light and dark to exist together. And it is impossible for God to allow sin into Heaven. And that's why God's forgiveness - the letter "F", the first letter we talked about - is available - the letter "A", our second letter - but not automatic. We are sinful and God can't let sin into Heaven.

"Now you're just messing with me. Either that, or this way into Heaven you're proposing is more complicated than you were letting on."

Why?

"Because. You said all we need to get to Heaven is God's forgiveness. But now you're saying it's impossible for us to get IN once we get there because we're sinful and God doesn't allow "our kind" into Heaven. I guess it's going to be a pretty quiet, empty place."

OK. Let's back up. In John 3:16 the Bible says God is loving, remember? "This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life." You with me?

"So far, so good."

But God is not Santa Claus, carrying around a bag of gifts and that's the only reason we need Him around: for what we can get OUT of Him. The Bible tells us that God is loving, but "His judgment is without mercy." That means that even though it breaks His heart, He will send people to hell. And I don't know how you feel about it, but hell is a real place.

"I guess I've never given it a whole lot of thought ..."

Most people don't, because most people believe they are "basically good at heart" and they think that should be good enough to get to Heaven. But we're not basically good. We are basically evil. You have kids, right?

"Yeah. Two boys and girl."

When they were little, did you have to teach them how to be bad?

"Heck, no! They just naturally took to doing bad things, even my sweet little girl! She's the apple of my eye, but when she decides she wants something, get out of her way. And it doesn't matter if it's good for her or not. She follows her own heart. I try to bring them up to be independent, but sometimes ... y'know? And I hate to punish them, but it's for their own good. They have to learn the rules so they can get along in life."

You said they "naturally took to doing bad things." Does that sound like we're basically good at heart? We have to be taught to do what is right and good. And I'll tell you why: Adam and Eve and DNA.

"Say what?"

Adam and Eve committed the first sin and, ever since, it's been ingrained in us, like a part of our DNA, our genetic makeup. The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that each and every one of us has sinned. From the Pope on down. Me, my mom and dad, my sweet old grandmother, the deacons at church, your Aunt Betty, even Jesus' disciples. Ever since Adam and Eve we have been sinful creatures. We are born with sin in our hearts. That sweet little baby you held was born with sin in her heart. We can't get away from it. But there is no sin in God. Sin and God cannot coexist. And that's why it's impossible for forgiveness and heaven to be automatic. God just can't coexist with us because we are sinful creatures at heart. Heaven is His home, and it's been promised to us as our eternal home, too, but we have to get over this sin in our DNA first.

"Hello?? Haven't you ever heard the expression 'A leopard can't change his spots?' I can't change my DNA, and neither can you. So I guess neither one of us is going to get there."

Sometimes a leopard CAN change his spots. Let's go on to the next letter ...

The Conversation - Pt. II (It's For You)

"F" stands for forgiveness, which is something we need to have eternal life in Heaven with God. We need God's forgiveness in order to get to Heaven. Luckily that forgiveness is available, which brings us to the nexxt letter. "A" stands for available. God's forgiveness is freely Available for All.

"For everyone, regardless of crimes, beliefs, social status, the amount they give to their church or even if they go to church?"

You ever watched a football game on TV or gone to one?

"I'm a man, aren't I? Of course I watch football. And I've been a season ticket holder for years to the ____ (team name withheld to avoid embarrassment to the speaker). Tailgating, too. What has that got to with forgiveness?"

Have you ever seen someone holding up a sign that says "John 3:16?"

"Yeah, lots of times. But it's not nearly as good as lots of other signs. Especially when they make up like a poem or something and then they highlight certain letters to spell out the team name or ABC or FOX or CBS, whatever network is broadcasting the game. Or they write signs to John Madden or Al Michaels. That's cool."

John 3:16 stands for the Gospel of John, chapter three, verse sixteen. It says "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life."

"So?"

Put your name in where it says "the world."

"For God so loved me ...?"

God loved you so much that He was not only willing to send His only Son, He DID send His only Son to die the most humiliating, painful death imaginable.

"Yeah ... I've heard that stuff before. My wife is always saying things like that when she comes home from church. And I've got my own theory."

Which is ...?

"Jesus was able to do all those things and die and everything without worrying about it because He knew He wouldn't be dead when it was over. Like a magician's trick, y'know? It's one thing to do something without knowing what's going to happen, but when you know that it's all going to be fine in the end, it's not so bad."

So you think Jesus didn't experience pain when they whipped Him, tearing out chunks of flesh from all over His body until He was barely recognizable as a man, whipped to within an inch of His life? Roman whips had pieces of glass, nails or jagged sheep bones embedded in lead tips that were at least acorn sized. He lost so much blood He couldn't carry His own cross. He was nailed to that cross through His hands and feet. Many people don't know this, but many times when the Romans crucified a criminal, they also held him to the cross by nailing through his penis and/or pelvis. There is no mention of that in the Scriptures about Jesus, but it is a historical fact. The Romans were without equal in their ability to apply excruciating, humiliating pain. Most of the time when someone was crucified, it took days for them to die. Jesus died in about six hours, hanging on the cross from about nine o'clock in the morning until about three o'clock in the afternoon. The Roman soldiers usually broke the legs of the condemned to speed things along, but Jesus was already dead. They even jabbed a spear through His side to make sure He was dead.

"Whoa. Back off. I said it was just a theory. It may have happened a little differently."

Sorry. I didn't mean to go off like that. It's just that ... it was no parlor trick. No smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand and nothing up His sleeve. We are so jaded in today's age that we believe there is a simple, easily understandable solution to everything, and it's usually a special effect dreamed up in some movie studio. Jesus died. Period. He died alone on the cross for me and for you. He died to make God's forgiveness available for all.

"OK. Problem solved. Everybody is forgiven. I don't see what all the fuss is about ..."

Even though it IS available to all, it is NOT automatic. Jesus said "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of Heaven."

"Wait. What was that last thing? Not everyone who says, 'Lord, Lord, will get to heaven?' What does that mean?"

Have you heard the expression "Talk the talk and walk the walk?"

"Yeah. It means when someone is genuine. They don't just talk, they live what they're talking about."

Exactly. Jesus was saying that He needed people who would 'walk the walk,' not just talk the talk - give Him lip service. Not everyone who says 'Hey, Jesus! You're my man! I'm on your team!' is going to make it, because some of them are just saying it to try and impress others. They're still following their own leading instead of doing what God wants.

"Wait, wait, wait. If Jesus died for everybody - you said that John 3:16 thing - then it's for everybody. Are you changing the meaning of everybody? It's either for everyone or it's not."

It's available for everyone. But just because something is available for everyone doesn't mean everyone will take advantage of the offer. But it's more than that. It simply can't be automatic. I'll tell you why, too, if you'll hold out your next finger for the next letter.

The Conversation - Pt. I (The Question)

In your personal opinion, what do you understand it takes for a person to get to Heaven?

Heaven? Well, if there is such a place - and I hope there is, y'know - you gotta try and be good, and not, y'know, kill anybody ... and go to church, I guess, and ... I don't know. Just not screw anybody over, if you'll pardon my French. Why? What do you think it takes?"

It only takes one word and you've got the whole thing in the palm of your hand. Hold out your thumb. That's "F", and "F" is for forgiveness. We cannot have eternal life and heaven without God's forgiveness.

"Forgiveness? Ha! What do I need to be forgiven for? I live my life the way I want to, by my rules, and I'm pretty good. I've never asked for anything from God and that's what I've gotten."

You sound like a lot of people who are convinced they are self-made and self-contained. But inside, every person has a hole in their heart that can only be filled by God - a God-shaped hole, if you will. We are born with the inherent knowledge that there is something larger than us, something grander than us, something else besides us and some place else besides this world. People spend their whole life looking for the piece that fits in that space. We try to fill that hole with anything we can get our hands on, but only God will fit.

"God doesn't fit in my life, what with all His rules and "thou shalt not's."

Rules like "Love your neighbor?" Like "Heal the sick, feed the hungry and care for the poor?"

"No, rules like no drinking and no having fun; no running around with your buddies. You can't lie, you can't even look at a pretty woman! There's no sex and you have to go to church all the time. They're always trying to make you feel guilty."

I think you're confusing God with your parents. Jesus said, "I have come to the earth so you could have a fuller, more joyful, fulfilling life." And tell the truth: does excess alcohol really bring out the best in you? And nowhere in the Bible does it say you are can't have fun. And here's a heads up: God created sex.

"How about football and baseball games and fishing and hunting? And tailgate parties? And golf?"

They're not mentioned in the Bible as recreations. What the Bible does say - in my own words - is, "I am God. I am the only God. Don't put anything ahead of Me. Not football, baseball, golf, fishing, hunting or your desire for a new car or big screen plasma TV."

"See! Rules, rules and more rules and no fun!"

God doesn't say you can't have any of those things. He says don't make them your god. Don't put your desire to have the coolest stereo system on your block above Him.

"Well, that may be, but it still doesn't tell me why I need forgiveness. I'm no axe murdering serial killer, and I don't run around on my wife, and I don't look at porn on the internet - on purpose - and I don't do crack or meth or heroin or bet on the horses and I'm not a drunk ... at least not on a regular basis."

Sounds like you follow a set of rules. Maybe some of these sound familiar: Don't commit murder. Don't lie, cheat and steal. Honor your father and mother. Don't covet ...

"Yeah! That's one of those things: coveting! What the he ... heck is that, anyway?"

Remember when your neighbor, Bob, got his 50-inch plasma TV? Were you happy for him, or did you say to yourself, "That should be mine! I work harder than he does, and I've had to put up with a lot more crap at work, and I've had to work for everything I've ever gotten while he gets everything practically given to him! I deserve it more than he does." And Frank's wife, Marion...?

"Oh, yeah ... she's hot!"

Wanting what is not yours, whether you deserve it or not, is coveting.

"OK. So I have broken a few of "the rules," but does that make me such a terrible person? I mean, I've never acted on most of those impulses. Besides, nobody could keep all those rules. So I guess no one can get to Heaven. Or maybe we're all getting in!"

"Through Him (meaning Jesus) ... through Jesus we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin." That's in the Bible, Ephesians chapter one, verse seven. You see, Jesus kept all those rules. He was the only one who ever did, and so He fulfilled The Law - which is what the Jews called the Ten Commandments. Jesus paid our tickets for breaking the rules, so now all we have to do is ask for forgiveness.

"I still don't think I've done anything so bad that God should be mad at me."

You already said you've broken a "few of the rules," so that means you have sinned. God said, "Keep these rules or forget about Heaven." In effect, your breaking of those rules means the sins were more important to you than God and eternal life. And, He's not mad at you. As a matter of fact, it breaks His heart.

"Breaks His heart? I'll bet He doesn't even know I exist!"

He formed you in your mother's belly. He mixed the DNA just so, just the way He wanted. He has numbered the hairs on your head - He doesn't just know how "many" hairs you have, He knows which one is which! Oh, yeah. He knows you exist.

"OK. So if Jesus paid for my tickets, then maybe I can buy into this forgiveness thing, since there's nothing major I have to do. What else you got?"

Well ... that brings us to the next letter. Hold out your first finger. Yeah, your "pointer" finger. This one is "A."