Cross Training: Is Jesus the Only Way

Cross Training: Is Jesus the Only Way

Are Christians crazy for thinking Jesus is the only way to heaven? What do you commonly hear other people say are ways to heaven or to God? Why would God only make one way?

Jesus said in John 14:6:I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

That s pretty exclusive! No one comes to the father but by me! Jesus himself said he is the only way! Lets start by investigating Jesus. If Jesus is not God than it does not matter what he says but if he is then that is the difference between Heaven and Hell.

Lets talk about Jesus. Many people say many things about him like he was man, good teacher, an ancient Gandhi type character, a prophet, etc.. The success of the Da Vinci Code shows that the idea that people have many views about him. Other religions even have different views on Jesus. For example Islam believes many of the same things we believe about Jesus but they don’t believe about God. What have you heard people say about Jesus?

Sometimes you will hear talk of the “historical Jesus” as some figure was turned into the Christian Super Hero of Jesus. Suggesting that the “real” is something different from the Jesus we believe in. I don’t want to spend much time on that but quickly say there is no way to know Jesus was apart from the scriptures. So if we want information on Jesus we need to go to the Gospels. If you want to know more about the debate about “historical Jesus” see me later. Just remember scripture is the only reliable source for anything on Jesus.

The is though it does not matter too much what others have said about Jesus or other people’s views what really matters is who did Jesus say he was? Some “religious people” who have read the Gospels say that Jesus himself never claimed to be God? Is that true let’s look at some key passages:

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 2:1-12

1And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 3And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. 5And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven." 6Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7"Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 8And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you question these things in your hearts? 9Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk'? 10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" --he said to the paralytic-- 11"I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home." 12And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"
Do you see how Jesus is claiming his deity? The scribes in the crowd where a 100 % right only God could forgive sins. Sin is ultimately an offense against God more than anyone else (Romans 6:23). So only God can forgive sins. Jesus was claiming not only did he claim he also proved it by the healing the paralytic.

Lets look at John 8:58
58"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" 59At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. That is big for a number of reasons especially to a Jewish audience. Abraham was the father of the Jewish people, the father of faith;,we are blessed with the covenant he is blessed in Gen 12. Not only did Jesus say he is existed before the Abraham back in Gen. He said I AM. This the covenant name for God that God used in Ex 3:14 when God met Moses at the burning bush. Here Jesus is saying that he is Jehovah God! Jesus definitely left no room for ambiguity on whether he thought he was God or not. Again notice the reaction of the Jews they get ready to stone him for blasphemy.

We can even go back to the verse we started out with in John 14:6 when Jesus says
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.How can someone make that statement with out claiming to be God. God is the only real source of truth that’s nothing any person could say. Or life no human is the life. All humans die and finite creatures. Way?!? No human is a way to anything.

Jesus claimed to be God! So that leaves us with three options. C.S. Lewis puts it this way Jesus was a Liar, Lunatic or Lord.

Let’s briefly take a short look of these claims

Liar – Most people Christian or non Christian believe that he was a “good moral person” every one basically accepts that. No one really believes that Jesus was villain. It would be like calling Mother Teresa or Gandhi evil No one believes would be highly unlikely that some one who preaches love for others, and preaches against hypocrisy and evil would really be history greatest deceiver. It just does not add up.

Lunatic- Well if he was sincere could he be self deceived. Josh McDowell in his reiteration of C.S. Lewis’s Liar, Lunatic, Lord, notes that someone who thought they were God would be deluded or self-deceived; like Napoleon for example. McDowell says that no psychologist really has reason to think he was schizophrenic or had any imbalance. The depth and skill of his teachings also show that he is clearly sane.

Note: These two arguments have been heavily abbreviated and simplified and simplified for the purpose of tonight’s lesson. To see this more fully articulated read More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell.

This naturally leaves the only sane choice of Lord.

Two other quick things reason to believe Jesus is Lord

-The reality of the resurrection
1 Cor 15:1-10
-We can personally know Jesus today!
That’s not just theology but Hallelujah it’s the reality of Christianity.

This was a brief and quick overview on how we know who Jesus is. There is so much more to it. See me if you want more resources.

Ok well we know that Jesus is who he says he is why is right in saying that he is the only way? If you know the Gospel you know already know the answer! Jesus the only one who can do what he did!

The real question is not how can I get to heaven but what separated me from God. Lets first take a look at why the universe was even created in the first place. Turn in your Bibles to Col 1:15-20
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. 17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Did you see it? The purpose statement of the universe! Not only was the universe created through him by it was also for him. To show off his glory! In everything that he might be preeminent the universe is the stage to show how great God is! How great Jesus is! The universe is to display the glory of Jesus. The universe was created to say great and awesome God is. Everything that exist is to glorify God!

Now the problem Romans 6:23 and Romans 3:23
Sin entered the perfect universe in Gen 3. The first time imperfection entered the world. This sin is the problem it is what is what separates us from God. That why people don’t naturally have a relationship with God. Not only that we inherited sin from Adam (Romans 5:12) and we ourselves daily commit sin

So theres the problem! The universe was created to glory for God. Everything that exists should but lets go back to Romans 3:23! We all fall short and that is the problem and it is no little problem either!

Lets look at the magnitude of the problem. Lets go to Romans 3:9-20

9What then? Are we Jews[any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10as it is written:
"None is righteous, no, not one;
11no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one."
13"Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive."
"The venom of asps is under their lips."
14"Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."
15"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16in their paths are ruin and misery,
17and the way of peace they have not known."
18"There is no fear of God before their eyes."
19Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20For by works of the law no human being[ will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. That is scripture’s description of us. That’s not faltering is it? Notice its says None is righteous, no, not one! That’s true of us. There is no fear of God in our eyes! Look it says the whole world is accountable to God. Now think of the purpose of the universe! Due to our sin we are ugly stain on the Mona Lisa! And that’s a complete and total understatement! God is 100% completely holy and perfect and pure. Then there is us the complete opposite. See the problem is not that we are not good enough! The problem is how bad we are. People think that their good out ways their bad. That simply not true because the bad is still there it does not wipe it clean! In Evangelism Explosion I learned this analogy suppose we were making an omelet and we were making the omelet with 3 good eggs and 1 rotten egg could we serve to a friend. No even if the omelet was most good rottenness of the other eggs make unfit to be served. It’s the same way with us we can not take the good in our life and the bad mix it all together and serve to God. Let face it with out with out Christ we are rotten egg! We can not know God is perfect and holy we fall short. That is why we are separated from God!

Now let us spend some time in another text to so how much we can do about it. Lets flip over to Eph 2:1-3
1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
That says a lot! But the part I want to focus in v1 We are dead! In our sins people are basically spiritual zombies. We are spiritually dead! Now I am not a biology major but who here knows how much dead people can do for themselves? Not a thing! Nothing! Dead people have no power whatsoever to change their condition!

So lets review we are basically sinful, wicked, evil, people and threes nothing we can do about that. Now contrast that with God’s holiness and perfection we are completely separated! But luckily that is not the end of the end of the story!

Lets now look at some beautiful verses!

Some one quote John 3:16

Now some one look at Isaiah 53:6 and read it.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Lets looks at 2 Cor 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Now can some one answer why Jesus is the only way! Jesus Christ took away our sins which separated us from God and we so completely enable to do anything about! That’s why Jesus is the only way. No other “way” can deal with your sins. No one else could have died for you. Mohamed, Buddha, John Smith, Confucius and any other religious leader can not do a thing to help you in fact they all dead in there sins. Only Jesus was God’s perfect sacrifice that could bridge the gap between God’s holiness and our sinfulness. That is why Jesus is the only way! Most other systems you try to work your way to God only Christianity will let you be holy like God and have a relationship with him. It is completely Christ alone. We know it can not be works that does nothing to erase our sins. As most of you know all we have to do is accept what Jesus did for us. There is no way around your sins! But what through Jesus did for you on the cross! The cross is the reason Jesus is the only way!

Romans 10:9,10 says
9that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Doctrine Divides!

Doctrine Divides! Everyone who cares about sound doctrine has heard this. For some reason though people say that in some sort of derogitriy way against doctrine. As if it is the cause of unnecessary strife and division. Saying something like if we did not have to worry about doctrine we could all just get a long. After all isn't that what Jesus wanted? For all of us to just get along.(then why did Jesus say I did not come to bring peace but a sword Matt 10:34)

Well to the people who say doctrine divides. I got this to say. Yes it sure does! To quote someone who wasn't seeker freindly but right "Doctrine divides the beleivers from the heretics." Honestly, unfortunately I do not remember who said that but it is true! Doctrine could be the line between heaven and hell! Lets say you have doctrine of works and I have one of faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, for the glory of God alone and scripture alone. You see the importance of doctrine? It so misguided and foolish to see all the different points of views out there get frustrated and through your hands up in the air and say "Doctrine divides, lets not worry about it and all just get along!"

Well lets see what scripture has to say about doctrine. The Bible expects us to have doctrine. Look at 2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for DOCTRINE, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, We are supposed to have a doctrine and its supposed to come from scripture. If our doctrine is not from scripture then we can lay it aside but doctrine itself is not bad especially if its scriptural! Notice too how the Bible presupposes that we are to have doctrine! The only source of sound doctrine through can be from Bible. Anything else is folly and heresy.

Lets look at another example. Titus 2:1 You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. This one concerns a warning about doctrine. It’s clear that there are bad doctrines around but Paul acknowledges that and says YOU TEACH SOUND DOCTRINE! We are expected to have doctrine and our response to bad doctrine is to teach what is sound. Not put aside doctrine.

This reminds me of another verse. 2 Tim 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; This time is now! A time full of different doctrines where people want doctrine that makes them happy. The scriptural response is not to cater to their wants! The response to the problem is the verses before it! 2 Tim 4:22Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching Don't give up! Stand firm on the word and don't budge set forth the standard of the word! Is what the scripture is saying! Thats the response not compromise!

Lastly was Jesus concened about doctine? If he was not why would he so often say beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matt 8:15, Matt 16:6,Luke 12:1..the list goes on)? Scripture then confirms that he is speaking about doctrine. Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees(Matt 16:12). Speaking of leaven..Should we put up with just a little bad doctrine? Well what do we know about just a little leaven does?

Finally, I want to say gaurding sound doctrine is not just the job of Pastors, Sunday school teachers, and church leaders. The promotion of sound doctrine is seen in how you live. Live out your doctrine! Let people see your doctrinal statement should be visible in your life style. "What do mean." you may say. Well do you beleive in Evangelism? How often do Evangelize? Do you believe scripture is God's word? Do you treat it that way? Do you read it? Do you submit yourself to it? Do you believe God is good? Does your life then look like you are offering yourself in service in gratitude? Thats what I mean when I say live your doctrine. The only way doctrine can be dead is if you "believe" it but don't live it! If you live it you are teaching it to a watching world that needs it! But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves (James 1:22)

Editor's note: Some of the material in this is a reduplication of what I put in the comment of someone else's blog; where I was putting my thoughts on doctrine. This is definately not a personal attack on that person. That person definately believes in sound doctrine. That got me thinking and I added to my thoughts and hence this blog post.

FBCA's Photo Scavanger Hunt

Tonight was FBCA's photo scavanger hunt we did as a an outreach. I thought I'd share some of the fun by letting you see a few of the pictures below. I had the privlege of having Ryan,Abbey,and Lisa on my team. Thank you to all the youth who came tonight! And thank you to the Youth Staff who were drivers tonight. Enjoy the pictures!

Ryan as Pastor Keith-Looks just like him with a Bible in one hand and Starbucks coffe in the other! 

Darth John kinds scary huh... 

Lisa, Abbey and Ryan bagging some groceries for a stranger.

Ryan helping me put on some lipstick 

Ryan, Lisa, and Abbey striking a pose on a dumpster! 

Eph 2:1-10

This is my outline for the Sunday school lesson for May 15. It also contiues which the book of Ephesians which we were doing for the Kent State Bible Study( which ended with the semseter).

Ephesians 2:1-10

SAVED BY Amazing GRACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Introduction: These ten verses show a sharp contrast. The contrast is our deadness, sinfulness, depravity and complete indebtedness to God to God‘s glorious riches he has bestowed to us in Christ. We can thank God that his love bridged the gap between our deadness and his life.

V.1-3 The Picture of our spiritual deadness
V.1 Before Christ we are dead! The verse says we are dead in our trespasses and sin. This is consistent with of course what we know from Romans 6:23 and 3:23. We are all sinners and are dead spiritually (that is the unregenerate man who has never been born again. The unsaved are walking corpses though their outer man is alive but the inner man is dead. Also note the ability dead people have to change their condition. They can not! This adds to the idea of depravity we looked at earlier. Dead people can not make themselves alive with out being raised from the dead by God! Without Christ we are spiritual zombies in desperate need of help we can not get from ourselves.
V.2 We walked according to the course of the world. No matter what state we were in before our conversion it was according to the deadness of the world. We were conformed to evil mold the world gave us. We were sons of disobedience. We are not all naturally children of God like the wants us to believe but until our conversion we are sons of the devil. Compare this verse with 1 John 3:8
V.3 This verse explains our actions during our time of spiritual deadness. Our motivation was fulfilling the lust of the flesh. We were only seeking the pursuit of self. This is the polar opposite of seeking the glory of God. Naturally then we were children of wrath. We were rebelling against the perfection, holiness, and lordship of God.

V4-10 Identification with Christ and God’s Rescue
V.4 This verse gives the God the agent of rescue from complete and total depravity. It describes his characteristics that allow him to come to rescue. He is rich in mercy. These riches were bought for us by Christ death on the cross. He spent his mercy on us because of his great love us! AMAZING! Question to ponder was it his love for himself or us or both. Consider Romans 3:22-26. It continues with which he loved us. This describes not him loving us but how he loves us. With his great love the phrase before says.
V.5 God made us alive in Christ when were dead in our trespasses. There could be no other way knowing our depravity. We saved when were “ready” because we were never ready due to our depravity. Yet God saved us when we were dead in our trespasses. Our salvation is completely dependent on God. Then Paul notes: for by grace you were saved. This should be obvious because there is none thing that we could have done to undo our deadness. It is not anything we have done. It was only grace that could save us.
Compare this verse to Romans 5:6-8. Also note how we made alive with Christ. His perfect life has been imputed to us 2 Cor 5:21. His death was our death and his life now ours. We are made alive. This refers to our regeneration. We now have to ability to have spiritual life because of Christ. We have been raised from the dead.
V.6 This verse continues to explain the benefits we have once are identified with Christ. Notice the tense of the verb. In English it is past tense In Greek it is an aorist meaning an already completed action. So we are not waiting to be sitting in the heavenly places we are already positionally in Christ.
V.7 The purpose of salvation is not man centered but God centered. God is getting the glory in our salvation by putting the riches of his grace on display. We are extremely blessed to be a part of God glorifying himself; in the process we have great benefits.
V.8 Our salvation is entirely due to God’s grace and him lavishing his riches on us. Note it is not our faith that saves us but grace. Faith is a gift of God that allows us to experience his grace. It does not say by faith you have been saved but through faith. Our salvation is dependent on God’s grace. It is completely a gift of God. The gift could only be given by God. It could not be earned due to our complete depravity and the necessary punishment for sin
V.9 This verse reinforces what we have seen earlier. It is obviously not of works. No work pays for sin. We were spiritually dead and unable to save ourselves. We had no room to boast we contribute nothing to our salvation. The only thing we can boast in is the cross of Christ.
V.10 This gives us God’s perspective on us. We are not people with out purpose walking aimlessly in life. We were hand crafted by Christ himself for specific purposes that God has ordained us to fulfill. Again, this points to the fact that we and our salvation are not for ourselves but for God and his glory.

Wrap Up and Review: Having looked at these ten verses we see that we are much like Lazarus raised from the dead by Christ. We were dead and completely unable to change our deadness. But God intervened! Hallelujah! God’s love rescued us and gave life and the life of Christ with all its benefits. Lastly, it was all by God’s grace! It is more than winning the lottery without buying a ticket. Let us now live our life in gratitude of the amazing gift we have been given, let us walk in the good works that God prepared us to do in gratitude and humility giving glory to God.

Cross Training: The Existence of God

Cross Training: God

One of the most talked about, argued, debate, fought about topics in the history of the world is the subject of the reality of God. There could be no issue of greater importance than knowing if there is or really is not a God. The implications are staggering and the stakes are high. If there really is no God then we are in big trouble. This is for a great many reasons. The primary reason is with a creator of the universe there is no real reason to believe anything or anyone in the entire universe of any value. If there is no God then universe some kind of weird cosmic fluke but with out any meaning. It has no purpose all it is one big thing to house a bunch of little things with no reason for being what so ever. It is like have a huge mansion furnished with everything but really no one to enjoy it. It just exists for no reason. If there is no God we really have no reason to think there should be any kind of after life. We are no than any other thing that exist we are dust in the wind. We come from nothing and go back to nothing there is no reason to think our lives has value or reason we are just another part of the great cosmic accident that is existence. If there is no God there is no difference between right and wrong because who is to say it is really one person’s opinion versus another. If there is no God there really is no real purpose in this life because nothing we do will be lasting importance. Even the word importance loses all meaning if there is a God nothing really matters.

Thankfully this is not the universe we live in! We live in a universe created by an all wise creator. Who made the universe for a purpose as well and everything else and he is the source of all meaning who we can be thankful we know in a person way.

Tonight we are going to be looking at how we know that there is in fact a real, personal God and how he has made himself known to his creation.

The real question is not is there a God? But has God revealed himself and how can we share that with people who may say that there is no God.

God has revealed himself in two ways lets take a brief look at Psalm 19 to see how God has revealed himself to his creation.

Psalm 19:1-4 Says the heavens declare the glory of God. Notice all the verbs in the opening 4 verses! All speaking verbs. Creation is not neutral on the existence of God.This how God has revealed himself to all of mankind. This is called general revelation.

Now lets look at verses 7-9 they all talk about God’s word. The second way God has revealed himself is through his word this is called special revelation. This how we know specific things God wants us to know.

Also note the Psalmist response to God’s revelation. Our response should mirror his.

God has spoken ! He certainly has not left in the dark concerning his creation!

Not only has God revealed himself to his creation he says he has to see more on that lets flip to Romans. Lets read Romans 1:18-25
Especially notice Romans 1:20
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. Notice how God said people would know about God! IN THE THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE!!!!! That goes back to general relation God showing his existence to every body. The scripture continues with
they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
The reason someone does not believe in God in not because they don’t have reason to its because their sin nature chooses idols instead of God! See Romans 3:10-18 for more on that.

So if scripture is true that God is revealed through creation we should be able to see that from creation. Philosophers and Theologians through out history have come up with a number of ways of realizing the existence of God through creation This is see through the Cosmological Argument. The Cosmological Argument for the existence of God goes like this. Things exist. Things can not come into existence by themselves therefore there must have been cause to bring things into existence. The ultimate first cause of things must be God. Or put simply creation must have a creator! This argument has taken many different forms through out history and in different cultures. This helps show that it is truly general Revelation.

Lets look at a few of these Cosmological arguments:

Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican Friar who was born in 1225-1274 who came but ways for seeing the existence of God through creation. We are going to look at 3 of them.

The First is the Argument from Motion which goes:
1) Nothing can move itself.
2) If every object in motion had a mover, then the first object in motion needed a mover.
3) This first mover is the Unmoved Mover, called God.

The Second Way is the Causation of Existence
1) There exists things that are caused (created) by other things.
2) Nothing can be the cause of itself (nothing can create itself.)
3) There can not be an endless string of objects causing other objects to exist.
4) Therefore, ther must be an uncaused first cause called God.

The Third Way is Argument of Contingent and Necessary Beings.

1) Contingent beings are caused.
2) Not every being can be contingent.
3) There must exist a being which is necessary to cause contingent beings.
4) This necessary being is God.

Another Form of Cosmological Argument is Paley’s Teleological Argument aka The watchmaker argument. Paley’s argument goes something like this: If we were to take a walk in the woods and in the middle of nowhere we find a watch. We would then pick it up and examine it. Looking at the we could only naturally assume due to the complexity of the watch and that it looks like it was fitted together it must have an intelligent watch maker. Then we look at the universe and notice how complex it is and how everything works together just right we must assume that it too had a creator. It we look at a watch and know that it had a watch maker it must be logical to conclude looking at the universe that for something infinitely more complex the universe must have had an intelligent creator. This is also the Intelligent Design Theory.

Before we move on lets talk about the Big Bang Theory. Did you know that the Big Bang Theory actually does much more to show that it is necessary for there to be a God then no God at all? This because Big Bang theory says the universe came into existence. Secular Scientist used to say that universe always existed the Big Bang Theory proved them wrong. So the big question is then if the universe did not always exist how it came into being. Obviously from something outside the universe that could only be God.

Is there other ways than creation that show that God has revealed his existence? Then answer is YES! Let’s flip back to Romans now in chapter 2 lets look at verses 1-16. That says a whole lot! We all know we accountable to God because we judge other but for tonight lets focus on 15-16 It says : 14For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. This says that people who do not know the law (any one who does not know scripture) have the law on there heart. How can this be true? It must refer to the fact that everyone has a conscience. Everyone in all cultures through out time have an understanding that there is a difference between right and wrong. How can this be with out God giving this law to everyone? C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity Uses this as argument for God. The reason there is also a difference between right and wrong is because of God’s standard. If right and wrong were made by man then it would be arbitrary and have no real meaning! Who when then really say what makes something right or wrong? It would all be relative to the person so no real difference. But own conscience says that not the case! Why do we get angry when so one is mean to us? Or why do feel bad when we have been mean to someone else? It shows that God put a moral law in each of us!

God has definitely given us a lot ways to know he is there? Yet on hand isn’t funny to be discussing ways we know God exists when our existence is dependent on him. In Ecc its says God put eternity in the hearts of men. Romans 1:21 says this 21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. This shows that everyone is already programmed to know God and that it is our hard hearts that would want to argue with that! Going along with that idea is we don’t need to prove God’s existence. Some things are perfectly rational to believe with our having proof. For example to ever feel like you have to prove that you have thoughts to know you have thoughts? It is almost impossible to do. Alvin Plantiga came up wit the idea that God is has designed us to know him and that believing in God is “properly basic” this makes sense with what know in Romans 1:21 This shows that it is rational for believing in God with out trying to put God in a test tube. It also can be used to show the unbeliever that he has no grounds attacking our beliefs.

So how can we show lost word the reality of our God? The answer is found in Matthew 5:13You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
14"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
This says the world sees gives glory to God by seeing the reality of your faith! If we are living in such a way that shows we are truly different that is the best way to show the world the reality of your faith. So to show the world that our God is real we must live like our God is real! Remember the reason people are not saved is not a intellectual but spiritual one! Our life needs to match our faith and facts!