Believe the Gospel

By John Almbeck

Can we live in the world and still do God’s Will? Can our life of Christian service cause us not to alienate ourselves from those around us? The answer to these questions is yes! Looking at Old Testament examples such as Joseph and Daniel we see two people who served their masters and yet remained committed and faithful to God. It comes down to understanding and believing the Gospel along with a healthy fear of the Lord knowing the destination of our soul for eternity is at stake. Believing the Gospel message, obeying God’s commandments, and understanding of God’s love are the ingredients for salvation and survival in the world and spending eternity with our Lord and Savior.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Almbeck
• Release date: Mar 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781792363740

John Almbeck

John Almbeck (pen name) and his wife have been married forty-seven years. They have one daughter who is married with two sons. John is a professional engineer. John and his wife believe is a strong family with God as the central focus. Part of their Christian work is to get the message out especially as strife in the world is constantly increasing. There is a real concern as to the type of world their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have to live and work.

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BELIEVE THE GOSPEL

Second Edition

By

John Almbeck

Copyright 2021 John Almbeck

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Introduction

PART I: The Gospel

Chapter One: Salvation and the Gospel

Chapter Two: Confirmation of the Gospel

Chapter Three: Purpose of the Gospel Message

Chapter Four: Life and the Gospel

PART II: The Commandments

Chapter Five: Lighting the Path

Chapter Six: Christian Character and Attitude

Chapter Seven: Relationships with Others

Chapter Eight: Relationships with God

Part III: God’s Love

Chapter Nine: Understanding God’s Love

Part IV: The Straight and Narrow

Chapter Ten: Living In God’s Holy Truths

Chapter Eleven: Trusting God

Chapter Twelve: Honoring God

Chapter Thirteen: Walking Humbly with God

Chapter Fourteen: Living Out Our Salvation

Introduction

The Christian Gospel is a love story of God’s love toward us. We in turn show love to God by accepting the Gospel message. It is this love between God and us and between us and God that is the center of the Christian life. Christ tells us that all of the law and prophets are based upon love because God is love. We need God’s love due to the sin nature of all people.

God made it possible for people to reunite to Himself after Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden of Eden by sending Jesus Christ to earth as our Savior. In the beginning Adam and Eve lived in a perfect paradise created by God. Our adversary and nemesis the devil interfered and brought sin into their life. Eve blamed the devil and Adam blamed Eve. God held them all accountable for their actions and the perfect paradise was taken away. The good news, God reached out to man through His Son Jesus Christ to restore our relationship to Him and provide an eternal resting place for our soul. God’s love is unconditional because God is willing to forgive all of our sins when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior.

We will explore God’s plan to restore the relationship between Him and us. This restoration allows us to enter heaven. The Gospel is the plan we need to understand for reuniting ourselves with our Lord and Savior. God’s commandments keep us on track with God’s plan. We must understand and show God’s love to the people around us. With this knowledge of God’s plan for salvation, commandments, and love, we will examine how to live a life pleasing to God that leads to an eternity with the Lord. We show love to God when we accept God’s salvation and obey His commandments.

The Bible is God’s Word providing us with all we need to know concerning our future and destiny after our physical death on earth. Unfortunately, people are ignoring Biblical truths and going their own way. This writing is to encourage everyone to turn back to the basics and believe the Gospel message that Christ preached. Excerpts used in this writing are from the original King James Version of the Holy Bible. Some of the words are changed to reflect modern English. It is these Biblical truths that are important for us to understand and trust. This writing relies heavily on truths from God’s Word because it is His plan we need to understand. Words or phrases in [brackets] are not part of the Biblical text but are inserted for clarification.

PART I: The Gospel

The purpose of Jesus Christ coming to earth was for salvation of our souls. Salvation of our souls has taken a back seat due to the domination of social issues of today such as socialism, racism, environmentalism, technology advancements, space exploration, evolution, and personal rights such as sexual preferences, gun control, and freedom of speech. Even though these issues have a profound effect on the current and future generations, our souls live on for eternity. Our soul will either be living with God in peace or cast away from God into eternal torment. You may ask, what is our soul? When God created Adam, He breathed into his nostril [of Adam] the breath of life; and man became a living soul Genesis 2: 7. There was a close relationship between God and Adam. Once sin occurred because of disobedience to God’s commandment of not eating of the tree of good and evil, a riff existed between God and man. This is in Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Man saw his nakedness as recorded in Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of them both [Adam and Eve] were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Adam and Eve knew they had done wrong and hid themselves from God as seen in Genesis 3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. We are still rustling today with the deeds of the devil who strives to keep the riff between God and us. Christ is even foretold in Genesis 3:15 as summarized here: And God will put hostility between the devil and mankind, and between future generations; Christ shall destroy the devil, and the devil shall cause Christ’s crucification. Christ’s death on the cross for our salvation is due to our sin nature. The sin nature extends to all of us as stated in Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, we all need salvation because we all have a sin nature. What is sin? Sin is described in James 4:17 as Therefore to him that knows what is right, and does not do right, to him it is sin. And in 1 John 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin meaning when we disobey God, we are unrighteous, and our actions and thoughts are considered sinful.

Christ gives us an important fact in John 4:24 that: God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and truth. God’s spirit is within us and because of that spirit, we have knowledge that God exists. God gives us a free Will to accept or reject His existence. God created man in His image and since God is spirit, then man has a spiritual being besides our physical body. This disproves the evolutional theory of man evolving from animals since animals do not have a soul like people. Unlike other animals, man has the capability of advanced thinking, reasoning, planning, creating, understanding, and most importantly knowing about God. God spoke the life of fish, animals, and birds into being, but He created man in His image. Due to peoples’ sin nature, our souls are separated from God. We need to recognize our separation from God, and turn our heart, mind, and soul back to God. The Gospel is made available to all as stated in First Timothy 2:3-4: For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior; Who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. Christ confirms the Gospel is for all as recorded in Luke 10:9 The kingdom of God is come near to you. God desires that all people should be saved, and their souls spend eternity with Him. People may not realize the need to understand and receive the Gospel. Even though we may think salvation is not important in our daily life while on earth, salvation is critical for our soul’s eternal habitation.

The founding fathers of the United States had a strong belief in God. This strong belief carried over into the writing of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Despite religious freedom protected by our laws, there are those today who are working to push God out of our society. There is a distortion of the salvation message to attract people to Christianity by such ideas as God loves everybody and all go to heaven; there is no hell; God wants to bless us with worldly riches; and God wants everyone to be happy so our goal in life is doing what brings us happiness. These partial truths move us away from the true Gospel message.

The Bible provides a clear statement that Christ’s coming to earth was for our salvation. In First Timothy 1:15 we read: This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners: Christ himself states his purpose for coming to earth in Mark 10:45: For even the Son of man came not to be ministered, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. In other passages such as: Luke 5:32 I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance and Luke 9:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. The Gospel is made available to all as Christ stated in Matthew 4:17, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and in John 14:6, And Jesus says to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me. Further confirmation of Christ coming to save us is in Acts 26:23 That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should be a light for the Gentiles. Christ’s death on the cross is a one-time sacrifice and His resurrection provides for our salvation.

Christ acknowledges that God Himself sent him as recorded in John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John the Baptist recognized Christ as sent from God in John 1:29, The next day John sees Jesus coming toward him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.

In the four Gospels, Christ tells us to follow Him and share the Gospel. In Matthew 4:19 Christ says, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Mark 16:15 records Christ saying Go out into all the world and preach the Gospel to every person. Christ tells the disciples in Luke 24:47 and 48 "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of