Reconciled

Reconciled This tract is taken from the epilogue of a self-published book I wrote that is on Amazon (title: “Reconciled”). It is the very personal story of how my life was changed when I knelt down and looked up for help from above. The front cover of this tract is the front cover of the book—it is from a painting my wife Joanne made recalling a special part of that story. The epilogue, the last chapter of the book, is my best attempt to date to share the Gospel—the Good News—the most important issue of life that we can engage in. If you grasp and respond to it, my purpose in writing my story is fulfilled. My desire was and is that you be saved, born again, that the Lord would show Himself to you, and that you would come to know who He is. Epilogue, a final word. My story with the Lord, which you have read, is an account of my personal experiences with Him. I had been raised in a Christian church and knew God as the One the Bible teaches of, and knew in fact, but not experience, that Jesus was His Son. I had heard the words ‘sin’, ‘Heaven’, ‘Hell’, ‘forgiveness’, ‘salvation’, ‘Baptism’, and ‘Communion’ growing up, even went through the rituals of formal Baptism as a child and Communion in many Sunday morning services, but had no real understanding of the spiritual meaning of these terms or practices. That all changed when my life was turned around pounding nails on that deck in Haines. Now I understand that I am a sinner, weakened in my very nature, doing wrong things before God and therefore separated in relationship from Him by that wrongdoing. It started with everyone’s grandfather and grandmother, Adam and Eve. They were judged when they disobeyed God, when they sinned, and ate of the forbidden fruit. Mankind fell from a perfect state and was removed from a perfect place. Like our ancient grandparents, in my life I too had sinned and disobeyed God’s commands. We all have, and because God is just and holy, I was under His judgment for that wrongdoing. The judgment of sin is death, not just physical death, but spiritual death as well, and it can be for eternity. There is a Hell to pay for continued, willful rejection of God. Some would like to water down statements like these, but you really can’t. My sin necessitated a punishment and I had to come to grips with that. God loved me, but I was not okay before Him and nothing I could do on my own could cleanse me permanently. I needed help—some way to save me from sin’s effect. I was lost, but God did not leave me in my helpless condition but came to earth Himself in the flesh, just like us. And Jesus, without sin and being God, took the punishment I deserved when He went to the Cross. The just judgment God required Jesus took on Himself, dying the most horrible of deaths by crucifixion. God’s love and justice were both displayed that day. Christ satisfied justice by taking the penalty for my sin. When He died in my place, my judgment for my sins died with Him. His love for me was demonstrated to the fullest. He provided the permanent remedy for sin that I could never provide for myself.  Three days later Jesus was raised from a garden tomb. Death could not hold Him and because of that Resurrection, I was raised to a whole new life. I know today that the Cross and the Resurrection are at the very heart of all that the Bible teaches—that God, in Christ Jesus, came to save us, to die in our place at the Cross, and to give us new life in His Resurrection. This is the Gospel, the “Good News”. Therein is life forever if we believe on Him, on Jesus Christ.  “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).  There is a Heaven to gain.  This may all sound like a Billy Graham sermon to some. Nothing wrong with that, but it isn’t. It is my best attempt to share Christ’s Gospel. I knew little of these things when I had that initial experience in Haines. It is the theology and doctrine I did not understand back then, but what I have come to learn since from the Bible. What I did on the floor of that hotel room that morning was this: I turned to Him and humbly cried out for Him to show me who He is, and He did. I turned to God, and He came close, closer than I ever knew He could be. That is what I hope can be a takeaway for you from my story. Turn to God, the God of the Bible. It is His desire for all of us. He wants to show Himself to us and become real in our lives, so we will know Him. He will take us from our turning, forgive our sins, cleanse us, and teach us His ways—about who Jesus is, about the Cross, the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, about all the things that pertain to a life with Him! God has done His part in the relationship by coming into this world, as Jesus, when we were lost spiritually. Our part is to believe that He is here and that He will hear and answer humble and sincere prayers that come from our hearts to Him. From my story and the stories of every ‘born again’ Christian alive, from the stories that the Bible tells of God and man’s interactions throughout our histories, believe! These are some of the greatest stories ever told. This one has been mine and Joanne’s. P.s. I have not written this tract simply as an ad for my book. Jesus’ Gospel became my good news. As I said, the stories of how we all come to know the Lord personally are all important. They just might influence you to kneel down and look up. - Carl Gove