Our Oak Stories
How to Gain a Story Like One You Read Above
Start with a question that's probably bugged you before: What do I gotta do to please God and so make sure I get into heaven?
Start here b/c it's exactly where people in Jesus' day started. A Large, curious crowd that was following Jesus, essentially asked him "What do we gotta do to please God?" Perhaps expecting a laundry list of stuff to accomplish for Yahweh or a memory lesson of the Ten Commandments, Jesus surprised them with his response: "The work of God is this: To believe in the One he has sent" (Gospel of John, chapter 6, verse 29).
The Key: A little greek word (pisteuo), which can be translated believe, have faith, or trust. Trust is the key to pleasing God and living with him eternally.
Trust in whom? Jesus the Christ. He is the One whom God has sent. Specifically, he requires that we trust that He, as God the Son, was sent by God the Father to die for our sins.
His dying relates to me...how? Try to follow me on this. The Bible says that God is completely righteous and holy; He cannot be around any imperfection and cannot, because He is just, let any law-breaking act go unpunished. But God didn’t let that stop Him from being with his creations whom He loves; He sent His only Son to the earth, who is perfect, to be sacrificed in order to make-up for our guilt. We were like condemned criminals in a courtroom, but Jesus Christ, if we trust him with our lives, stands up in the courtroom and asks the judge if he can serve the sentence instead of us. Now that’s love! And if you trust that He did this on your behalf, then you get to experience His love forever because Christ not only served out our sentence by dying, but He rose again from his grave, defeating death, and now He sits next to God the Father in heaven.
I'm not sure if my story checks out? That's okay to a bit confused about it all. If you'd like some help, submit your story (Under "Adding My Own Oak Story") as it relates to God and we'd be happy to help you work through how God sees you and your story. Not that we have any right to judge--we'll just tell you what God thinks of it according to what He says in the Bible (his Word to us).
