The Gospel of Jesus Christ

About the Book

This book is in response to a need observed by the author among the evangelical and charismatic churches for a more complete and definitive explanation of the "Finished Work" of our Lord Jesus Christ by means of His death, burial and resurrection. For the last thirty or more years the accent of the preaching of the gospel has centered on forgiveness and has left out the means by which God has enabled us to live a holy life. Along with this has been a tendency to concentrate more on preaching our problems that on God's solution. The fruit that has fallen from this evil tree has arisen in the land as a cult that is dedicated to confessing real, as well as subjectively perceived sins. There is no faith, no power nor victory.

To a large extent I believe this is a result of the proliferation of Bible versions that are not true translations, but interpretations orparaphrases. Consequently, there has been an introduction of words and phrases that express more of the personal/collective understanding of those involved in creating the version, than a concise rendering of the true meaning of the words. there appears to be a total disrespect and disregard for the importance of faithfully communicating the precise meaning of the words given to us through God's prophets and apostles. This cavalier approach is excused by saying something like, "We have now created an easier to read and understand version". The problem with the "easy to read" versions, is the absence of power because of the corruption of the words.

As a boy I saw the movie, Alladin's Lamp. If you are familiar with the story, then you will recall that in this very speciallamp lived a powerful genie. Alladin only had to rub the lamp and out came the genie in a cloud of smoke. He was a great giant who had magical powers that benefited Alladin. Also in the story was a witch who was going door to door and calling out, "New lamps for old. New lamps for old". This was all a ploy to get her hands on the old lamp with the genie. Though they were brightand shiny, there were no genies in the new lamps.

It is my concerned prayer and hope that you will discover the "power in the gospel" as you read, believe, and read again the words of this little book. May the Lord Jesus Christ Himself give you understanding in all things.

About the Author

It was October 12, 1958 when, like Christopher Columbus, my wife and I discovered a New World. We had knelt together, and after reading several selected verses from the New Testament, we prayed, asking God to forgive our sins and then, acting on one of the verses, invited the Lord Jesus Christ to come and live in us. I was twenty-two and my wife was twenty years of age. Prior to this experience my wife and I had led lives similar to everyone else who does not know God.

With that simple act we set out an adventure that was to alter the course of our entire lives and take us to places to which we never would have gone on our own. We discovered and experienced the reality of the words of Jesus, "My sheep know my voice and they follow me". As an infant learns to discern his mother's voice, so we learned to recognize the voice of our new Lord and Savior.

After eight years of working in Physics Technology labs, He told me to go see a certain local businessman, because I would be leaving my present employment. This man was totally stunned, when I told him why I had come to see him. It turned out that he had created a new business endeavor that his brother was to manage, but had backed out after the ads came out in the yellow pages. He was forced to give the response to the ad away to others.

Twelve years later He told me to got to Guatemala to "teach this people". After studying Spanish in south Texas and meeting with a Latino church group for almost three years, we pulled a 28' travel trailer forty-two hundred miles from north of Seattle, WA through Mexico and Belize. We entered the northern jungle of El Peten, Guatemala through the "back door" at a border town called Melchor de Mencos. God had a place all prepared for us to park the trailer and live for six months that customs allowed us for the trailer. The site was on the protected grounds of the Monja Blanca (White Nun) Hotel. The hotel rooms consisted of thatch-roofed huts on a raised platform. Our trailer was parked under the coconut palms a stones throw from the large lagoon, El Lago Peten Iza. We arrived Sept. 4, 1983 and departed in March of 1984.

Twenty-five months later we were back in the jungle again. Within a few weeks He showed me that I was to go on a local radio station and teach the people. I was instructed to call the program, QUE DICE LA BIBLIA? (What does the Bible say?). Teaching was a ministry that I became involved in almost from the beginning of my Christian experience. It was second nature to me. Now here I was writing teaching programs in Spanish to be played over a small radio station on a not much bigger island in the lagoon.

One evening about this same time a man came to our house in tears, pleading with me to come and pray for his 14yr. old son, who had fallen at school and hit his head on the concrete. The doctor had told him there was nothing they could do for the boy. He was unable to eat or drink and was dying of dehydration. It was seventh day since the accident. His eyes were sunken and the area around them was dark. I quoted to him a verse from the Gospel of Mark chapter 15. "They that believe will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover". I then prayed very briefly in the Spirit and then in English and told his parents that I would be back at 8 a.m. the next day and take him to a hospital if there was no change. At 8 a.m. I knocked on the door and the boy opened it and seeing me, he gave me a big grin. His folks told me that just after I left, he turned to his mother and told her he was hungry. It was all over.

For the next six years we experienced the Lord Jesus working with us by healing the people of all kinds of sickness and disease, as well as bodies straightened out that had been twisted and deformed since birth.

There was an incident that occurred in a remote village called Sayaxche'. I had taken a native Christian man with me and a local Indian woman was taking us around from hut to hut and introducing us to the people. We would give a brief teaching from the scripture and then ask if there were any sick to pray for. We then invited them to come to a public meeting that evening. All the people, including those that had been sick, were there to tell how God had healed them. As the woman was leading us around, I heard her exclaim, "Look, she's running into the jungle to hide." I had been looking in the other direction, so didnt know what she was talking about. When I looked I saw a Kekchi Indian woman standing outside her hut alongside an empty wheel chair. We walked down to her and I asked her what had happened. She told us that her daughter had been sitting in the wheel chair in the doorway and when she saw us approaching, she jumped out of the char and ran into the jungle. She continued saying, "But I don't understand. My daughter was born paralyzed and demon possessed and has never taken a step in her life." The girl was about 8 or 9 yrs. old.

It would take another book to relate all the things that God did by us while living in Guatemala. Also how He protected us on various occasions including persuading a large company of well-armed guerillas to allow me to leave them. His willingness to help me at all times and in every place fills me with gratitude and thanksgiving as well as a humbling of the mind. It must be understood that none of the things He did with us were done because of any excellency of personal goodness on our part. In other words it was not because of us, but rather in spite of us. It was truly a demonstration of His grace (undeserved favor) and the personal faithfulness of His own character. "Though we are not faithful, yet He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself." According to His own designs and purposes, He brought us home to Washington State again. He owes us nothing. We owe Him everything. When the need for a fuller explanation of the gospel became obvious, I though I would write a few pages to pass out to "church people". I never dreamed that it would end up with over eighty pages and would be published. I have had many obstacles to keep me from writing these things. The enemy of our soul hates what has been written and me for writing it.

My wife and I spent a week in November a couple of years ago at Ocean Shores on the Pacific Coast of Washington. She took photo albums and I took my computer. As I was writing chapter eight,I kept being plagued with thoughts hitting me that were designed to discourage me. Finally I decided to quit for a while and take a rest. I picked up the remote and turned on the TV. At that instant a man on the screen pointed his finger at me and said, "Brother, write that book. Finish it." I turned off the TV and went back to writing. Then there's the matter of a publisher. As I was dragging my feet, and not really knowing what to do, I received an email from Trafford. The subject line said, "Publish what you have written." This was like a command spoken to me by my Heavenly Father. I suppose I should tell you that we had five girls and one son. They have given us fourteen grandchildren and four of the grandchildren have given us seven great grandchildren so far. I say that we had five girls because we lost the second oldest to cancer shortly before her forty-second birthday. Our youngest daughter made three trips to Guatemala with us. She was seven year old on her first trip, twelve on the second and fifteen on the third. In time God blessed her with an excellent husband who is from the Mayan people.