Pastor Mack looked out the second floor window of his study at the church. There was a park across the street, and the boys and girls from the elementary school next door were playing. It was recess time in early September. Some were skipping rope. Some were playing hop-scotch and others were playing catch.

Over in one corner of the small park was a man mowing the grass and in another corner alone on one of the park benches sat a young boy. He couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old.

Soon the school bell rang. Recess was over. The kids returned to school. Pastor Mack returned to his desk and went back to preparing his sermon for the following Sunday.

The next few days the same thing happened. Every recess and lunchtime it was always the same. The children played, but the young boy sat by himself on the park bench.

One day, Pastor Mack walked across the street and up to the young boy. The boy, with tears in his eyes looked up at Pastor Mack. There was a grotesque birthmark across his entire face - from the edge of the left side of his mouth all the way to his right ear. It startled the pastor. This, no doubt, was the reason the boy was being shunned by the other boys and girls.

Pastor Mack sat down on one end of the park bench. He found out that the boy’s name was Clod. His mother had died in childbirth, and his father had abandoned him. He was being raised by his grandmother. He had no brothers or sisters. Clod lived across the railroad tracks on the southwest side of town about a mile from the school. The school bell rang and recess was over.

One lunch break, Pastor Mack noticed that Clod was again sitting alone on the park bench. The other kids opened up their brown paper bags with sandwiches, apples, and cookies that their mothers had made, but Clod had nothing to eat. Mack reasoned that the boy’s grandmother was too poor to even be able to afford a sandwich. Mack saw all this and grieved at the way Clod was being ostracized.

Pastor Mack usually had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. The next morning he made two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. At lunch he walked across the street, sat down next to Clod, and gave him one of the sandwiches. This became the routine each school day. The two looked forward to their frequent lunchtime visits and became good friends.

During their visits Pastor Mack found out that Clod had never been to a church and had not heard the Gospel. On several occasions he invited Clod to church. But, Clod never came.

Then one Sunday morning, Pastor Mack was pleasantly surprised to see both Clod and his grandmother in the congregation. After that they were there every Sunday morning. On Easter Sunday morning Clod and his grandmother both committed their lives to Jesus Christ…Clod became a Christian!

This is not the end of Clod’s story. See you next time when Clod’s story will continue in Part Two…

- Kenneth R. Kersey

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What is the Gospel and what does it mean to become a Christian?

1. The word Gospel means “Good News.” It is simple, powerful, and life changing…it declares the love of God for mankind and is the good news that people are longing to hear.

2. In order to fully understand how good this news really is, we must first understand the bad news. We are all sinners. The Bible presents a clear and consistent message that all people have sinned. Romans 3:23 says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory for God. Sin means that we have missed the mark (the perfect standard) that God has set for us.

3. As a result of the Fall (when the first man and woman in the Garden of Eden transitioned from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience), every part of us has been corrupted by sin—we don’t seek after God.

4. The penalty for sin is death. Romans 6:23 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. What is a wage? It is the money that is paid or received for work or services. In other words, it is what you deserve, what you earn. Romans 6:23 says that death is the wage for our sin. It is what we earn. We deserve to die and live separated from God forever.

5. Since there is no way we can earn our way back to God, the Bible says He came to us! This is the good news—the Gospel. Christ died for you. Romans 5:8 says, But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ [Jesus] died for us. The Bible says that even though we deserve the death penalty for our sin, Jesus took the penalty. He died in our place. Three days later, Jesus rose from death, proving that sin had been conquered.

6. You can be saved through faith in Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

We can depend on Jesus to forgive us and give eternal life, rather than eternal death.

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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 ESV

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If you liked this story and would like a copy of either of my books,
they are available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle format:

If you have a story or testimony that you think might bless others,
I invite you to send it by email to me (Kenneth Kersey) at godsotherways@me.com.

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