For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
The Basic Bible Truth
Each human being is born into this world with a sin nature, a sinner condemned to die. God’s system declares the death penalty for all who sin. But in His love and grace and mercy, He offers us an option out of the eternal death we so deserve. He paid the price so that we can spend forever with Him in Heaven someday. All we need do is accept His freely offered gift.
The Object
A Cardboard Card With Arrows Printed On Both Sides.
This object is a favorite of mine. I use it as a grand finish. A summary for a Gospel presentation. The key to how this card or poster board works is to have a brightly seen arrow printed on both sides of the card, but one must be aimed 90 degrees from the other. In the picture shown above, the arrow on the other side of the card is pointing up. Make the card as large as you can comfortably handle. Larger is always more impressive. Hold the card by opposite corners, and simply rotate the card around. Depending on which two corners you happen to be holding, the “new” arrow will be pointing either the same direction or the opposite one. For example, the pictured card has a right pointing arrow on the front and an upward pointing arrow on the back. If you were to grab the corners at 10 and 4 o’clock and rotate the card, you would see the arrow change direction. If you grabbed it at the 2 and 8 o’clock position the arrow would remain pointing the same direction. Work with it a bit and you will soon learn how to make the arrow appear to remain pointing the same direction or appear to change directions simply by changing your hand positions. As you become more proficient at it, speed things up. The confusing part is that you do not see what the audience sees.
The Lesson
This is a wonderfully eye catching finish to a Gospel presentation I explain that God (I casually point to my left) and man (I casually point to my right) are separated due to sin. And that God has a solution—Jesus. Holding my arrow card in front of me, I then recite John 3:16, using the arrow card to point the appropriate direction with the words. For example: With God on the right, and Man on the left, John 3:16 would be look like this to the audience:
If you can get fairly adept at it, do it a second time quickly.