It irks me, really irks me, when I hear someone explaining how to get saved, but they forget crucial parts of the Gospel, or the explanation is confusing.

So often I hear "Believe that Jesus died on the cross and you will be saved" or "Ask Jesus into your heart", or believe.

Asking Jesus into your heart is a concept not found in the Bible. Dennis M Rosker, pastor of Duluth Bible Church in Duluth, Minnesota wrote a great article on this topic:
7 Reasons NOT to ask Jesus into your Heart.

But what about "Believe Jesus did on the cross and you will be saved" ?
Yes Jesus did die on a cross, and you must believe that, however this is not the whole Gospel.

The Gospel is simple: I deserve eternal death because I sin (Rom. 3:23) and it has to be paid for (Rom. 6:23). In my place Jesus Christ paid for my sin and even though he was God, allowed himself to die on a cross (Rom 5:8) as a man in my place. He took the penalty and shame for every sin I committed instead of me. He spent three days in the grave, then rose from the grave alive (Rom. 6:9), conquering sin and proving He was God. He then ascended into Heaven where he sits at the right hand of His Father where he says to the father: See Jonathan, he is perfect. He has no sin. His sin is paid for. All of it. (Rom. 8:1) Because of that I can have fellowship with God, I am perfect before God.
How is one saved? Just believe it. Have faith that Christ did it all, and acknowledge that we are helpless on our own, and deserve what he paid for!
Romans 5:1, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Often times people (even evangelicals who believe in grace & no works) forget the simple concept of substitutionary atonement, meaning Christ took my place to pay for my sins, to make peace with God.

When preaching the Gospel, Preach the full Gospel.

Lightning hit the world's largest statue of Christ during last Sunday's storm in Rio.
The statue is 130ft tall, is made of 700 tons of reinforced concrete and stands atop the 2,296ft Corcovado mountain overlooking the city, and is one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.

Brazil, being a very Catholic country has statues of Christ, Mary, and the Saints in most towns and cities. 95% of people you ask will tell you they are a Christian and believe in Salvation through faith in Christ's work on the cross, but the vast majority are counting on Works (Good deeds, going to church, or having statues of Jesus & Mary, praying to God, Mary, or the saints) to get them to heaven.

This concept of a "works based" salvation is found no where in the Bible. The Bible teaches that salvation is a free gift, unable to be earned by anything we do. All we must do is admit that we are sinners (deserving punishment in what the Bible calls Hell), and believe that God came down to earth as a man (Jesus), and that Jesus Christ took our punishment in our place by dying upon the cross, then rose 3 days later conquering sin, so that we can be declared perfect before God. God forgave our sin by placing the penalty we deserved to pay on his Only son, Jesus Christ.

So where do works and good deeds come in? The Bible says that our good deeds & works prove our faith. This means that if we truly believe in Christ, our life, our words, and our actions will show it. Nothing I can do can pay (or equal out) the sin I have done.

There is no concept of a Good vs. Bad scale in the Bible.

We just finished having our Campus Days, which is an event that I am heavily involved in. People from around ontario came to the campus to sit in on classes & experience student life. Many were challenged in the Word and we received 11 new applications to come here!

Even more exciting was the decisions made by people this last weekend at one of our Student Run Snow Camp rallies. Many people gave their hearts to Christ, but two in particular I had an opportunity to talk with. It was a guy and his girlfriend. Both of them are in their twenties, and for the first time understood the Gospel. One of them served in the Military and the other is in College. They have been living together and somehow one of their Christian friends invited them out to the event. Both accepted Christ! I talked to them for a while, and now both are interested in spending a year Studying God's Word & growing in Christ!

Students have just finished studying Philippians with Pastor Steve Hobbs, and are now in Galatians with Pastor Ken Philmore. Coming up is Revelation with Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, a reporter and Prophecy scholar who lives in Israel. Each weekend the students and I are busy running Snow Camp, so you can be praying that despite the hectic schedules, we will keep our focus on Christ and glorifying Him!