There's a book that contains an incredible story of love and forgiveness, and the good news is, it was written just for you. In this book God tells us how much He desperately wants to us to know Him by beginning a new life with Jesus Christ. The unfolding story of God's love for us is summarized in the following four points from the Bible:
GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS LOVE FOR ALL PEOPLE
Here’s a summary of the story of the main mission of Jesus from some passages in the Bible. It's hard to put it into a summary fashion. But, this will at least paint a picture of things.
• God loves everyone and He sent his only, unique Son, Jesus Christ, here to show us that. God wants everyone to experience life the way He intended.
This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be [lost]; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. John 3:16
BUT WE ARE ALL BORN SPIRITUALLY DISCONNECTED FROM GOD
• Even though God loves us, we need to realize that we are all spiritually disconnected from God because of something called sin.
Sin could be described as simply living life our own way and not God’s way. Since we’re actually born into this world disconnected from God because of sin being passed down from generation to generation, life doesn’t seem to make sense when it comes to spiritual things.
We all have sinned and fall short of God’s ideal. Romans 3:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
OUR SPIRITUAL DISCONNECTEDNESS IS RESOLVED BY JESUS CHRIST
• We can't solve the problem of being spiritually disconnected from God on our own. We need to God to intervene and help us.
God wants our lives to make sense. He wants us to live life to its fullest with Him. So God intervened to help us by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to show us God's love and become the perfect sacrifice for us by dying on the cross to take our sin on Himself. He bridged the gap between humankind and God.
But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful. Romans 5:8
BECAUSE OF WHAT JESUS DID FOR US, WE CAN BEGIN A NEW LIFE WITH GOD
• Because of what God did for us through Jesus Christ, we can now experience life the way God intended by inviting Jesus Christ alone to be the Savior and Leader of our lives.
Only Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death for us some 2,000 years ago can bridge that gap between us and God. The Bible says that Jesus is drawing everyone to Himself.
Jesus said, ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. John 12:32-33
But it's up to us to respond to that drawing by trusting Jesus Christ alone to save us, and give us a new life and purpose. That kind of trust means turning from whatever we are hoping in to bring us peace, happiness and spiritual contentment to trusting in Jesus Christ alone to be the Savior and Leader of our lives. In other words, you're choosing to follow Him.
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. John 1:12-13
Concluding Thoughts
In summary, God wants us to fully grasp how our own sin has disconnected us from him. He wants us to understand that only Jesus Christ and what he did for us through his sacrificial death can reconnect us to God. As we transfer our trust to Jesus Christ alone as our Savior and Leader of our lives, and follow him, the result is spiritual transformation.
Jesus says to follow Him so we can experience a new life with God. Does this make sense to you? Are you ready to invite Jesus Christ to be your Savior and Leader of your life? Are you ready to follow Jesus? You can make a spiritual decision to do that right now. In your heart, pray something like this to God ...
God, I know that my sin has separated me from you. And, I believe that you sent Jesus Christ to die for my sin so that I could have a new life with You. I ask You to forgive me. I now turn my life over to You and receive Jesus Christ as my Savior and the Leader of my heart and life. In Jesus' name, Amen.
(This is only a suggested prayer for guidance. Once you understand the basic story of the gospel or good news as mentioned above, and it truly resonates with you, use this as a guide as you pray.)
When we invite Christ into our lives, or choose to follow Him, that means that we enter into a personal, eternal relationship with God that starts now - not just in heaven one day. That means that we can live life to the fullest - right now. It doesn't mean that things will be perfect. It doesn't mean that you won't experience suffering. It means that, through God's Son, Jesus Christ, we can now experience life the way God intended us to experience it in the first place (i.e., having joy, inner peace, contentment and an intimate connection with God - regardless of our circumstances).
Here are some promises of God for you as a new follower of Christ:
And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again. Philippians 1:6
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12
And, as a new child of God now, a great place to start is to understand the promise of God that you are eternally secure. You are a child of God forever now and nothing can take that away.
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. 1 John 5:11-15
To grow spiritually and begin to live life the way Jesus intended, here are some suggestions:
Once you become a follower of Christ, you can begin to experience the promise that Jesus gave in The Gospel of John, 10:10, when He said, I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
1. Get a Bible that is accurate and understandable, and start reading the Gospel of John in the New Testament. For an accurate Bible translation, we suggest the English Standard Version, the Holman Christian Standard Bible or the New International Version. The Gospel of John tells the story of Jesus and what it means to have life with God.
2. Engage in prayer everyday. Prayer is just sharing your heart with God and asking him things that are on your heart. Then, part of prayer is also being still and silent so that you can respond to the leadings, promptings and nudges of God for you to do things.
3. Share your new spiritual experience with others.
4. Get connected here at Upcounty Church in a small group that fits you and begin to develop friendships with other people.