God has a purpose for your life, the Bible calls it salvation; it is God’s desire that you spend eternity in His presence. However, the choice is yours.
You can choose to follow Him through faith in Jesus Christ or you can choose to go in another direction; the choice is yours because God has given us free will. However, Jesus makes it clear: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
There are many roads that promise to make you happy; promising pleasure, possessions, power and money. However, none of these are God’s way. Jesus is the only Way. Any other way is sin. Sin is when we say, “I’ll do what I want, no matter what God says”. The Bible says: “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on Him the sins of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6). The Bible also says, “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the Truth.” (1 John 1:8)
Sin breaks our relationship with God and with other people. We may try on our own to deal with it in different ways but nothing really helps. Our only help and hope is in a relationship with Jesus who reminds us “apart from Him we can do nothing.” (John 15:5) The Bible tells us that the end result of sin is death – spiritual death: “For the wages of sin is death”. (Romans 6:23a) You will end up in Hell, a real place spoken about by Jesus, separated from God for eternity. This is not because God wants you there; His purpose is for you to spend eternity with Him in Heaven and He will do everything He can to get you there, except one thing. He will not force you, but He does offer us a free gift if we choose to accept it: “The free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our LORD.” (Romans 6:23b)
The decision is yours! He has, however, offered us His help. He did something about our sin. We sometimes try to do a lot of good things, thinking that our actions and good deeds will get us into Heaven. The problem is that we don’t know how many good things we have to do to get there. Or sometimes we compare ourselves with others to find a standard, but the problem is that God is the standard, not other people! What can we do then? This is how much God loves us: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His One and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) This is how God dealt with our sin.
Imagine a courtroom. You have been found guilty of sin. The penalty is death. This judge declares the sentence. But imagine this judge is your father. He knows the law, he knows your crime demands death, but he knows that he loves you too much to let you die. So in a wonderful act of grace and love he steps down from the bench, takes off his robe, stands by your side, and says, “I’m going to die in your place”. This is what God did for you. He left His throne in Heaven, came to earth in His One and only Son, Jesus Christ, and took the sentence for your sin upon himself out of love for you alone. “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting their sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we might be made right with God through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21).
What does God want you to do in response to this? How do you become a Christian? There are three simple steps: 1. Admit that God has not been at the center of your life and ask Him to forgive your sins. “If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” (1 John 1:9) 2. Agree that Jesus died on the Cross to pay the price for your sins once for all and that He rose from the dead and is alive today. “If you openly declare Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9) 3. Don’t try to earn it; you cannot. There is absolutely nothing you can do to earn it; there is nothing you can do to improve upon what Jesus accomplished on the Cross for you and for me. Salvations is a gift from God, freely given out of love and grace; accept God’s gift of salvation with a grateful heart and with thanksgiving to Almighty God. “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Would you like Him to save you right now? Then just follow these three steps. Begin by praying this prayer to Him: “Lord Jesus, I confess my sin and rebellious acts; I am a sinner in need of Your forgiveness. LORD, thank You for Your death on the Cross in obedience to Your Father's will which was a perfect sacrifice to cleanse me from all my sins with your precious blood; I believe LORD Jesus that You died for me on the Cross, and I humbly accept You as my LORD and my Saviour. I accept with gratitude and thanksgiving Your gift of salvation LORD, and I ask You to take charge of every part of my life. I ask You to empower me with Your Holy Spirit so I may live as Your disciple from now on. I surrender my will, my life and my heart to You that Your will be done in and through me; I want to walk humbly with You in newness of life from this day forward and for ever with You in Heaven. Thank You for Your love for me and Your promise to never leave me or forsake me. In the Jesus' precious name I pray these words with all sincerity in my heart and soul. Amen.”
Once you have offered this simple prayer and have accepted Jesus as LORD and Saviour of your life, you are a new creation, born again to the new life God has prepared for you. Jesus now abides in you and God will begin a new and powerful work on your life. You will face challenges as before, but now, Jesus will walk with you and guide you and Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Advocate, the Counselor whom Jesus promised would come and abide in us, will help you each and every day to grow in your faith and relationship with Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
There are 3 steps that are essential to growing and nurturing in your faith:
The first is to become part of a local Bible-believing, Bible teaching church where the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, and the fellowship of believers exhibit the love and grace of Jesus Christ. You’re not strong enough to survive as a Christian alone. The Bible teaches us that the church is the “all of you
together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a part of it” on earth today. We encourage you to find a good Bible-teaching church and to become part of a fellowship of believers. (1 Corinthians 12:27).
The second step is to begin to read the Bible; our suggestion would be to start with the Gospel of John. It is an excellent book of the Bible to get to know Jesus and the working of Almighty God. There are many good translations that will be helpful; the best translation is the one you will read. We use the New Living Translation here at Queensway because it faithful to the original texts but is accessible to our way of communicating today. Again, the best translation is the one you will read and understand. Reading God's Word daily is vital to your spiritual growth; God reveals Himself to us through His Word by the Holy Spirit. “Let the message about Christ in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel one another with all the wisdom He gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16).
Finally, demonstrate and celebrate your decision to follow Jesus by being baptized. This symbolizes God’s grace, and the washing away of our sin. Jesus said, “Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:16).
If you have become a Christian through reading the above, or through some contact with our church family, please let us know by sending an e-mail to pastorbrianqfmc@gmail.com and telling us your story. We would be overjoyed to celebrate with you. In the meantime, we pray that this has been a help to you as you seek to understand what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. (All Bible quotations are from The New Living translation (NLT) of the Bible )