Our greatest desire is for people to come to know God
personally. The simple truth is that there is a God who
created you and loves you very much.
(Genesis
1:1) He gave us life and deserves our gratitude and
love.
We, however, have chosen to disobey Him and sin
against Him; all of us have done wrong and failed to do
what is right. (Romans
3:23) We may not be more sinful than our neighbor,
or we may be far worse than anyone we know, it does not
matter. Either way, we are guilty before God. (1
John 1:8)
God is perfect, completely good, always right and
fair. He cannot tolerate sin. He cannot simply overlook
the fact that we have chosen to disobey Him. The Bible
says "the wages of sin is death." (Romans
6:23) This means that the fair payment for our
rebellion against God is death. It is the punishment
that we deserve.
Jesus, the one and only Son of God, came to earth and
lived a perfect sinless life. He was crucified even
though He was completely innocent. He received the
punishment that we deserved. He was the perfect
sacrifice, He was put into our place and took on Himself
the sentence of death that should have been ours. (Romans
5:8)
Jesus did not, however, remain dead. After three
days, He rose from the grave and later ascended into
heaven. He will return for all those who are trusting in
Him as their Savior.
Jesus died for you. You can be saved by asking Him
for forgiveness from your sins. If you are willing to
repent of your sin, He is waiting to forgive you. It
doesn't matter what you have done in the past, if you
cry out to Jesus for forgiveness, He will not reject
you. The word "repent" literally means
"to turn away from." You need to look at your
life, admit that you are a sinner, genuinely desire to
turn your back on that sin, and ask Him to forgive you.
If you do this, He promises to forgive you.
True Christianity is not about attending a particular
church, or how your parents raised you, or what country
you were born in. Being a Christian means that you have
a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that He is
your Savior. It's not good enough that your priest,
pastor, mother, or aunt knows Jesus, you must know Him
for yourself. They cannot believe in Him for you, you
must believe for yourself. They cannot repent for you,
you must repent for yourself.
Jesus is everywhere all the time. He can hear you now
if you ask Him for forgiveness. Please turn your life
over to Him now. Time slips by so quickly, don't miss
this opportunity. If you want to pray and ask Jesus to
be your Savior, you can say a prayer something like
this:
"Jesus, I know that I have sinned against
you. I know the truth is that I have sinned by my own
choice, and I am the one responsible for it. I know that
I have earned punishment from You, and that the fair
punishment would be death. Jesus, I believe that You
died in my place. Forgive me for my sin. I cannot cover
or take my sin away, I am relying totally and only on
You. You are the only one who can save me. I reject my
sin, I turn away from it, I repent. Come into my life,
take away my sin, and show me how to live my life in a
way that is right and pleasing to You."
If you have prayed this, you are saved!
You are now completely forgiven, a new creation,
innocent in the eyes of God. Welcome to the family of
God!
It is important for you to start to grow in your
relationship with Jesus. Just like any relationship, you
need to spend time with someone if you want to know them
well. The way to know God is through the Bible. We have
a few different Bible studies here that will help you
get going. It's also important to find a church you can
attend where they teach the Bible. This will allow you
to talk with a pastor who will help explain questions
you might have, and it will give you a chance to spend
time with other Christians who can encourage you.
