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Christian Basics Becoming a Christian is not a difficult thing (even children can do it), but it is something that you will need to carefully consider. First of all, the Bible says that all of us are sinful, and apart from God's help we have no hope of obtaining His forgiveness. No one can ever be "good enough" to find favor with God. You can't do enough good deeds to cancel out all the bad. God has a standard of righteousness, and love is that standard. The Bible says that the two greatest commandments are to love God, and to love people. Sin is when we decide not to love God or love people. We've all done this--we just need to admit it to ourselves and to God. So you've got to admit your sinfulness. Next, we need to see what our sinfulness has done: it has put a barrier between us and God. God wants us to have a relationship with Him in which we share our lives with Him. He is a God of love, and He wants to share life with us. But He won't force this on us. Our sin has forced Him to keep Himself separate from us, and we will be eternally separated from Him unless this sin is forgiven. But we can't do anything ourselves to get this forgiveness. As a result, God the Father sent His Son Jesus to the earth to die for our sins (by paying the penalty of our sins for us), and to show us how to have a relationship with the Father. We receive this forgiveness from God by simply asking for it. However, there are some conditions to this gift of forgiveness: 1. Forgiveness of sins entails being reconciled back into the family of God. God is a Father, and He has a Son named Jesus. They are in the same family. In order to enter the family of God, we must enter a covenant with Him. This covenant is a lifetime commitment that we make to God. We promise Him that we will give Him our lives (all that we have and all that we are), and He in return gives us all that He is and has (and this includes forgiveness). 2. When we enter this covenant we acknowledge His place in our lives as Lord, Master, Savior, and Father. As a result, we are placing ourselves under His authority. We are telling Him that we are committed to living a life of love, to allow Him the freedom to discipline us, and that we are no longer living just for ourselves and our own selfish pleasures. We are acknowledging our need for His help, but we are also striving to get to know Him better. God wants to reveal Himself to us. Do we love Him? If so, then we'll want to reveal who He is to those people in our lives. Are you willing to do this? Are you willing to make this commitment to God? Forgiveness of our sins can only be attained by entering this covenant with God. Jesus opened the way for this to occur, but the choice is ours. If you make this commitment, there are some basic things you need to do to maintain this relationship: 1. You must spend time with God. How can you have a
relationship with someone if you don't ever spend any time with them? The same is true with God. How can we say
we have a relationship with God if we don't ever spend any time with Him? We spend time talking to Him throughout the day
(at school, work, home, or wherever we are). We spend time with Him by reading the Bible. The Bible teaches us about
Him, and helps us live a godly and victorious life. A good place to begin reading is in the first four books of the New testament
(Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). 3. Always remember that salvation and forgiveness of sins is a free gift of God's grace. You can never ever earn it! So be careful not to think that God likes you better because you do more and more to serve Him. He loves you right now as much as He ever will love you. He loves you as much as He loves Jesus! 4. And remember that we are powerless to live godly and pure lives. We need God's grace for this as well; and the Bible says that God gives His grace to the humble. You will get no where in this life without humility and His grace--absolutely no where. 5. Lastly, there is nothing more important to God than love. God Himself is love. And without His grace, we cannot truly love anyone. We may be able to do "nice" things for people, but if it's not done with God's love it's worthless. The Bible says that if we give everything we have to the poor, and even surrender our bodies to the flames in a martyr's death, it will profit us nothing if it is not done in love. May God's grace be with you as you enter this new covenant with Him. Your eternal destiny in His presence is secure because of what Jesus did on the cross! Don't ever forget that! No one can take you out of the Father's hand. |
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