About Christ
I've known people who’ve said being a Christian is just too hard
to do. It’s not, really. People think of a Christian life like a
diet. No This. No That. None Of The Other Thing. Being a
Christian has little to do with your habits or behavior, it’s
about your posture. Not sitting up straight, but a posture of
submission to God’s love, giving it up to God’s love. Church
Folk like to say more legal-sounding, threatening stuff like,
“God’s will,” but God’s will for us is love. Love is the sum and
substance of God, of His power and sovereignty. Living a
Christian life is, therefore, less about rules and regulations
than it is about allowing God’s love to wash over you, to
breathe it and drink it and eat it and allow that love to become
a part of you. Before you know it, you’ll begin to lose the
appetite for things that do not please God, for things that are
not like God. Most Church Folk I’ve met are not like God. Most
ultra-conservatives I’ve met are nothing at all like God. They
just like going around pointing fingers and banning things. And
the world sees these people and assume they are like God and
therefore God is either a liar or a fraud or really, really
mean, and who wants to be a part of that.
God knows you. He wants you to know him. That anxiety we feel,
that knot in our stomach and the uncertainty over what life
holds in store for us: a lot of that is really not about what we
have but about what we need. We fill our lives with things,
hoping to fill that need, but material things and even people
can never address what’s really bothering us.
Getting to know God begins with a simple acknowledgement that we
are not perfect. That we’ve made mistakes, that we’ve done
wrong: that we’re tired of living empty and purposeless lives.
That we want more (Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God). We know doing wrong has
consequences, but God is offering us a way out (Romans 6:23: For
the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord). That way out is Jesus Christ
(John 1:12: …to all who received him, to those who believed in
his name, he gave the right to become children of God).
I
don’t care how long you’ve been a church member. I don’t care
what board you’re the chairman of. I don’t care who you’re
married to or how important you think you are in your church or
community. If you do not know Jesus Christ in the pardoning of
your sins, you are lost. God is less concerned about your church
membership than He is about your connection to Him. He wants to
know you and to walk with you and to be in your life. When we
talk about “accepting Jesus,” what we actually mean is
acknowledging Him and allowing Him to enter our heart and our
mind and our conscious. It really is this simple:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal
life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but
to save it. There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him.
But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not
believing in the only Son of God. —John 3:16-18
CONTINUES BELOW
A Sinner's Prayer
Lord Jesus, I’ve done a lot of wrong things in my life. Things
I’m not proud of. Things I wish I could change. I’m sorry for
those things I’ve done, and for those things I am now doing.
Lord, I don’t want to live this way anymore. I believe that You
died for me. I believe that You rose again, according to the
scriptures, and that You live today. I believe You want to be my
friend. I want to be Yours.
You are welcome in my life. In my heart. In my choices. In my
values. I will follow You and I will trust you. I believe that,
through You, I can have a new life. A better life.
Thank You, Lord, for answering this prayer. For coming into my
heart and my life. Please let your Holy Spirit lead me, guide
and protect me as I spend the rest of my life, from this day
forward, serving only You. I count this done in the name of
Jesus Christ,
Amen.
What's Next?
Get a Bible. Get a good one. I recommend the Zondervan NIV
Student Bible. Get a Prayer Partner. Somebody you trust.
Somebody who’s not a busybody or a big mouth. Someone who will
check on you and make sure you’re okay. Someone you can share
your struggle with. Find A Good Church Home. It really is
important to belong to a church family. And, there you are: on
the road to a new life and new experiences like one you’ve ever
known. Learn to love and trust God, and you’ll find a life more
full and rewarding than you’ve ever known. This is the most
important thing you can ever do with your life.
A
Simple Plan
It occurred
to me the other day: I’ve lived here for
about ten years. In that time, I have not
once heard the plan of salvation articulated
from a black church pulpit. Many church
folks have developed coping methods to mask
the fact they really don’t know what being
born again means. They are, literally, dying
of embarrass-ment. I don’t care how long
you’ve been a church member. I don’t care
what board you’re the chairman of. I don’t
care who you’re married to or how important
you think you are in your church or
community. If you do not know Jesus Christ
in the pardoning of your sins, you are lost.
If you don’t know, for sure, that you are
born again, let’s go over how this is
actually done. Take these few minutes, close
the door, and let’s get real with God. Don’t
let this moment pass you by. Don’t die of
embarrassment.
And brought
them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to
be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and
thy house. And they spake unto him the word
of the Lord, and to all that were in his
house. And he took them the same hour of the
night, and washed their stripes; and was
baptized, he and all his, straightway. And
when he had brought them into his house, he
set meat before them, and rejoiced,
believing in God with all his house. —Acts
16:30-34
Acknowledge You Are A Sinner
...No one can ever be
made right in God's sight by doing what his
law commands. For the more we know God's
law, the clearer it becomes that we aren't
obeying it. But now God has shown us a
different way of being right in his sight –
not by obeying the law but by the way
promised in the Scriptures long ago. We are
made right in God's sight when we trust in
Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we
all can be saved in this same way, no matter
who we are or what we have done. For all
have sinned; all fall short of God's
glorious standard. Yet now God in his
gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He
has done this through Christ Jesus, who has
freed us by taking away our sins. For God
sent Jesus to take the punishment for our
sins and to satisfy God's anger against us.
We are made right with God when we believe
that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his
life for us. —Romans 3:20-25 [NLT]
This is tough for most of us to do. Most
people I know have an awful time admitting
when they’re wrong, but you can’t lie to
God. Sin, literally, means “error.” Sin
separates us from God because God is without
sin (or error). You are not perfect. That’s
all this means. You’ve done wrong, and you
are likely burdened with habits and
addictions that you can’t break on your own.
You probably also have things you don’t want
to give up. This is the main reason people
drag their heels about church, about Jesus.
They like doing what they’re doing, and they
feel like they have to change their habit,
drop their boyfriend, stop drinking, stop
smoking, stop partying, etc.
None of that is true. Jesus said we should
come to Him exactly as we are [Matt 11:28].
He doesn’t ask you to stop going to the club
or to stop having sex or to stop smoking
herb or stop cussing or stop gambling. None
of that interests Him. He wants a
relationship with you. If you’d just allow
Him the chance to know you, allow yourself
the chance to know Him—that’s all he wants
for now.
The truth is, if we could change, if we
could, on our own, drop those habits or stop
seeing that person, most of us would do it.
But, in ourselves, most of us simply are not
strong enough to make those changes.
What I’ve discovered is, the more I know
God, the more I talk to Him and the more I
meditate on His word, the less desire I have
to do things that do not please Him. All
that stuff you’re worried about? Don’t sweat
it. Just relax and let God do His job. In
time, as your relationship develops, God
will inevitably give you a hunger for Him, a
desire to please Him, and those things
you’re clinging to now will suddenly seem
less important.
This process is often called sanctification.
Sanctified simply means “set apart” for
God’s purpose. Look, when you go to a gym,
the more you work out, the more your body
craves working out. The more you trust God,
the more God you want in your life. The more
God you have in your life, the more of these
things will work themselves out.
We hear people talk about being “saved,
sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost.”
Most people who say that don't actually know
what any of that means. They speak of being
"sanctified” as though it was a done deal,
like paint sealant on your car.
Sanctification is a process, an ongoing
purging of things in your life that do not
please God. It is never complete because we
will not be perfect, the Bible tells us,
until Christ receives us unto Himself.
Don't let anybody sell you that they're
perfect or that they've done everything they
need to do. Nobody's perfect. Nobody is
totally without sin. we're all in the
struggle, and we're all learning as we go.
Don’t worry about what you’ve done or what
you’re doing or who you’re with or what your
addicted to. Just let Him in.
Repent
For God can use sorrow
in our lives to help us turn away from sin
and seek salvation. We will never regret
that kind of sorrow. But sorrow without
repentance is the kind that results in
death. —2 Corinthians 7:10
If we say we have no
sin, we are only fooling ourselves and
refusing to accept the truth. But if we
confess our sins to him, he is faithful and
just to forgive us and to cleanse us from
every wrong. —I John 1:8-9 [NLT]
This is tough for people as well. Repenting
simply means apologizing and promising to do
better. None of us are perfect. None of us
live perfect lives. But the key to salvation
through Jesus is saying you’re sorry for
your sin and telling God you want to change.
Note this is different from actually
changing. If you could actually change
yourself, you wouldn’t need God. By
repenting, you are saying that you are sorry
for your sin, and that you want to turn away
from it. You are acknowledging you need
God’s help to do that.
Invite Christ In
Look! Here I stand at
the door and knock. If you hear me calling
and open the door, I will come in, and we
will share a meal as friends.
—Revelation 3:20 [NLT]
...although the world
was made through him, the world didn't
recognize him when he came. Even in his own
land and among his own people, he was not
accepted. But to all who believed him and
accepted him, he gave the right to become
children of God. They are reborn! This is
not a physical birth resulting from human
passion or plan – this rebirth comes from
God. —John 1:10-13 [NLT]
Don’t skip this part. God never forces
Himself on anyone. Most people think God
holds a gun to our heads: do what I say or
go to hell. That’s not quite right. It’s
more about free choice: it’s all up to you.
You can either accept God in your life or
reject Him and do things your own way. By
rejecting Him, you are saying you don’t want
to be with Him, and God never forces Himself
on us.
In this context, Hell is less of a
punishment than it is a choice. A choice to
dwell in the presence of God, or a choice
not to. There is only one place, in all of
Creation, where God has withdrawn Himself,
His omnipresence. That is a place God
created not for you or me, not for humans at
all. It is a place created for spirits who
rebelled against God and denied His
holiness. By rejecting God, you are choosing
to be apart from Him. There’s only one place
in all of existence where that is
possible—Hell.
God doesn’t send you to Hell, you send you
there, by choosing to reject God’s holiness.
Until you actually ask Christ to forgive
you, until you actually invite him in and
welcome Him into your Life, He will remain
outside [Rev 3:20]. He will not interfere.
He will not make a nuisance of Himself. It’s
up to you to invite Him in.
Be Baptized
After dark one
evening, a Jewish religious leader named
Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came to speak with
Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “we all know that
God has sent you to teach us. Your
miraculous signs are proof enough that God
is with you.” Jesus replied, “I assure you,
unless you are born again, you can never see
the Kingdom of God.” "What do you mean?”
exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go
back into his mother's womb and be born
again?” Jesus replied, “The truth is, no one
can enter the Kingdom of God without being
born of water and the Spirit. Humans can
reproduce only human life, but the Holy
Spirit gives new life from heaven.
—John 3:1-6 [NLT]
This is more ceremonial than anything else,
but God wants us to do this. He wants us to
publicly proclaim our new life, our new
relationship with Him. Whether you are
baptized in the name of The Father, The Son
and the Holy Ghost (or Spirit), or baptized
in the name of Jesus, is a matter for church
folk to argue over. Just get baptized. Like
a wedding, it is a public acknowledgement of
your turn in the road. It changes your
thinking and the way others see you, as you
leave the Old Man or the Old Woman beneath
the water, dead to this world, and rise
above the water as a new person in Christ
Jesus.
Clip from The Potter's House Copyright ©
2010 The Potter's House.
Text Text Copyright © 2001-2010 PraiseNet Electronic
Media. All Rights Reserved.
TOP OF PAGE
ABOUT CHRIST
PRAYER
CONTACT US
WEBLOG
CLOSE THIS WINDOW
