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Our purpose is to love, honor and serve Jesus Christ. We follow the Bible as our guide to knowing God and living in fellowship with Him. You are welcome to participate in this fellowship.
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HOW CAN I HAVE A LIVING RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD?
1. GOD MADE US TO LOVE HIM.
There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus. Blaise Pascal
The great commandment is: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:37 Truly loving God means that we would worship and adore Him and obey Him perfectly.
2. WE HAVE ALL FAILED TO LOVE GOD.
God calls this failure sin. "Our sin separates us from God." Isaiah 59:2. "All of us like sheep have gone astray." Isaiah 53:6 "The wages of sin is death." Romans 3:23 Since this offense is against the High King of Heaven, it is infinitely serious. We deserve eternal separation from God in hell. Our own efforts will never enable us to be reconciled to God. Even our good deeds are contaminated by our self-centeredness and self interest.
3. GOD HAS CHOSEN TO LOVE US AND REDEEM ALL WHO RECEIVE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
God is righteous and just. He cannot overlook our terrible offenses. Jesus Christ is God who became a man. John 1: 14 He died on the cross to pay for our sin. He is our sacrifice and substitute. He died in our place and paid for the sin of everyone who trusts in Him. John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
4. WE MUST RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST.
John 1:12 says: "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God," We must repent of our sin. Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of life. We agree with God that we deserve hell. We are
willing to turn from our sin. We put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ who promises to receive and forgive everyone who comes to Him.
John 6:37 says: 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. When we give ourselves and our sin to Jesus, He gives us Himself and His righteousness. Salvation costs us nothing because Jesus paid the price. Yet it costs us everything because we give ourselves to Jesus to do His will. He lives in every believer and lives His life in us. This is true fulfillment. It is not possible to live the Christian life except by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
5. WE GROW IN CHRIST.
II Peter 3:18 says: ,,18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Receiving Jesus Christ is just the beginning of eternal life. Every believer wants to have close fellowship with this gracious Savior. He is our life. Those who follow Christ are not promised a trouble free life. There will be tests and tribulation. But, we do not face these things alone. Jesus promised, ''Never will 1 leave you. Never will I forsake you." Heb. 13:5 The healthy Christian has a hunger for the Word of God, so he reads and meditates on the Word daily. He also is obedient to the Lord. He seeks God's strength to do God's will. He continually is in conversation with God through prayer. He desires that others come to experience life in Christ, so he tells the gospel and how Christ changed his heart and life. He likely will experience some opposition from those who do not love Jesus Christ. He will become more conscious of sin, and realize that things he formerly thought were good are really not pleasing to God.
6. YOUR RESPONSE.
Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me." It is necessary to receive Christ into your life and give yourself to Him, to trust and
obey Him. Those trusting in Christ are assured of eternal life. The evidence that we are truly in Christ is our perseverance in following Christ. Everyone who daily depends on the grace of Christ to enable him to abide in Christ and life a Christ-like life will persevere.
ESV 1 John 5:11 "And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 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."
