Getting to know Jesus personally.

“The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” – 1 Corinthians 4:20 

The Bible tells us the condition of our hearts in God's eyes, this is very different to how we see ourselves.  You may consider yourself to be a "good" person who gives to charity, looks after friends and family and, perhaps, even goes to church once in a while.  However God knows all about you - even the hidden things of your heart.  In fact the Bible tells us that :-

"There is none righteous, no not one"  Romans 3:10

And God goes on to tell us why this is:-

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23

To explain this a little , righteous simply means to do what is right.  However it is God's view of doing right that matters.  For instance Jesus tells us to love even our enemies whereas man's heart tells us to hate our enemies.  When you begin to read the Bible you will see that what Jesus taught was, and still is, very radical and, in many ways, is the complete opposite of human thought.

And so sin is the same - it is God's view of sin that counts not man's view.  So if i tell a little lie it doesn't really matter does it.  To man perhaps not, but to God it certainly does matter.  And God carries on and tells us what the result of sin is:-

"For the wages of sin is death ....." Romans 6:23

So, sin brings death.  The payment we receive for sin is death.  And this death is two fold - we will all die a natural death but we have already died a spiritual death as we have all been born in sin.  ("Spiritual death" is the seperation of our spirit from God's Spirit.) The Bible tells us, in the book of Genesis, that the first man, Adam, disobeyed God in the garden of Eden and through this sin all of mankind has inherited the same sin nature.  If the issue of our sin is not dealt with, i.e. we find forgiveness of our sin from God, then we will spend eternity separated from God in hell.  But God doesn't give up on us and Romans 6:23 carries on:-

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And so there is hope for us all.  We can have eternal life through Jesus.  This is such a wonderful gift that is offered to every person.  And whu does God makes this offer to us?  The answer is simple, because of His great love for us.  God tells us this in so many places but we will quote just two:-

"But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Romans 5:8  and again:-

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

So, God gave Jesus to die in the place of whoever would believe in Him.  Jesus took the punishment for our sins so that we could spend eternity with Him rather than eternity in hell.  The wages for our sin have been satisfied by Jesus.  And so Jesus goes on to tell us:-

"Behold I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door I wil come in to him ..."  Revelation 3:20

If you don't yet know Jesus as your Saviour, and have read this far, then He is right now knocking on the door of your heart.  If you hear His voice calling you then you need to open the door to your heart and invite Him in..  Jesus tells us how to do this, again in the book of Romans:-

"If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heartthat God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved....for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."  Romans 10:9, 11

This is the good news that:-

 "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures", 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4

And so, if we believe on Jesus wewill be saved from God's wrath and instead we accept His offer of the gift of eternal life.  Believing "on" Jesus is different to believing "in" Jesus.  There is so much evidence for the existence of Jesus that no one seriously doubts that He did live in Israel some 2000 years ago,  But believing "in" His existence is not beleiving "on" Him.  No we must trust Him for our salvation, beleiving that He was God manifest in the flesh and that he died, for our sins, and rose again.  We must believe what He has revealed of Himself in the scriptures contained in the Bible.

Finally, if you know that you are a sinner and are deserving of God's punishment and you believe in your heart that Christ has taken the punishment for you, then open the door to your heart and invite Jesus in.  And you can do it right now and you will be saved.

Just talk to God and tell Him that you have sinned and want to ask for the forgiveness of your sins based on what Jesus has done, tell Him that you believe on Jesus and that you want to accept His gift of eternal life.

God will answer your prayer and you will know that you are forgiven and that you are saved.  You willhave been born again by God's Spirit.

If you have spoken to God in this way please let us know so that we can help you with your first steps in this new life of following Jesus.

"I want to see people's lives transformed as they encounter God's Holy Spirit, walk in their new identity,

and do what Jesus said we could do. " Steve Avery