God’s Purpose: Peace and Life.
Did you know that God created you to have a relationship with Him and to experience peace and life abundant and eternal?
Want to know how you can escape the “rat race” and experience all that God has for you?
The Bible says, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The Bible also says, “I have come that they may have life and may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Finally, God records for us in the Bible that we can have true “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
So why don’t most people have this peace and abundant life that God planned for us to have?
The Problem: Separation from God.
The answer is that all humanity is inherently separated from God because of our sins. God created us in His own image to have a perfect relationship with Him and with others. However, he didn’t create us as robots to automatically love and obey Him. God gave us the freedom to choose.
We all choose to disobey God and go our own willful way when we act against his commands and when we fail to do what we know is right. The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The consequence of what the Bible calls “sin” is separation from God in this life and eternal separation from God in the next. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Our Attempts to Reach God
Most of us feel there is something missing in our lives or that there must be more to life than this. Consequently many of us know there must be a God and try to bridge the gap of sin between ourselves and God in many different ways. We try to be good people, believe that if we are good enough we end up with God in Heaven. We try religion, believing if we go to some sort of church or mosque and say certain prayers and participate in certain traditions that God will accept us. We try all sorts of different routs to God, but there is only one way to God.
God’s Bridge: The Cross.
The only way to God is by His grace. None of us are good enough to reach God’s perfect standard, so God sent His Son to die on the cross in our place, taking the punishment we justly deserve for our sins so that we might live. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). There is only one way to bridge the gap, to be forgiven and to have a perfect relationship with God, and that is through God’s Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). This is a free gift from God. No one can earn it. But we must receive it.
Our Response: Receive Jesus Christ.
To receive God’s gracious gift of salvation we must each receive Jesus Christ by personal invitation. Jesus said, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me!” (Revelation 3:20). The Bible also says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). To receive Christ means (1) to repent of your sins and (2) to have faith in Jesus and put your complete trust in Him.
Will You Receive Jesus Christ Right Now?
Here is how you can receive Jesus Christ:
1. Admit your need (I am a sinner).
2. Be willing to turn from your sins (repent).
3. Believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross and rose from the grave.
4. Through prayer, invite Jesus Christ to come in and control your life through the Holy Spirit (Receive Him as Lord and Savior).
How to Pray
Father God,
I know I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite Your Son Jesus to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
God’s Assurance: His Word.
IF you’ve prayed this prayer and sincerely meant it from your heart the bible says...
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:23)
“For it is by grave you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, its is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God, does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:12-13)
Receiving Christ, we are born into God’s family through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer. This is called regeneration or the “new birth.”
Please take some time, if you have prayed the above prayer, to contact Pastor Jared White at 889 7695 or at cpbaptistchurch.com.
This is just the beginning of your new life and we would love to help you in every way we can!
God bless you!
Peace With God
