If you’ve found your way to this page, it is not by accident. God has been calling you. He wants you to “get it” for yourself. Sit still for a minute. Find a quiet place where there are no distractions and let God’s Word speak to your heart.
Have you ever seen anything intricate like the inside of a ticking watch? It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? There is precision involved in the details of that watch. If you find the watchmaker and ask, “Did this just happen? Did all those pieces just fall into place inside this case?” He of course would say, “No, I designed it. I knew exactly where to place each part and I started the wheels in motion.”
“In the beginning, God…” You’ve heard that before, yet maybe it was hard for you to truly believe it. Consider with me for a minute, does it really make sense that everything just fell into place? Or does it make more sense that a Master Designer created it? The Bible is God’s Word. It’s the way He continues to speak to us today. Consider that it was written over a 1,500 year span by over 40 authors and it has survived centuries of rulers trying to stamp it out. Do you know any other piece of literature that can say the same? It is the inspired Word of God written by men who were obedient.
God created us to reflect His image and to have a relationship with Him. Then sin entered the world and we thought we would try our own way. How’s that working out for you? Yeah, it didn’t work for me either.
Sin is when we deliberately do something we know is wrong. It separates us from God because He is holy and He cannot be associated with sin. So He created a way to restore that relationship. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be a sacrifice for our sins. All of our sins. Your life has purpose! God wants to give you an abundant life, He does!
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
God is love!
For 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
Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3
There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. Proverbs14:12
You will hear that there are many ways to heaven in today’s tolerant culture. Satan is very clever at attempting to make parallels with God. He wants to make other things appear almost right, so you can still continue to live any way you like and not feel bad. Don’t fall for it. He is a liar.
You cannot earn your way into heaven. You cannot DO enough in your own efforts.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. Romans 3:10-12, 20
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. James 2:10
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
He sent His Son to walk on this earth, fully God, yet fully human, so that He would understand our struggles and be able to empathize with us. He paid the price for your sins and mine. He gave up His life to pay for every sneaky, rotten, horrible thing we could do. Your sin is not so bad that God’s grace cannot cover it with His Son’s blood.
Blood? What’s that all about and why is it necessary? The very first sin was disobedience by Adam & Eve when God told them not to eat from one tree. They had hundreds of other trees to choose from, but He had to give them a choice, otherwise He would have just created robots. Unfortunately they chose to disobey Him. So there they were naked in the garden but they didn’t realize it. After they disobeyed God, they realized they were naked and they knew the guilt of disobeying God.
They tried to hide from God and maybe you have been hiding too. Maybe you have been running around trying to fix things. It’s not working is it?
It didn’t work for Adam & Eve either, so God saved them. He covered them with the skin of an animal, a fur coat! Think about it, to get the fur coat, something had to die. Blood was shed because of their disobedience. From that point on there was blood shed for sins, but people had to shed blood every time they sinned – over and over.
God knew that we needed a final, once and for all sacrifice that would be enough. One Perfect Sacrifice that was so BIG, so AMAZING, so INCOMPARABLE, that it would cover every sin for every person, for all eternity. His Son stepped out of heaven and onto this earth to become that sacrifice. Wow!
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Colossians 1:21-22
Confess your sins.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5
Grace. That’s it. His free gift. Now it’s up to you, will you accept it?
If you want to know this “relationship” with Him, pray this prayer:
Lord, I confess that I have sinned against You and I ask You to forgive me. I am sorry that my sins have hurt You and other people in my life. I acknowledge that I could never earn salvation by my good works, but I come to You and trust in what Jesus did for me on the cross. I believe that You love me and that Jesus died and rose again so that I can be forgiven and come to know You. I ask You to come into my heart and I want You to be Lord of my life. I trust You with my life and I thank You for loving me so much that I can know You here on earth, and then I can spend the rest of eternity with You in heaven. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
We would love to hear from you if you have prayed the above prayer or if you have committed to living a Christian life. Please let us know how we can support you. Talk to God every day about what you think and how you feel. He will listen.
The coolest part of all is that abundant life thing! When we receive Christ, believing, confessing, accepting, God does something amazing! He seals you by placing His Holy Spirit inside your heart! You are stamped with God’s seal of approval.
Remember, knowing doesn’t always mean “feeling” ok? You can KNOW that God has done what He promises because He always fulfills His promises. He said, once you are His, He will NEVER leave you or forsake you. Period!
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:12-13
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever 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
Ok, we’re here with you. Let’s run this thing called life together.
In His Grip,
Luann Prater
Encouragement Café
