| ~ God Loves You and Offers a Purpose and Plan for Your Life 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) This famous verse from the Gospel of John reflects the New Testament teaching that God loves us deeply, knows us intimately, and created us to have a relationship with Him. ~ Man is Sinful and Separated from God God has given us an amazing capacity: free will. The reason for giving us this capacity was to entrust with us the power, and freedom, to love Him by choice. True love, and a true relationship, requires such freedom but it also has a frightening risk: the person may reject it. And all of us in some way have turned our back on God; we have thought, planned, fantasized, and committed every type of wrong imaginable, and failed to do the enormous good that was in our power to do. The New Testament generically calls this "sin." There are several attributes of God that Simply do not mix with sin (human evil). The first is His holiness, which means that God, by His nature, cannot be in the presence of sin. The second attribute is His justice. The moral outrage you feel in the presence of a rape or child abuse is the thumbprint of being made in God's image. He is completely and utterly "just" --God cannot turn a blind eye toward evil. A Dilemma I hope you are beginning to see the dilemma that precipitates the death of Christ. Because of God's holiness our sin separates us from Him, and God is also just, therefore sin--our sin--must be judged or executed. Yet at the same tim God loves us compassionately and intensely. ~ Jesus Christ is God's Only Provision Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) The solution God chose was to assume our judgment himself. God's justice is not compromised (sin is judged) but neither is His love, for we are granted a complete pardon. Boston college professor Petter Kreeft put it this way:
heaven. Only if the "sinner" won't let go of his garbage does he get burned with it. God offers to take the garbage of his back, to separate the "sinner" from the sin so that the sinner is not separated from God. Jesus is the garbage-man. ~ We Must Individually Receive What Christ Offers 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) The Gospels state that becoming a Christian and receiving Jesus Christ is a decision we alone can make. We can either receive it or reject it. We are not born a Christian or become one by simply attending a church. Much like marriage, it is a one-time decision to say "I do," born out of our own volition. ~ We Receive Christ by Personal Invitation [Christ speaking] Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in. (Revelation 3:20) The testimony of the Gospel is that Christ invites us to make a personal decision--to ask Him into our lives--which we do through prayer. If in reexamining the roots of your own faith you would like to invite Christ to come into your life, we would invite you to do so. The following is simply a suggested prayer as it is our heart, not words, that matter to God:
comes from you. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life, confessing you as Lord, Master, Boss of my life and receive you as my Savior. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Lead my life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be. In making this decision the New testament affirms that Christ comes into our life, forgives our sins and establishes with us an eternal relationship. And it is for such a reason we derive the term "gospel," which means "good news." |
831 FM 2917 RD...Alvin, TX 77511 ][ Phone: 281.331.4619 ][ Fax...281.331.5014 ][ Email...info@CBBCAlvin.com |
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| Alvin, Texas |
