Forgiveness
of sin, an awesome new life on earth, and eternity in heaven are all
yours,
and the cost has already been paid! It's
yours for the asking if you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and
Savior.
If you have not yet claimed the
free gift of eternal life in heaven and abundant life on earth, you can
do so
today...right now. Only God can give you
eternal life, and you can't do anything to earn it. God offers it as a
free gift;
all you have to do to accept it is (1)
believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son and that He died on the cross to
save you, and
(2) accept Jesus as your personal savior.
It's so simple really. There's only four basic truths you need to understand:
1. We are all sinners.
2. The penalty of sin is death (our death)
3. Jesus Christ died on a cross to pay the
death penalty for everyone who has ever lived.
4. Jesus Christ will save you today if you ask Him to.
We'll
talk about each of these four truths a bit
more below, but if you're ready to accept Jesus as your savior right
now, pray
this prayer:
Lord,
I know that I'm a sinner - I've done some terrible things - and I know
I deserve to be punished for them. But I'm
sorry for all that, and I know that you loved me enough to bleed and die
on a cross
to pay the penalty for my sin. I ask you to
come into my life right now and forgive me and make me the kind of
person you
want me to be. Give me strength to live for
you each day. Thank you, Lord Jesus.
We are all sinners.
You
may be rich or poor. You may live in a
mansion or in an abandoned car. You may ride a shiny new $23,000 Harley
or a beat up,
rusty $700 Kawasaki. You might have the
perfect family or live in a crack house with drug dealers and
prostitutes. You might
be a drug dealer or a prostitute or a
respected deacon in a church. Wherever you're at in life, you're not all
God wants you
to be.
No one's perfect, that's for
sure - including "church people". You may have seen that TV preacher
asking for
your money or been mistreated by a
church-going neighbor. Maybe a guy with a "I love Jesus" bumper sticker
cut you off on
the highway or gave you the finger when you
passed him. Well, Christians make mistakes too and don't always live the
way God
wants them to live. They're no better or
different than you, but don't judge God by how his children act.
Because
everyone does stupid and ugly things, the
world is filled with pain and heartache. We can try to live good lives,
but in the
end, we just can't do it on our own. That's
because we're all sinners at heart.
Ecclesiastes 7:20
- There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.
Romans 3:10 - There is no one righteous,
not even one.
Romans 3:23 - All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
The penalty
of sin is death.
The Bible
teaches what you already know from experience - doing bad, stupid things
leads
to disaster, and lying about it or trying to
cover it up, in the end, only makes things worse. Choosing to do wrong
leads
to heartache, pain, loss of family and
friends, and eventually suffering and death. Oh, it may take awhile, but
the end result
is always the same - death.
Romans 6:23 - The wages of sin is death.
James 1:15 - After desire
has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.
Jesus
paid the price for our sins.
The
stupid, bad things we do may have earned us death, but God loves us -
enough
to sacrifice his Son, Jesus, on our behalf.
That's right, it's as if God went to the prison our sins had built,
opened the
door to the cell on death row we had put
ourselves in, and ushered us out to freedom and then watched as his only
Son
was executed in our place and for our sins.
That's how much God loves us.
John 3:16 - 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.
Nothing
you have ever done or are doing in your life
can stop God from loving you and wanting to save you. You may have
cheated on
your wife. Maybe you stole money from work or
betrayed a friend. Maybe you're into pornography in a big way. Perhaps
you have
a violent temper, and it cost you your job.
Maybe you killed someone and it's been gnawing at you for years.
Whatever you've
done, God loves you - as you are and where
you're at. God loves you right now, and He loves you as much as He loves
anyone
else who has ever lived!
Not only
does God love you, he has already forgiven you for all the bad and
stupid things
you've done - all of them. That doesn't mean
you don't have an obligation to make things right with those you've
hurt, but
God doesn't hold any of that against you.
Romans 5:8 - While we were still sinners, Christ died for
us.
Salvation is for the asking.
You
probably have heard of Jesus. He is sometimes
called "Christ". You may have heard about him
in Sunday School when you were a child. Maybe you heard his name
mentioned at
a funeral or in a church service. Maybe the
only time you've heard the name "Jesus Christ" was when someone got mad
or hit
their hand with a hammer.
Jesus came
to earth 2000 years ago for one purpose - to pay the penalty for our
sins by
dying on a cross. Jesus offers the free gift
of salvation to everyone, but he won't force it on anyone. To take
advantage
of what Jesus did for us, we have to accept
the gift of salvation that He offers. We do that by confessing our sins
and asking
Jesus to forgive them and to be Lord of our
lives. It really is that simple. If you ask Jesus to forgive your sins
and give
control of your life to Him, He will save
you.
Psalm 34:4 - I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
Romans 10:9-10 - If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:13 - Everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved.
It's that easy, and if you've done that and meant it, welcome to the Family of God!
You have just received something nothing or no one can take away from you.
Now for the hard part.
Salvation
is easy, but it's not for whimps. Living for
God is tough. Making right choices is harder than making wrong choices.
Getting
into trouble is easier than staying out of
trouble. Being a Christian is politically incorrect. The "world" will
reject you
and make fun of you. Old friends won't
understand the new you, and they'll try to get you to go back to their
old miserable
way of life, because misery loves company.
Living
for Jesus takes practice and constant effort. Sometimes you'll still
fail. Don't get discouraged. God understands,
and he'll pick you up, dust you off, and help you get back on the right
path.
You're going to get tired of being a
Christian all the time, but Jesus will be there for you every step of
the way.
I John 5:5 - Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
I John 5:12
- He who has the Son has life.
Living
for Christ isn't easy; in fact, it's the toughest job you'll ever love.
The pay is lousy; working conditions are
hard; and there are no vacations; but the retirement plan is AWESOME!
What
now?
If you're ready to
experience unconditional acceptance, true joy, complete satisfaction,
and real love
by accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and
Savior (and I pray that you are), then pray the prayer at the top of
this page.
Don't delay. Life is uncertain. God wants to save you right now.
Proverbs 27:1 - Do not boast
about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
II Corinthians 6:2 - Now is the time of God's favor, now
is the day of salvation.