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In the
name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, Our
heavenly father, our creator, we thank You for love
and forgiveness through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank
you for showing Yourself and Your will for us
through Christ. Thank You for blessing us with the
knowledge of the redemptive power of the blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord, at this time, we
ask you to bless every reader of this message with
the convicting power of the Holy Spirit on every
heart that Christ was sinless and He suffered and
died for our sins and He was resurrected on the
third day and He is alive living in heaven and in
Christians and in His word, the Bible. It is only
through Him that we can have peace with God. Please
convict our hearts that we must follow Christ and
become great soul winners. Please help us to be
obedient to your call and help us to resist the
temptations of this world and the flesh that are
constantly pulling us to look at everything else but
Christ. We ask You to bless us with all these in the
name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
"And you
will not come to me that you may have life." 1
These
beautiful words were spoken by Jesus Christ about
2000 years ago with an incomparable love and care to
a group of people who were blessed to be there at
that time and see and hear Him. He was not only
speaking to those folks at that time but to all of
us, to all who have the privilege of God’s blessing
to hear or read these words. To every reader of this
message right now the Lord Jesus speaks. Christ is
alive and Christians know this fact by the knowledge
of the giver of wisdom, the Holy Spirit. So His
words are alive and if we respond to Him by wanting
to know Him better, He will bless us and will give
us His nature.2
"In Him
was life..." 3 Christ is alive and He is
our new life, eternal life, the new birth that
brings man into a peaceful relationship with God.4
We know this fact because God tells us, "Whosoever
believeth on Him should not perish but have eternal
life."5 He is the very life itself, the
life our parents Adam and Eve had before committing
sin. This eternal life cannot be felt or experienced
until man is led to Christ and he comes to know that
he is a sinner and there is nothing good in him or
through him that can make him have peace with God.
He must repent of his sins and ask Christ to save
him, ask Christ to come into his heart and give him
His nature.
During
the course of His conversation with Nicodemus, a
Jewish rabbi, Christ commanded this new birth to
every man. When we ask Christ to come into our
hearts, we will receive the new spirit and the new
heart. This new spirit, this new nature, is the
spirit of Christ Himself. It is the Holy Spirit and
the new heart is His own heart and nature.6
Actually they are all one. The very God
Himself comes to live in man. When you let Christ
into your heart, you are born into the kingdom of
heaven. You have entered the Holy of Holies. You
have the Holy of Holies in you. You become a
Christian which means you become the carrier of the
very Christ Himself, the very God Himself and all
this knowledge is given to you by the Lord, the Holy
Spirit.
You are
born into eternal life. You become a new creation
which means you will be created all new with the
very God Himself living in you. This happens the
moment you ask Christ with faith to come into your
life. From then on it will not be your life but His.
His life is living through your body and soul. This
new creation is eternal. This is the new birth our
Lord commands us to receive.7 It is only
through this new birth that you will have the
Savior. It is only through this new birth that you
will have the Wise Counselor. It is through this new
birth that you will have the blessing of permanent
companionship with God. It is only through this new
birth that you will have the wisdom of God. It is
only through this new birth that you will understand
Satan, the flesh, the world and its lust. It is only
through this new birth that you will have the hope
of glory in you.8 It is only through this
new birth that you will come to know that Christ is
our reconciliation and peace with God.9
My
friend, we must ask God to bless us and give us this
wisdom to know that we cannot please Him 10
or that we have peace with Him or that He is happy
with us even by doing good works. He has already
said that all our good works do not please Him.11
My friend, there is a fact that has been revealed to
man by God through His word that if we do not have
peace with God, we are His enemies. God Himself says
that "they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
12 God goes on to say to those who
believe in Him, "You are not in the flesh but in the
Spirit; if so, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now
if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of His."13
God also
tells us that we are his children. His Spirit dwells
in us and we live His life on this earth and Christ
lives through us. 14 There is no religion
or doctrine or philosophy that tells you that you
can become a child of God. If fact, they call it
blasphemy and abomination for sinful man to be a
child of God. God is kept far away from man, and man
is told that he must earn the favor of God. Again
God says that He is tired of all of our feasts and
works and sacrifices to Him and when we pray, He
will not hear the prayers and will not bless us.15
My
friend, Satan is working hard to keep man far away
from God while God is reaching out to sinful man
constantly. God calls man and speaks to him but the
lost are blinded by glamour and lust of this world.16
The word of God says, "For He whom God has sent
speaks the word of God.17 And Christ
tells us that life is only through Him. That means
that eternal life and salvation are not through our
works or being the follower of an individual, but
through Jesus Christ.18 Christ is the
sacrifice for our sins because we had a hand in His
death because of our sins. 19 He is our
Passover lamb. He was the sacrifice for sin. If we
don’t have Him, we do not have anything that can
please God. If we don’t have Christ, we are in total
darkness and our eyes are not opened yet to see Him.
God says, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them
that are lost."20 Without Christ, we are
lost. We must return to our origin, the perfect
image of God Himself.21
My
friend, have you ever asked yourself what it is that
causes us to refuse Christ? Despite His plea of
"Come unto Me..." we still run away from Him.22
Despite His call of "Return unto Me..." we
still run away from Him.23 We hide from
Him as Adam and Eve did after committing sin in the
Garden of Eden. Maybe we run away because we don’t
know Him and His love and mercy and His gift of
grace and His plan to save us. Maybe we run away
because we are too involved with the things the
world has to offer. How can we be justified in
refusing Him?24
We do
not spend any time getting to know Him, refusing to
read His word. We invent all sorts of excuses to
stay away from Him even while He offers us "the keys
of the kingdom of heaven."25 We are
avoiding a personal relationship with Him. We are
trusting in our own works and not in His love
offering and gift of grace. We are satisfied with
our own works and the leaders we follow. We don’t
want to hear Him when He says, "it is all filthy
before My eyes."26 Maybe we think there
is no God and we evolved from a lower life form.
Maybe we think we are sufficient in ourselves and
thus we make an idol of ourselves. God says, "I am
the way and the truth and the life"27
My
friend, the word of God says that when Christ is
presented, the Holy Spirit convicts the heart and if
we refuse the offer of mercy and salvation, there is
no other way to be saved. His word says that we are
without excuse.28 My friend, this message
is most urgent and the most important decision you
will ever make in your life. It will determine where
you will spend eternity, in heaven with God, or in
hell, separated from God forever. Jesus is the only
way to God. Jesus is the only man who did not commit
sin. All other men have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God. Jesus is alive now—after He was
crucified, he was buried and rose on the third day.
He ascended into heaven and lives there now, praying
and interceding for those who believe in Him.
My
friend, there are several ways in which you can get
closer to Christ, to know Him better and the riches
and treasures in Him. The most effective tool to
know God is through studying His word for yourself.
Start with the book of John in the New Testament
part of the Bible. You probably have read many books
but have you ever read the book that God wrote for
you to read? God loves us so much that He expressed
His love to us intimately and personally in the
Bible. Throughout history, there were many agnostics
and atheists who read the Bible in order to
criticize it, but God used His word to transform
their lives. They came to know God and were saved
through Christ. The word of God says, "Let the
wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his
thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He
will have mercy upon him... for He will abundantly
pardon."29 In addition to reading the
Bible, make friends with Christians and find a
Bible-believing church to attend.
We are
thankful for one more opportunity to present Christ
to you and tell you of His love and forgiveness.
This "good news" is called the gospel. If you
believe with all your heart that Christ suffered,
was crucified, died, buried, and rose again to pay
the penalty for your sins, then you will be saved.
You will receive the perfect image of God, the
nature of Christ. Are you willing to do that now? If
so, pray a prayer similar to this one:
Dear
Lord, I know that I am a sinner. I believe that
Christ died for my sins and paid for
them. I repent of my sins. I am sorry for my sins. I
believe that Jesus
died, was buried and arose from the dead and is
alive. I ask You, Lord Jesus,
to come into my heart now and live there forever. I
ask You to help me become
more like Jesus every day. Please help me to become
aware of Your presence
every day and talk to You and rely on You to meet
all my needs. I ask all
these things in the name of the Lord Jesus, my
Savior. Amen
My
friend, if you have said this prayer and have given
yourself to the Savior, then you are
saved and you are a Christian. You must tell others
about what happened to you!
Confess
publicly to other people that you believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Study His word
daily so that you can grow in faith. Attend church.
Pray every day. Become a witness
for the One who has saved you.
Please
send us a note and tell us all about yourself.
Praise the Lord!
Scripture References
1. John
5:40
2.
Revelation 3:20
3. John
1:4
4. John
3:3
5. John
3:15
6.
Ezekiel 36:26
7. 2
Corinthians 5:17
8.
Colossians 1:19
9.
Colossians 1:20
10.
Isaiah 1:6
11.
Isaiah 64:6
12.
Romans 8:7
13.
Romans 8:9
14.
Romans 8:14
15.
Isaiah 11:15
16. 2
Corinthians 4:4
17. John
3:4
18. John
14:6
19. John
3:16
20. 2
Corinthians 4:3
21.
Genesis 1:26
22.
Matthew 11:28
23.
Isaiah 44:22
24.
Hebrews 2:3
25.
Matthew 16:19
26.
Isaiah 64:6
27. John
14:6
28.
Romans 1:20
29.
Isaiah 55:7 |
