Our greatest desire
is for people to come to know God personally. The simple
truth is that there is a God who created you and loves
you very much. (Genesis 1:1) He gave us life and deserves
our gratitude and love.
We, however, have chosen to disobey Him and sin against
Him; all of us have done wrong and failed to do what
is right. (Romans 3:23) We may not be more sinful than
our neighbor, or we may be far worse than anyone we
know, it does not matter. Either way, we are guilty
before God. (1 John 1:8)
God is perfect, completely good, always right and
fair. He cannot tolerate sin. He cannot simply overlook
the fact that we have chosen to disobey Him. The Bible
says "the wages of sin is death." (Romans
6:23) This means that the fair payment for our rebellion
against God is death. It is the punishment that we
deserve.
Jesus, the one and only Son of God, came to earth
and lived a perfect sinless life. He was crucified
even though He was completely innocent. He received
the punishment that we deserved. He was the perfect
sacrifice, He was put into our place and took on Himself
the sentence of death that should have been ours. (Romans
5:8)
Jesus did not, however, remain dead. After three days,
He rose from the grave and later ascended into heaven.
He will return for all those who are trusting in Him
as their Savior.
Jesus died for you. You can
be saved by asking Him for forgiveness from your
sins. If you are willing
to repent of your sin, He is waiting to forgive you.
It doesn't matter what you have done in the past, if
you cry out to Jesus for forgiveness, He will not reject
you. The word "repent" literally means "to
turn away from." You need to look at your life,
admit that you are a sinner, genuinely desire to turn
your back on that sin, and ask Him to forgive you.
If you do this, He promises to forgive you.
True Christianity is not about attending a particular
church, or how your parents raised you, or what country
you were born in. Being a Christian means that you
have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that
He is your Savior. It's not good enough that your priest,
pastor, mother, or aunt knows Jesus, you must know
Him for yourself. They cannot believe in Him for you,
you must believe for yourself. They cannot repent for
you, you must repent for yourself.
Jesus is everywhere all the time. He can hear you
now if you ask Him for forgiveness. Please turn your
life over to Him NOW. Time slips by so quickly, don't
miss this opportunity. If you want to pray and ask
Jesus to be your Savior, you can say a prayer something
like this:
"Jesus, I know that I have
sinned against you. I know the truth is that I have
sinned by my own choice,
and I am the one responsible for it. I know that I
have earned punishment from You, and that the fair
punishment would be death. Jesus, I believe that You
died in my place. Forgive me for my sin. I cannot cover
or take my sin away, I am relying totally and only
on You. You are the only one who can save me. I reject
my sin, I turn away from it, I repent. Come into my
life, take away my sin, and show me how to live my
life in a way that is right and pleasing to You."
If you have prayed this, YOU ARE SAVED! You are now
completely forgiven, a new creation, innocent in the
eyes of God. Welcome to the family of God!
It is important for you to start to grow in your relationship
with Jesus. Just like any relationship, you need to
spend time with someone if you want to know them well.
The way to know God is through the Bible. We have a
few different Bible studies here that will help you
get going. It's also important to find a church you
can attend where they teach the Bible. This will allow
you to talk with a pastor who will help explain questions
you might have, and it will give you a chance to spend
time with other Christians who can encourage you.
You can start to study the Bible by going through
our New Believers Booklet. After that, we recommend
that you start a Bible study through the Gospel of
John. You can look for a church in your area by checking
our List of Calvary Chapel Fellowships.